Oh yeah, I remember playing Contra for the first time and then weeks later when I finally got beyond the first vertical stage. Gamers today would read that and laugh because it took me so long to get past the first two stages. We had chores, school, we went outside and played, etc, we didn't have Twitch or YouTube to "make content" for so we enjoyed more than just games.

Contra was certainly hard. My brother bought a NES Advantage thinking it would make the game easier, and in some ways it did, for him. He wouldn't share with me. I did watch him play and advance farther than I could with the regular controller. That helped me get through later levels quicker than had I not had a peek over his shoulder helping me.

I was used to playing games on the Commodore 64 before we got a NES so trial and error and enduring pure gaming hell was normal. It was normal back then no matter what you played on - game design was new and most developers were on this tangent about rentals so they made things artificially hard more often than they will ever admit, trying to force a purchase over renting weekend after weekend.

I now enjoy slower paced games. I am old. I will spend hours playing an entertaining Bingo or slot game over 5 minutes in something like Souls. Just no interest in those types of games anymore.