Oni (PC)

Developer:

Bungie

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Release Date:

2001

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Systems:

PC, PS2, Mac

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing third person action game Oni, by Bungie, the developers of the Marathon, Halo and Destiny franchises! You can tell they're the ones who made it as their name is right there in the corner underneath the title.

Though hang on, it says 'developed by Rockstar' all over every copy I own, and there's no one from Bungie credited in the manual. So that's kind of weird.

It was ported to the PlayStation 2 by Rockstar Canada, so it makes sense that the logo would be on that version, but I'm not sure why it's on the PC game. I get that the credits were complicated by Take-Two acquiring the rights and Microsoft acquiring the company, but that doesn't mean it was retroactively developed by someone else! It might explain why it never made it to digital stores though.

Unfortunately Windows 10 didn't want to install it off the CD, so I ended up having to use Universal Extractor to get the files out of the installer and then run it with the fan-made Anniversary Edition. The thing includes a bunch of fixes and a huge list of mods to install, so it seems like the game has had a lot of support from its fans over the years. But it also stuck the words "Anniversary Edition" on my title screen, so I switched to playing the OniX rebuild instead. They both seem pretty authentic though from what I can tell.

I wish I could warn you about SPOILERS, though I don't think I'm going to make it that far to be honest. I remember the game having some serious difficulty spikes, mostly involving lasers. I also remember it looking kind of bad for its time, though that's maybe less of an issue 20 years later.

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The game begins with a one-minute intro video that looks halfway between anime and Batman: The Animated Series. The shot where the camera tilts down a skyscraper and then the doors explode is especially Batman.

There isn't any story to the cutscene though, it's just shots of stuff happening. Cops have a shoot out with these armoured soldiers in the street, two cars have a bit of a chase before one of them explodes, and a mysterious purple-haired woman pulls her gloves on before dropping into the fray with a proper superhero landing.

After that point it's mostly shots of the purple-haired protagonist going to town on the bad folks while trying to not be in front of their bullets.

You'd think the music would be getting into this righteous violence, but it actually sounds kind of concerned, and it gets especially tense when the video ends with a close up of her face. So that was a bit of a strange choice.

Hey look it's her again! I can't even escape her on the options menu.

There's a circuit board diagram in the background of this screen because I'm getting deep into the guts of the game here, fine-tuning things like "Quality" and "Volume", and maybe even "Gamma" if I'm feeling brave. There isn't exactly a lot to play with here for a PC game from 2001, and if you want to redefine your keys then you've got to shut it down and edit a text file! On the PC game anyway, the Mac version does at least give you some remap options if you start the game up with Shift held down. And the PS2 game gives you a choice between four different control presets.

Though the most annoying thing about this options screen is that you can't access it while the game's running! If you want to change the brightness or turn on subtitles, you have to quit back out to the title screen. This is something that's fixed by the fan made Anniversary Edition at least, and it even throws in some extra resolutions as a bonus.

Alright, I started a new game and now the woman with the shiny purple hair is standing in a grey room listening to an anime cyborg girl called Shinatama talk directly into her brain. At least I think that's what she means by 'neural link'. I've been given zero context for any of this, it's like I've skipped a cutscene.

Shinatama claims that Commander Griffin has authorised us to run through a training program, and we're starting with the basics. I mean the real basics, like looking and walking.

PlayStation 2

Here's what the PlayStation 2 version looks like for comparison. You can see for yourself that it's basically the same thing, except the lighting looks slightly different. The walls are still just as grey and featureless, and there's still smoke getting pumped in from the sides of the room for no good reason.

The main thing I'm learning in this room is how to sprint, so I have to double-tap 'up' to start running and then do a lap of the room. I had so much trouble recently tapping the button to get my character to run in Alone in the Dark, but here I'm able to pull it off consistently. It's not as easy with an analogue stick on the PS2 though, so I think I'll stick to running with the D-pad on that version.

The next room was supposed to teach me how to slide under lasers, but Shinatama noticed someone doing fighting practice next door and wanted to watch that for a bit first. It's not often that you get to see NPCs going through their own tutorials.

SOME LASER SLIDING LATER

Alright, now it's my turn for fighting practice, and it's more complicated than you might expect.

I've got two basic attacks, punch and kick, bound to the left and right mouse buttons, but when I combine them with the movement keys I can pull off flying kicks, throws, disarms etc. There's no block button though, because all I have to do to block attacks is to face the enemy and keep my hand away from the keyboard. I am the worst at blocking in games, this is a known fact, but I think there's a chance that even I can get the hang of literally doing nothing.

