Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom / 1988
Well unfortunately the man who most impressed with his gameplay, is also the one responsible for sharing the redundant and annoying noise clip of an effeminate man saying something about cottage cheese.
All of that aside, I do love the game Ninja Gaiden. Its actually a lot older than even I thought. Its hard to imagine that this game was released back in 1988, originally in Japan. As I point out, several times over. This game manages to capture a feel and atmosphere, that definitely out performs and seems to display methods and mechanics that are now a lot more common, in platforming and side scrolling video games of this nature.
I am still working to beat this game. I get to the final boss and I always manage to fall short, especially at the 2nd form. I will eventually beat this. And then I can call it a day. From what I can see, the competitive speed runners all have this game beat in around 12 minutes, which is absolutely ridiculous to me. Considering it typically takes me a good hour to get to the end of this game.
I think this and Shinobi III on the Genesis/megadrive are my favorite ninja games.