Shinobi

The stealth dash descends from classic ninja-movie cliches (when I asked director Noriyoshi Ohba where he got the idea, he replied with a look that expressed considerable amazement at Western ignorance). Tap the X button along with a direction and zap, Hotsuma suddenly jumps from point A to point B, leaving a spectral double where he originally stood. This is a vital evasion tactic in combat -- the deft of thumb can instantly put themselves in a position to strike from behind, which does far more damage to enemies and breaks through almost any defenses.
This works better than the similar evasion maneuvers in something like Z.O.E, because it still requires skill to apply correctly. Using the game's lock-on feature to take out enemies one at a time works for a little while, but when there are five or six or more bad guys closing in, you'll be chopped to hash unless you can freely move around them and take out multiple enemies at once. Other wrinkles add further depth to combat -- paralyzing shuriken become a vital assist, and the cursed sword Akujiki is a nifty idea. After a certain point, Hotsuma's sword develops the power to suck the life (or yang energy, or something like that) from fallen opponents. Keep its energy full and it deals more damage in battle, and as a further encouragement, it actually saps Hosuma's life if he doesn't keep killing at a rapid pace. Shinobi's boss encounters are easily its strongest suit, since that's where the game loosens up a bit and offers more varied patterns. Early bosses aren't balanced very well -- they're very difficult to take out with basic attacks, and yet sacrifice as much as three-quarters of their energy to a single ninja magic attack -- but later designs are gorgeous to look at and a hell of a good time to fight. When you're going at it with the giant magic zombie ninja death spider, you know you're having fun. Boss battles are also the only area of the game which will let you continue from the same point after dying, a curious manifestation of compassion on the part of the designers.
Outside of combat, this is one mean bastard of a platformer. Shinobi is rife with bottomless pits, and avoiding them requires extremely careful manipulation of the double-jump and wall-jump maneuvers. Using the wall-run is the only situation where the camera becomes just a bit of a problem, because the default angles sometimes make it difficult to see where you'll land when jumping perpendicular to a wall. The right analog stick gives nearly complete control over the camera on both axes, though, so it just takes a little forethought to plan a jump. Pulling it off is another matter, unfortunately -- distances are long, and timing must be perfect.