I've also got a button to draw the weapon I'm holding, which changes my punch button to a shoot button. This would've been a bit of a nasty surprise for all the PS2 players who chose the preset button config that maps punch to the square button instead of R1, as they would've found themselves having to aim and shoot with the same thumb! (This was me, I had to do this).

Aiming's a pain in the ass on the PS2 in general though, because it doesn't do anything to make up for the fact that you're aiming with an analogue stick. Modern games often let you pull the camera in and aim over the shoulder with more zoom and less sensitivity, older games would often just straight up lock onto an enemy and do all the aiming for you, but in this you're on your own. I don't think there's even a hint of aim assist. Works pretty good with a mouse and keys though.

Alright I passed all the tutorial tests and Shinatama thinks that Commander Griffin will be pleased! I might even get to do a field mission now.

CHAPTER 01: TRIAL RUN - SYNDICATE WAREHOUSE

Yeah, this looks like a field mission. It's kind of weird though how I've been given no context for anything so far. I just appeared in a training room, a cyborg taught me how to walk, and now I'm apparently going to a Syndicate warehouse! I did catch the protagonist's name though. She's called Konoko.

Hey it's an actual cutscene! It's even unskippable.

I'm finally getting to see what Commander Griffin looks like, and it turns out he needs to get his portrait photo updated as it doesn't quite match his 3D model. Meanwhile Kerr's looking concerned, as he thinks sending Konoko on this mission is a mistake! But then Griffin says it's just a simple bust and that seems to calm Kerr down. There's definitely more going on here than I'm being told, and the way Shinatama's keeping track of Konoko's "daodan latency" and "bioplasmic waveforms" seems a bit suspect. It's reminding me of the start of Deus Ex, except this is even more mysterious.

Alright the job is to go to a warehouse used by the Syndicate to shuttle contraband, find an agent called Chung, and collect the evidence needed to shut the place down. Either that or I can shut it down myself. First though Shinatama told me to review my new HEALTH DISPLAY METER, so I opened up the help page on my data comlink.

Then I quit the game to get back to the menu and lowered the resolution so that the text would be readable on this screenshot.

Man that's a complicated HUD. It reminds me of Jedi Knight's interface except it's three times as busy. This data comlink screen has got plenty of stuff to look at as well, as it's got pages on my items, weapons and moves.

I closed the help screen, opened the door on the left, got surprised by an enemy coming up the stairs, and unloaded my gun into him. What an unnecessary waste of ammo! Also that could've been Chung, so I need to be more careful in future. I also need to find a switch, as the next door's locked.

It turned out the switch was right behind me, so I got the door open and then ran into this guy while looking for the next switch (it seems like locked doors are going to be a thing).

I thought he might be Chung so I hesitated for a moment and got a punch in the face. So I hit him until he fell down, which didn't actually take much. He's not dead yet though, so now I'm waiting for him to regain consciousness so I can hit him again and finish him off. Shouldn't take more than a couple of seconds more I expect.

Oh, I know what I should've done! I should've hit the jump button, then pressed crouch in mid-air to do a somersault and slam down onto him. They taught me that in the tutorial.

A FEW DOORS LATER

Oh damn, those red circles don't look good. Note to self: don't run into enemy fire. Usually when a circle appears it's because someone's hitting someone else, and the colour of it indicates how much health they have left. So if I kick someone and I see a red circle flashing around them on impact, that means they're close to death. I guess bullets impacts are always red though, because I've got plenty of health left.

I knocked the submachine gun out of his hand, beat him up, then tried the gun out for myself. It's got a faster rate of fire but I think I'll have more chance of actually hitting the thing I'm aiming at if I drop it and pick up my pistol again. All these ballistic weapons use the same red ammo so I'll find bullets either way.

Hey is that another locked door over there? I guess I'm going up the stairs to find a room with a switch in it then, because that's what I always have to do! So far this level's been a series of identical rooms with identical locked doors and identical stairs leading to the identical switch. Well, nearly identical. I'm sure the crates were probably in a different place.

Hey I've found the switch. Yay.

Shinatama phoned me up again up to give me some tutorial advice about healing hypo sprays. If you can't read that tiny text, she said "I'm not supposed to talk about this, but data suggest that hypos will work differently on you than on…. OTHER people." That seems like something Konoko should be concerned about, or at least curious about! Is she not like other people? Does already she know about this? Apparently Griffin doesn't want her to know about this overpower effect, so he's definitely keeping secrets.

