Genpei Toumaden

Genpei Toumaden was a strange arcade game, and translates marginally well to the PC Engine. A blend of viewpoints add to the variety, switching from a standard sidescrolling platformer, to a magnified "Big Mode" (as the instruction manual calls it), to an overhead mode. "Big Mode" was the most popular, showing your player as a segmentally animated sprite and using a small variety of sword strikes to attack opponents... it was apparently so popular, the game's sequel Genpei Toumaden Kan no Ni was played ENTIRELY in "Big Mode". Granted, it's no Ninja Spirit, but it's alright on its own terms.

Ambitious- but playability is poor. If you've played the sequel- Samurai Ghost- and thought the playability there was poor- then forget this.