I was shocked and appalled as a kid when Super Mario Bros stopped getting more difficult after the third iteration of the levels. People forget that Atari games treated gameplay like a sport or a board game. You don't "finish" a game: you master it.
I always tried breaking my games by seeing how far you could push something. Or by not following the instructions. Or by running up the score counter. I was like 5 years old at the time.
hehe, strangely enough I never cared about that. Even on Atari I imagined an "adventure" when playing, never mind scores or challenge. So it came natural to me when games actually offered something like that with an end.
Nintendo brought in a new way to play games. It also catered to a different crowd. I love both for different reasons. I would have not wanted to see what we would be playing if it was not for Nintendo.