By the way, is it just me or does this look like a Dreamcast game? I'm getting Skies of Arcadia vibes with how the lighting's really simplistic and rooms are boxy and empty. Maybe I'm being unfair to it though, as it's been a while since I've played a shooter from 2001.

Max Payne (PC)

Here's Max Payne from the same year as a comparison. It's still a bit basic and empty, but they've dressed the floor up a bit with some paper and the shadows look way better. Breaking up the tiled walls and floors a bit with some dirt and damage really helps.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (PC)

Here's another example of a PC game from 2001, Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The walls and floors are just as tiled, but there's stuff in room to draw attention from it. Plus it's using the engine formerly known as Quake III which allows for some beautiful baked in shadows, and they've they've put in the fire and the candles to make the lighting more interesting.

Oni and Return to Castle Wolfenstein do have one thing in common though: backtracking. Though at least in Oni you're looking for actual switches. In Wolfenstein I kept running into dead ends and had no idea that the enemies had unlocked a door for me somewhere else in the level.

Oh no, Chung's dead! It wasn't my fault I promise, I found him like this. Now I need to go save the warehouse manager from meeting the same fate.

The game isn't telling me a lot during cutscenes, but I am finding computer terminals and datapads full of text to read. They're all about something relevant to the mission, so there's not a lot of world building going on, but it's nice to have the option to learn more about what's going on.

Wait, is that a red light by that door? Bloody hell, it's like I'm trapped in a time loop. Okay fine, I know the drill. I'll go up or down the stairs to the room with the switch in, unlock the door, and then come back. Maybe I'll get lucky and there'll be someone around to punch along the way.

Hey I ran into two enemies this time! They're showing off a bit with the wrestling moves, but that blue circle means that I've blocked it successfully, so in theory this isn't going to hurt me. Which is good, because I've already lost two thirds of my health so far.

I'm not struggling in fights exactly, but I'm not making it look good either. Especially when I'm against two people at once. These guys actually know how to fight, and I can only remember half the stuff I can do! It's making more sense now why a couple of hits is enough to send an enemy to the floor for a while, as it gives me a chance to focus on the one that's still standing.

Fortunately I'm picking up a lot of hypos from the corpses of my victims, and they're keeping me in the fight. In fact they're the only way to get health back, so I hope they keep them coming.

SOME MORE IDENTICAL WAREHOUSE AREAS LATER

That asshole on the left picked up the gun I just knocked away from the other guy! Can you not shoot at me while I'm brawling, thanks?

The good news is that I found the warehouse manager and saved him from being thrown around by one of the Syndicate goons. The bad news is that Syndicate troops are trying to remove evidence from the warehouse and I've got 2m 45s to stop the truck from leaving the building! I hate time limits, they always cause me to make stupid mistakes.
 

Like I just made the stupid mistake of thinking I could shoot this guy guarding the switch up on the top level and save myself a fight. He's a bit far away for my pistol though, so this is going to take a while. Especially when he keeps moving around and firing back!

I like how I can aim and reload while moving by the way. Playing this and Max Payne back in the day made it very hard for me to get used the way Resident Evil 4 locks you in place when you pull a gun out. Oh, here's another nice feature worth mentioning: the laser sight only comes on when the gun's loaded and ready to fire.

Alright I got him, now it's time to run over to that wall, go up two flights of stairs, and hit the button at the top. I've been training for this.

My reward is a little in-game cutscene of Konoko tipping the truck over with a crane. Mission complete!

Konoko calls her boss up about that datapad she found, saying that she wants to go check out Mushashi Manufacturing quickly before the Syndicate can pack up. Griffin's against the idea, but changes his mind when Shinatama warns him that stressing Konoko out could destabilise her latency. Seems like the game's going to keep teasing me that there's something weird about her.

It's pretty amazing how little context I'm getting for anything though. We're TCTF, we're some kind of cops fighting the Syndicate, Konoko is being monitored by Griffin and Shinatama, and Kerr's worried about her. That's all I know about the characters and the world they inhabit. I dunno, maybe there's more in the manual.

Okay now the mission's complete!

I like how they went to the trouble of drawing some artwork for the end of every mission. It's a bit weird maybe that Konoko doesn't wear a helmet (especially as the rest of the TCTF does), but I guess she's gotten used to landing on her head.

