Ishambard#IshambardPresents The Legend of the Mystical Ninja - SNES
Don't be surprised, you knew this was coming.
I wish I played this game as a kid, I would have eaten this up. One part beat-em-up and one part 2D platformer, layer with a co-op mode, coat with minigames and sprinkle with a couple of brutal boss fights and you have The Legend of Mystical Ninja.
Silly anachronistic Japan is probably my favourite Japan, and the series only gets sillier from here.
The game can be downright unfair, punishing sloppy gameplay by downgrading your weapon when you take damage and requiring you to save up nearly 2,000 coins over the course of the adventure.
Graciously, the password system is robust, tracking progress like a save file, and the game retains the last password when reset. A battery save would be better, but I can live with this.
There is way too much to enjoy here that you might forget that it has beaten you up and stolen all your pocket change.
