Mods can be an option but some are harder than others to use. I do find that a lot of mainstream games have a pretty good range of difficulties these days (including story mode etc), but definitely not all games.
Maybe I should try that. It looks like such a nice series of games but I don't have time for the grind. I just want to nuke everything and then go to bed.
I miss them too. I would never use a game genie these days, but one of the coolest things I did was with Super Mario Bros. I accidentally put an X instead of a Z at the end of a code that was supposed to make Mario always stay big, but it ended up making Mario always stay small, even with mushrooms or fireballs. My sister and I were elated!
I haven't gamed on Windows in a while, but when I did CheatEngine and WeMod were my goto.
CheatEngine has really good utility outside of cheats in particular. For a time you could unlock the camera on a lot of games to get some really good (or really broken) screenshots. Though for cheating in particular, I think it's still pretty easy to find a CheatTable for most games.
I mean, I dug around the one-page site looking for a price for a while, read every line on there, looking for the price I could tell it has, only to find nothing, so I searched it. $7.99 a month, totally hidden. Not looking good.
I use trainers from chest happens mainly. Only because I have a lifetime membership because I bought it decades before they did prescriptions, other then that I use cheat engine.
Or mods that alter the game to make it more accessible and enjoyable