CHAPTER 02: ENGINES OF EVIL - MANUFACTURING PLANT

The TCTF team arrives at at Mushashi Manufacturing and Agent Thorson walks up to the receptionist to explain why they're here. But Konoko immediately cuts him off to start yelling at the poor woman... who secretly pushes a button under her desk.

Wait where did Konoko's outfit go? Did she change into her uniform in the van or something?

Meanwhile, these two villains are having a chat, and I'm getting the impression that Muro's the one in charge. In fact Barabas's line delivery kind of makes it sound like he's his son, it's weird. It's got this "Okay dad, I'll be careful," vibe to it.

It's been years since I've played this game, but there's something really familiar to me about Muru. Hang on, is he Bren McGuire from the Turrican games?

It's like Bren McGuire and Terry McGinnis from Batman Beyond went into the same teleporter and Muro stepped out the other side. Man, it's been ages since I've seen Batman Beyond, it's really overdue for a rewatch.

Anyway, I can't remember if there's some kind of connection between Muro and Konoko, but the way they both have purple hair and green eyes makes me think... yes.

Oh no, the receptionist called in some Syndicate goons and they killed Agent Thorson! Or maybe the other one, I can't tell. 

I did my best to distract them all and save one of my agents, but I wasn't quick enough. So I guess I'm going in alone then. 

At least I've unlocked a new move! Wait, 'hit the PUNCH key three times'? That's not a proper move, that's just a basic combo!

I decided to quit and try the level again to see if it's possible to save my team, and this time I managed to keep one of the agents alive! The guy walked off through a door to find more enemies to hit so I ran over to help out.
 

We're still doing the switches then. At least this time it's blatantly obvious what door I've unlocked.

I followed my sidekick inside and found more dudes to punch, but along the way we figured out something bad: they wanted us to find Chung's datapad and follow the lead to Mushashi Manufacturing. This just a diversion designed to keep Konoko and her team busy while the Syndicate carries out an operation elsewhere! Oh no, they've lured away one rookie agent straight out of training and the two people she brought with her, the TCTF doesn't stand a chance.

Anyway, I need to get out of here, but the next door's locked and the switch nearby didn't open it! I'm a bit confused. I guess I'm going to have to backtrack.
 

Well I found a switch that unlocked that other door up there on the walkway... but I can't reach it. Now I'm even more confused. Plus unlocking the door released this enemy armed with a railgun or whatever and he's way too high up for even my most powerful uppercut so I'm going to have to solve this with my gun.

Amazingly I managed to kill him without him landing a single hit on me, though I barely landed a hit on him either with all the running back and forth. It took every magazine I was carrying to kill him.

Without any better ideas I decided to return to the lobby... but the door had been locked behind me! So I went back through to that other locked door I couldn't open earlier and found that the switch next to it was working now. Okay cool, I'm making progress again.

Okay, this is the lobby. That locked door just brought me back to the lobby! I must have walked around in a circle without realising it. Man, I wish I had a map. Right, I see a green light upstairs so I'm going to make a wild guess and say that's where my objective compass would want me to go next. Oh crap, I totally forgot that I have an objective compass to follow!

The game can be helpful like that sometimes. Like it puts markers underneath guns so they're easy to spot and you can tell at a glance whether they use red ammo or green ammo.

Enemies always drop their guns, but I've been sticking with my trusty TCTF handgun... until now. I just found a missile swarm launch and there's no way I'm not trying this out for a bit. I can always go back and pick up my pistol if I get sick of it.

Okay I've gotten sick of it now, I'm going back to pick up my pistol. Wait, where's the damn thing gone? Oh no I've lost my pistol! And I didn't even find any hidden hypos or ammo while I was looking for it. There's not a lot of things to pick up in this game.

Hey, lasers! I remember the lasers. These ones aren't so bad though, even if they are moving up and down really quickly. I just have to get my timing right, double-tab to run forward and slide under each of them in turn. If I get it right that turret at the end of the corridor won't even know I'm here.

Wow, I got Konoko shot to death by two regular enemies in the next room! It's my own fault for trying to fight them on stairs instead of moving somewhere flat where I had more room.

At least this gives me an opportunity to talk about the checkpoint system. Oni doesn't let you save the game yourself, instead it saves about three checkpoints per level. It keeps hold of all these saves afterwards, so it's a nice system if you want to go to a certain part of a certain chapter, but not so great if you've gotten killed 20 minutes past the latest checkpoint.

