In fact, I have the same problem with the NES. For me the SNES is exactly the sweet spot.
The VCS2600 came out in 1977 and did a good job with contemporary arcade games. Space Invaders was arguably better in some ways than the original, for example.
Five years later, 2600 hardware was getting stretched. Coleco and 5200 were 'Next Gen' but mostly just the same downgrade arcade ports. 2600 PacMan was awful, but 5200 PacMan was still just a poor imitator. Same with Coleco and Donkey Kong. We liked this stuff, but it was obviously deficient.
First a bit of backstory.
I've got a 7year old, she loves playing games, no matter the game she will give it a go. She wants to play games marketed for kids, but nothing sticks for too long, because usually they are way too complicated for a 7year old who can't read/comprehend that much English (it's a second language).
So those older games... The ones that we grew up on, that were simple because of hardware limitations... Are kind of perfect.
You could say that our generation grew up in a kind of perfect window for games, they got more complex as we got older, not just because we got older, but also because hardware allowed for more complex games/stories to be made.
My daughter really really wants to play the new Zelda, but I refuse to buy it as we have breath of the wild. She knows if she finishes BOTW, she can have the new game... She played maybe 2 hours tops before tapping out and playing some kind of shovelware sandbox game on Xbox Gamepass. Which allows her to play however she wants, with no complex systems.. just simple gameplay and no timelimits.
Gamepass is awesome if you've got kids!
This is very insightful. It makes me think I should maybe start by introducing my kiddo to 2600 games when they are old enough. Thanks!
My through time didn’t include 2600 though but it did include Intellivision. Which sprites and will resolution more then a single line.
Emulation is also awesome if you have kids. I don't know anything about modern consoles, but several years back I had a roommate with a 7-8 year old son who was just amazed at my ability to conjure hundreds of video games from their laptop. Sadly he'd go to school and try to talk to other kids about Alex Kidd in Miracle World and they had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
They are kids, and whilst it's awesome that they want to play the games we loved, at some stage every parent hopefully realises that the most important thing is that they have something to talk to other kids about.
Most parents want the best for their kids, and sometimes that means letting them find things they like themselves. We can for sure point to stuff and say "I loved this when I was your age", but if they don't love it.. it's tough, but it's the best for them.