Astyanax, pretty fun game and easy as well.

River City Ransom

one of the best beat em ups of all time with some RPG elements mixed in.  Not a difficult game, and tons of fun co op.

Here are two games I've beaten recently and enjoyed.

Vice: Project Doom - The end gets a little hard, but lots of fun. Feels rewarding to learn boss patterns and beat them.

Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy - Should be able to get pretty far on the first try and beat it with little practice.

Mighty Final Fight is a ton of fun, too. I can't speak to the difficulty as I haven't yet set aside the time to beat it.

I'd vote for Little Mermaid as well. Easy game to pick up and beat without having played it before.

Another one is Whomp 'Em. Great game. The last level is pretty difficult, but getting there isn't very hard.

ernie's magic shapes

Mighty Final Fight is fairly easy if you're ok if not decent at brawlers like that. As long as you're not stuck between 2 or more thugs it's ok and they're easy to wrangle around the place. The only hard part really is the last level as it has a few bosses and is long before the end fight.

Guerilla War. Was always a fun rental and infinite continues made sure anyone could have a blast with it.

When you guys say Mega Mans I am sure it goes without saying that you are all excluding Mega Man 1 from that list right?

I have beat that game many times and I struggled every time... No way someone could play it a couple of times and beat it.

i always like to play through Bionic Comando

That game is HARD. It can make modern-only gamers cry in seconds.

Conquest of the Crystal Palace.

Fun platformer / sidescroller. Not too hard, not too easy. It will take a handful of tries to beat. Also pretty cheap.

I had MM 1 down in a day. ONLY hard part in the game for me, was the Yellow Devil

+1. Way back when, my brother and I actually made it through the entire game with our eyes closed just by repeatedly mashing the buttons.

Rockin Kats is pretty easy, especially if you pile up on extra lives in the mini games. I beat it the first time i ever played it.

Check my signature for some ideas aswell, i have beaten 30 games this year and always try and throw a few tips for each game i conquer. Im  gonna take some of the games in this thread into consideration for the rest of the year. I was hard at it on TMNT II last night. Recued splinter, didnt make it to shredder, but then ran out of lives. Might give it a go tonight as i learned alot of new tricks playing it last night i never knew about.

Battletoads. Especially if you're playing with 2 people - it makes the game wicked easy.

Wait what? Are you sure you meant to say Battletoads? Cause that is one of the hardest games in the NES library and 2 players makes it even tougher.. When 1 person loses all their lives BOTH players go to the continue screen and start the stage all over..

Yup. I meant to say Battletoads. The game is wicked easy, I don't know what you're talking about...

Let's play it, dra6. I'll go left side you go right, nothing could possibly go wrong with that strategy.

Karnov

Remote Control

Would Color a Dinosaur be considered an easy game? All one has to do is color a dinosaur and there--finished.

Flintstones dino peak is very easy. Beat it the first time i ever sat down with it. Actually while on NA chat streaming it lol.

Friday the 13th can be beat in less than an hour if you know what you're doing.

Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! is also a quick play through (again, if you know the tricks).

River City Ransom- fits the beat 'em up need too.

Also, Mega Man 2 and 5 (power-ups drop way more frequent than in others)