47. Ninja Gaiden
Platform: NES
Release Date: 1988
Video:
At the time, Ninja Gaiden was pretty important, up there with the Castlevanias and the Metroids and the Mega Mans. NG is the first game I can remember to have cutscenes. The opening scene (seen above) was really impressive when compared to something like Kid Icarus or Mario 3, and the stories after bosses with all kinds of silly plot twists seemed kind of mind-blowing.
But now? The game is mostly remembered for being a frustrating, hard as hell action game. It's certainly well crafted, has good music and is one of the ten or so games you think of when you think of the NES, but I don't know that it really changed the landscape that much. Cutscenes are one of those innovations that were going to happen anyway. It's like praising Metroid 1 for being able to go both left and right.
So ultimately it comes down to just how good NG is. All the innovations are pretty minor and it doesn't have a whole lot of genre-defining moments. It has some great weapons and it's fun to climb on walls. Killing bosses and watching them explode while your time adds up is super satisying. But it's so punishing that I don't know that I could recommend it to just anybody. This is for a special kind of gamer that wants to know what things were like in the late 80s or just wants to play man vs. game. My experiences with this game as a child were me absolutely refusing to let a game beat me. I would sit there and bang my head against it until it finally broke. It may have taken hours, but I ended up winning in the end!
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xyzzy