I just realized why I am bad at them. I play defensively, like clearing all the enemies then move on. This is much harder than move fast hit everything and you will be fine.(at least Zelda and Mario Galaxy are like that)
Especially with a game where you die with one hit, this seems too mentally exhausting to actually play enough times to improve.
You'll play 100 times and only get 10% of the way in, so you still need to practice the later parts just as much. A bit like agile software development, really!
