F-Zero, despite the outdated hardware I still find it fun. Controls aren't bad and I like most tracks. Super Mario Kart on the other hand feels outdated in terms of controls and track design.
Linux is amazing for games thar don't have anti-cheat and I don't play those games. Saying that Linux gaming isn't ready is just stupid at this point. And for emulation it might be better than Windows.
Your experience from 80s is similar to my experience now with Switch games (it's not the same only because I'm not a kid). Download times do suck but I have a really simple solution for them: I simply do something else until it's finished. And there are great games that don't take much space space on your storage, Balatro is first one that comes to mind.
Probably won't buy Switch 2 because consoles are really expensive in my country, main reason why I bought Switch lite and not normal Switch is price. From TTYD source code it seems like Switch 2 will be 4K so price will most likely be out of reach for me.
Games and consoles are really expensive in my country and since Switch 2 will probably have 4K (at least from TTYD source code) I'm not sure that I'll be able to buy it.
Problems I had were because of software not being on the latest version, not updates. Things just work on Arch for me. Only thing that ever broke was Xorg because of Nvidia drivers but that's pretty easy fix.
I love "The gods themselves". Themes it explores are interesting and sci-fi parts are really clever and unique.