Well, Nintendo's older games were far harder than the ones they have now. Whether that's good or bad, I'll let you decide (to me, lowering the bar for some series like Pokémon or Zelda was actually a smart move, while doing it for Mario Bros kind of killed it). I have found at least one series that is genuinely hard, a DS/3DS franchise called Etrian Odyssey. I've played EO4 and EO Untold and I still haven't beaten either, and I've had them for months! :P
A Link Between Worlds was a lot of fun, I thought, but I really would've loved a remake of A Link to the Past or even a Virtual Console re-release of it for the 3DS. That game actually was hard, though also manageable. It would've looked spectacular in 3D. I was satisfied that they brought back the setting and some variations of bosses, though.