I'm 18, but strangely enough I didn't really play games until the Wii/Xbox 360. When I was a very very young child I played lots of gran turismo but that's about it.
I've taken it up to play as many older games as I can, especially in franchises I like today. Off the top of my head, I've played all of the past Pokémon games (gen 2 baby), attempted most Mario/Zelda mainline games, played the ps1 crash bandicoot and Spyro games, got a SNES and NES classic and trying to play through every game on them, and played old jrpgs here and there if possible (do things like .hack on PS4 count?). Haven't played nearly enough of the N64, GC, Xbox and PS2 games that I missed.
I've actually played a fair few Atari games too.
From my experience...
- NES games are borderline unplayable for me. It feels so extremely dated and non-intuitive that I rarely know what the hell i'm doing. I can appreciate their significance in their franchises and the industry as a whole, but I'm yet to find a single one that can be remotely called enjoyable for my tastes.
- SNES games are a standout and a massive step up from NES - moreso in game design than pure graphics. Super Metroid, Mega Man (forgot the number), secret of mana, link to the past, super Mario world... all are great and hold up really well today.
- I'm yet to properly explore the generations after snes on home console. I really wish for an N64 and PS2 classic but especially the latter seems unlikely given how ps1 classic performed.
- gen 1 Pokemon was rough. Cannot for the life of me imagine anyone getting enjoyment out of it but I guess when that was cutting edge back in the day things we're different. The rest of the gene are great.
The Metroid prime games hold up the best out of any past game i have played. By far.
There's plenty of games I'm dying to play but can't access without a hassle.. Chrono Trigger, Baiten Kaitos, Xenogear, Xenosaga, earthbound/mother 3, Pikmin 1/2, chrono cross, all the FF's.... ports of old, beloved games are what I live for.