Sup guys? names Din I love shenmue, yakuza and streets of rage!
Welcome now in order to pass Dreamcast or Saturn. Choose wisely

Spoiler Either answer is correct but both is even more so :P
well I've only owned a saturn for a year so far and I grew up with a dreamcast so I'll go with dreamcast :P

Totally random wall of text incoming...

III is the perfect Shinobi game, you ask me. Best part of the series, hands down.
Quicker and smoother than Revenge, and by this point the series had securely distanced itself from its Rolling Thunder-ripoff roots. The music is more complex and, in my eyes, catchier than Koshiro's OST for Revenge, and the visuals and design work are absolutely the perfect balance of traditional Japanese imagery, a modern-day setting, and over-the-top sci-fi flourishes.
If they really wanted to successfully revitalize the series, I personally think the best thing they could do is remake Shinobi III with modern graphics and gameplay. Same general design work, same level styles, remixed music, and make the gameplay a mix of stylish melee fighting with shuriken "shooting" action (the series essentially began as a run-n-gun, so to speak, just with shurikens in place of guns).
I imagine the possibilities of something like that, and my mind drifts away into wishful-thinking heaven. Just think what they could do with the scrolling horeseback and jetboard levels...

The rest of the series is great too, but they've all got their "drawbacks" in one way or another. Revenge, as much as most people love it, is hard to take seriously as its own entity, what with all of the cheesy plagiarized bosses everyone (inexplicably) loves so much. And, as mentioned, it's kind of stiff and bland compared to other actioners on the system. And as much as I love Shadow Dancer, it's really just an enhanced copy of the Rolling Thunder series. That's not a bad thing by any means, but it does leave it sitting in that series' shadow for me. Can't say much about the handheld iterations, but they never appeared to be anything all that special.
I've always felt that Shinobi III is the place where the series truly became its own thing . No part of it feels like it's trying to copy anyone or anything else. It's still one of my favorite ninja games ever (and might be #1, if only the Tenchu series didn't exist).
Kind of a grand statement, but for me, it really is one of the defining games not just of the 16-bit era, but of the 90s as a whole.

I Wholeheartedly agree with all of this, III is my favorite shinobi game Kunoichi coming a close 2nd.

And here I thought I was insane thinking III has the best soundtrack of the series. My Dear D, Japa.. e.. esque? err, Idaten and especially Izayoi. Oh and when that racing game did this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjg4qqoL_vs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf9vutxnL9k
SEGA take my money. I do wish the former was the full thing.

Has anyone played Shinobi X for the Saturn? looks pretty decent to me.

Yakuza 4 is the business, Tanimura is no doubt my favorite character of the 4 but the whole cast is pretty solid. I want Y5 but I want to actually know what's going on as opposed to guessing or reading guides, might given and import anyway haha.

LOL Ryoko Hazuki.