The first Legend of Zelda is almost as annoying as the original Metroid. Except it isn't.
NES Metroid is a terrible, terrible game. I'll admit that I haven't played it at all when I was young, but I mean, looking at it now, it's very bad.
What made it so horrible? Incredible repetitiveness beyond your imagination. I swear, they made about six different screen-size room tiles and reused them throughout the whole game. There was also a lack of cracked areas or clues that tell you to go through the tunnel in a wall or go through a fake pit of lava.
And whose idea was it to make you start with just 30 Energy?! 98% of the game is spent next to one pipe, shooting the enemy that comes out of it repeatedly just to fill up all your tanks. Each kill gives you about a 25% chance of getting an energy power-up. Each one fills up about 5 or 10 energy, maybe. Then, after hours of the same repetitive activity, you go down into Norfair just to get killed after 20 seconds and have to refill your tanks all over again. Sheesh.
And Mystic, I hate the shape buttons too. I keep forgetting which button is Circle and which one is Square, because they are similar in shape and color.