Today out of a whim I'll talk about a very dear game to me that is not only widely unknown (especially with consoles like Wii, X360 and PS3 around) but also widely underrated. It was a Mega Drive platformer called Pulseman.
Developed in 1994 by Sega and Game Freak (of the pokemon fame for you pokemon masters out there). Pulseman was a very fast paced game (for its time anyway) with great music and very colorful graphics (the Mega drive was always cursed for its more limited palette back in the days of the 16 bit war).
Certainly the game is not perfect, some stages have pixelated tiles to them, but overall the visual experience doesn't disappoint (it can even be fatiguing at times do to the colorfulness).
Pulseman's powers are based on electricity so he needs to dash to get electrically charged, that urges the player to be always on the move.
There are two kinds of stages: in the real world and inside electric networks (shame on you nintendo for stealing the concept to create Mega Man Battle Network).
Once electrically charged Pulseman can shoot electrical shots or transform himself into electricity to run inside wires (Volteccer mode) which can be used to traverse places or even attack.
Sure Pulseman copied concepts of other games too (evil madman trying to take over the world, an evil rival with the same powers) but overall its a game interesting enough to stand on its own, and that never got the attention it deserved (not a single sequel was ever made).

Title screen and in game screen