Simon’s Quest is a C- game with an A+ soundtrack

Ghost Manor for the 2600 is a fun game with lots of atmosphere. However it’s also pretty simple and will only occupy you for 10-20 minutes. It sure was a blast when I was a little kid, though.

There’s also Monster Bash, the 1982 Sega arcade game.

Ocarina of Time. After the action and increasingly beautiful pixel art of the first four Zelda games, I found the 3D one boring and ugly.

Like those occasional illustrations in Alice in Wonderland or Narnia, game manuals provided a window into a world you couldn’t fully see (in the case of old consoles, due to low res or low poly graphics) and served as a jumping off point for so many children’s imaginations to fill in the rest of the details.

https://atariage.com/manual_page.php?SystemID=2600&SoftwareLabelID=128&ItemTypeID=MANUAL&currentPage=0

Wonder Boy 3: the Dragon’s Trap, a simple “Metroidvania” style platformer with fun action and enemy design. No deep story, but one of my all-time favorite game soundtracks

Agree, the lack of tactile feedback was awful. It’s like playing on a mobile phone screen today

This doesn’t answer your question, but thank you for the love and patience you have for your son.

That games goes great with a real NES controller, so you can throw it across the room after dying.

Ultima Runes of Virtue 1 & 2 for the Game Boy. Great action-adventure-puzzle games. But very unforgiving, every dungeon is filled with fatal errors. I couldn’t get to the end when I was young!

I’m with you; I like the Metro style. If you have an Android phone, the Square Home launcher is a great implementation.