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Most walking sims end up pretty forgettable to me, though Gone Home might have been the most bland of them. Only one that stood out was Stanley Parable, it's short, but it's also meant to be replayed about a dozen times.

As for forgettable games, Uncharted 1 is top of that list. I've played it twice and think I remember one or two moments from it. Assassin's Creed games without a number also fit that bill, they always feel more bland and uninspired even if none of them are as bad as 3. Also to be super controversial, Red Dead Redemption and The Witcher 3.

Stage Select

3. The Witcher 3- I don't think this is a bad game, but I'm baffled as to why TW3 is considered one of the best RPGs ever. Every element is good, but has at least one flaw really holding it back. Novigrad (a huge chunk of the game) was an endless stream of boring fetch quests. And moral choices doesn't work on defined characters like Geralt. I like the game, I gave it a good review on Pixlbit. But it's nothing great or special.

2. Mortal Kombat- The only reason this game is successful is because of the gore. Take that away and there is nothing good about it. It's not even good gore either, we were just that desperate for some blood in the 90's. 

1. GTA IV- I've never felt like a sandbox game was working so hard against me having fun and I played Assassin's Creed 3. Every single element of this open world was a failure. A game called Grand Theft had driving controls are so awful that they feel unplayable. On foot, the Niko felt clunky and had that horrible "tap A/X to sprint" idea. Both of these made doing random crap, what made GTA popular, a chore. And those very rare instances where I started to enjoy chaotic GTA antics, Roman would ruin it with "HEY NIKO WANT TO PLAY DARTS?" The only redeeming element was the story, which still clashed horribly with the open world gameplay and GTA goofiness. It sucks as a GTA game and an open world game period.

Chrono Crossing

My 1988 pick is Phantasy Star. I can waver back and forth between that and the good version of Super Mario Bros 2, but at the end of the day, it's an 8 bit RPG that held my attention for over half an hour (much longer actually), so it gets the edge.

Gold and Silver are two games I'll never get bored with, but I can see people having a hard time going back to them. A lot of quality of life touches went into the DS and 3DS games to perfect the formula. But it's still a damn great time. 

Also, go Fire. I normally pick Grass, but the Fire starter is just miles ahead of the other two in this game.

Well the thing with Mega Man X is at the time it wasn't made to be a spin-off series, but a sequel/reboot. Or the new direction of the series at least. Things just went weird when Mega Man 7 came in and started muddling with the timeline. Video games are confusing. 

It was definitely Master of Shadows since SoD is from this year. And improves on it in basically every way. Another game that would fit your most improved sequel list.

See, that's why I usually recommend people start with 2. They repeat the twist so in 2 it felt fresh to me when I played it for the first time and there's nothing from the original you need to know both story and gameplay wise. Either way though, it's an incredible game and one of my favorites. As for your question:

Pokemon Gold/Silver, Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, Crash 2, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Castlevania 4, Mega Man X, Assassin's Creed 2, Zelda: ALttP, Super Metroid, DKC2, Final Fantasy 4, Phatasy Star 4, Street Fighter 2, Soul Calibur, Sonic 2, Tomb Raider Legend, and Smash Bros Melee off the top of my head.

Try Styx Shards of Darkness. It's probably the best take on this kind of platforming even if it's not really like old school TR or PoP, but the platforming is still much more intense in how it works with the stealth. It also happens to be the closest thing out there to a new Thief game.

There's fewer and fewer gunfights as the series goes on. 2 still has quite a few, but balances them better with the other elements. Once you get to the PS4 games, you spend under 1/3 of the game in combat.

I think giving it a combat focus was the right call for Samus Returns. It has a structure that supports more combat since it's centered around boss fights. I wouldn't say it's the right one for any other Metroid, Prime 3's heavier combat took away from its best parts while Other M's heavy combat ruined the series. But since it's based on finding Metroids (ie exploration) before the fights, it works here. Here's hoping Prime 4 is mostly like Prime 1/Super though.

I wish I could help with your game, but my art and music skills suck. I haven't played AM2R, but Samus Returns is a damn fine game where I stand. Top 5 this year so far for me, which is saying a lot with how great this year's been (and there's still more on the way). Jak is also always awesome. Might be my favorite collectathon platformer depending on whether you'd classify Sly 2 and 4 as them.