No way was MM2 THAT hard. Last year I played it for the first time in like 20 years and beat it on hard with a single continue. The weapons alone are easily the most overpowered compared to any of the other games. >_>

IMO Zelda 2 was much harder, if for no other reason that the timing of attacks and jumps were wonky--I'd even go so far to say that they really needed to put a lot more polish on the gameplay before they released it.