These are two games that are really tough to get into at first, but I'd really recommend giving them an honest shot because I felt the same way as you when I first played them a few years ago; now Metroid is my favorite NES game Zelda is a close second. Go online and find a map of Zebes and Hyrule (for Metroid and Zelda, respectively) with all the powrups/dungeons marked and that should make things easier. It sounds like cheating, but these are games that were made to be played through more than once; once you make it through once with some help and you find your footing, you'll immediately want to come back to them and try it on your own. Especially Zelda. Anyway, that's what I did

The only games I can't enjoy are Ice Climbers and Donkey Kong Jr. Like people have said, the jumping is terrible in Ice Climbers, but on top of that, it seems as if the ice climber is falling through the platform as you jump onto it; this renders the game very frustrating. DK is slow, and it's ridiculous that Diddy dies when he only falls two feet; we're so used to Mario, who can jump more than 10 feet into the air and be perfectly fine when he lands back on ground.
But I can't complain, for these games are free and there are more GBA games on the way, which will probably be way better._{unless they don't include Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga...}

If they release Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga I will do a backflip with joy. Seriously. That game is brilliant. Which is exactly why I'm not getting my hopes up for it. I just can't see them giving away a massive, 30+ hour RPG for free.

DK Jr. is good.
Balloon Fight is good.
Yoshi is an abomination of a video game.
Super Mario Bros. is great, so is Zelda.
Mario Golf is the best one.
Metroid is just confusing.
Ice Climbers is fine.
Wrecking Crew is okay, but repetitive and shallow.

Haven't gotten to Zelda II yet.

A little tip to get started on with Zelda I:

After getting the sword from the cave go up, right, up, up, up and left and you'll reach the first dungeon... Then things get fun!

This hate for Yoshi is baffling. Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but this is far from a bad game. I feel like if it came out today and it was called "ArtStyle: PiKkrBiKKRsHmiKKrTon" people would be calling it the best thing since Art Style: PiCTOBITS and/or sliced bread.

@abgar
I always get 3 heart pieces, the blue candle, the white sword and the blue ring before I go to the first dungeon. This game is way too hard for me to just jump into it like that

haha! totally agree with you. it boggles my mind how many people are complaining about these awesome games, games that i grew up with that shaped my love for video games oh, i am loving all the games, btw, the only thing that bothers me is that the Virtual Console screen does not show a "restore point" anymore, just "reset" and "resume game" ;< otherwise, i am so dang happy! been playing Zelda, Zelda 2 and Metroid quite a bit today, some of my faves! Oh, and Ice Climber, of course Always love that one

I love Balloon Fight! It's just so addicting.

Frustrating?? That's part of the game's charm and difficulty level! that's ice you're jumping on!!! LOL. OMG. For real, people. You guys make me laugh. Ice Climber is a AMAZING game. I guess kids nowadays just don't get the classics

I just try to ignore the Yoshi haters.

It is my favorite of the 10 games we got.

A tip to enjoy Yoshi:
Try to capture as many enemies as you can inside two egg shells to score lots of points.
Mode A is simple, almost relaxing if you're just starting a game, just make as many points as you can while the speed increases slowly, The game also records how many yoshies you have hatched (try to beat my record of 56). This mode plays with speeds on higher levels.
Mode B is also very fun, you need to clear the screen off enemies to advance to the next level (i have reached lvl 13, it's crazy).

@kid_A: That's part of the fun! xD you can even try to beat my record of 80 deaths before beating Ganon.

the nes games are not here yet... awww...

I'm not sure if I ever played Yoshi on the NES. If I did then I certainly didn't remember it. I didn't know what to expect when I started playing but it's a pretty fun puzzler. I got 51 eggs the first time I played it.

I love Zelda 1. I think it's just as amazing today as it was when it was first released. Remember that it's an exploration game and that you don't have to beat the dungeons in order. Just wander around and explore! Look out for Level 6 though. It's a tough dungeon. Level 7 and 8 are much easier. Zelda II is really hard. I tried playing this one together with my friends on the GameCube and even as a group we couldn't get very far. I'm already lost and dead. I'm going to try harder though.

This is my first time playing a Metroid game. I expected it to be really bad but it's actually pretty fun (although really hard). I'm looking forward to trying Fusion.

I played Donkey Kong Jr a lot when I was a kid but it's a lot harder than I remember it. Same with Balloon Fight.

Ice Climber is okay, but it's definitely not my favourite.

Don't worry, we'll be getting an update soon that allows us to create restore points. These were "priority delivered" to us Ambassadors so they hadn't finished putting the final touches in, but once theyse games hit the e-Shop officially we'll be able to update at no charge.

Same here....
This is pretty much a sumary of my first time playing Metroid:
"Wow this is easy, i already have 99 energy points from killing random enemies.
Oh, what's that?
Ouch Ugh there's more of them coming!
Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch BOOM
HOME BUTTON"

Well they are free so I reckon I can give them one more shot.

I'll stick to playing them on the Wii's virtual console because the classic controller is better suited for them and they are an eyesore to stare at on the 3DS for more than 15 minutes for me. The awful d-pad and it's placement don't do the games any favors either forcing me to use the circle pad which still feels a bit awkward using to control such ancient games. Glad that they are free but the GBA games are what I'm far more interested in.

If you all remember, nintendo said they werent releasing updated versions of the games until later. So of course the games will be a little glitchy right now, but when the updated versions come out the games will be a lot better.

@abgar

You got 56? That's insane, I got to 20 and it was impossible to keep track of it all, how did you do it? Anyways, I'm pretty addicted to yoshi right now, once you get the hang of it, it's super fun!

I kept trying again and again (and again). I managed to get missiles and one missile upgrade. Fortunately you keep all of your power-ups when you die.

The funniest thing is when enemies get trapped in a door with you. You keep taking damage as you transition into the next room. This is happened to me on more than one occasion.

It's funny because my highscore actually has less eggs (42), i guess i filled them more in that playround.

Just try to limit yourself to a max of 2 eggs at a time, maxing 3 or 4 eggs at the same time is very dangerous (believe me, sometimes even 2 full columns are a hard to maneuver without making a mistake). You could also just hatch yoshies without filling them at all (but as i mentioned above, a high egg counts does not equal a highscore).

@Taya: i'll keep trying too, i just hope enemies won't follow me into a door :s