Fortunately it had given me a checkpoint just before the lasers so I had barely anything to replay. This time. Trouble is I don't know where the bloody game wants me to go, so I've been sliding back and forth through the gauntlet of lasers trying to find switches and check locked doors. I wish I had some kind of marker that points me towards my next objective.

Oh right, there's an objective compass! It's so subtle that I keep forgetting it's there.

SOON

Crap. I've reached a Deadly Brain. I really hate these things. Every time I've tried to play the game in the past I've reached a Deadly Brain I just couldn't get past and had to quit and uninstall.

I've been locked inside a circular room with this thing and its turrets in the middle, and four consoles around the outside which need to be pressed.

The Deadly Brain keeps sweeping the room with lasers, so I have avoid/slide under them and make it to the safety of next console. Then once all four consoles have been hit, the laser pattern changes and I have to do it again. Getting hit by the lasers isn't a good idea as it starts the turrets firing.

This means that it's absolutely crucial that I remember that Shift is roll/slide and Space is jump. It would not be good to get those two buttons confused right now. You might be thinking 'that sounds like normal WASD controls' and it probably is, but I only ever use WASD if a game forces me to and I'm not comfortable with it, so I'm struggling here!

CHAPTER 03: PUZZLE PIECES - BIO-RESEARCH LAB

I beat the Deadly Brain and then the next level immediately threw me into a boss fight! It didn't even give me any hypos.

Okay the first thing I need to do is close the distance and get that gun away from him. I can knock the weapons out of people's hands really easily, and then all I have to do is discourage them from picking them back up. Without that gun this'll be a very different fight. I'm not the best at hand to hand combat but I reckon I'm good enough to take this guy.

I reckon I'm good enough to take this guy on my next go.

He's a little different to most Syndicate goons as he's got unblockable special moves. Fortunately he announces them before he does them so I have time to get out of the way. In fact I never say this, but this was a pretty reasonable boss fight. He didn't push me to master the combat system, I still kind of suck, but he did give me a challenge. And then he flew off with a jetpack once I started kicking his ass!

Okay now that's sorted out I can race to stop the Syndicate doing whatever it is they came here to do. That means I'm back to finding switches and unlocking doors.

This time the level's about hitting the switch to open every door on a floor, going in to save the scientists, then walking up to the next floor to do it all over again. 

I wasn't expecting so many enemies on this floor though, so I'm just going to duck behind this wall and let the guy in blue come to me. Taking on groups is tricky, I'm not exactly Batman, but if I'm smart I can lure them out one at a time. They're fairly intelligent and will run over when they see you. Shooting them often gets their attention as well. 

Man, don't these people ever have chairs? Or desks? Or anything at all? I'm starting to get the feeling that this isn't going to be one of those games where you can find lovingly modelled CRT monitors lying around.

The NPCs I meet tend to be pretty grateful that I saved them and there's usually one in each group that has a reward to give me. I was hoping for a hypo but this time I got a force shield, which could be even better! Or worse, I dunno yet. It definitely looks like what you want to be wearing in a shoot out.

EVENTUALLY

Okay this level's turning into something more interesting than the last two. I was running across rooftops for a bit and now I'm heading through this giant open area with multiple enemies and no real cover. I'm just rushing over to an enemy, knocking them down, and then moving on before I get shot. Especially the ones wearing explosive vests, as they tend to explode three seconds after being beaten.

CHAPTER 04: TIGER BY THE TAIL - AIRPORT ASSAULT

I'm at chapter 4 now and I still haven't learned anything about Konoko or what Griffin's up to, but I've unlocked a proper move this time! I'm pretty sure I won't get any use out of it though, because I can only pull it off 25% of the time and I'll forget that I even have it two rooms from now. If she yelled out "WILLOW KICK!" every time then I'd totally put the time in to master it. But she doesn't, so I won't.

Hey there's actual scenery to look at on this level! It's pretty dark so I can't see very well, but I'm pretty sure that's a plane, and if I turn around I can look inside all the terminal building windows.

I also saw some interesting posters up inside. I'm starting to get this impression that this future isn't particularly utopian.

I rarely ever use guns but now I'm starting to think that maybe I should. I mean I won't be killing many people with the tiny amount of ammo it gives you, but even turning a three vs one battle into a two vs one brawl would be a big help

Though I actually won this fight somehow. I took them all down and walked away with a hypo for my trouble. Then the next dude got me.

Alright, I'm done being subtle. I'm seeing how they like being on the other end of the rifle for a change!

Then in the next area I decided to give being extra subtle a try. I crept over to a dude from behind without alerting him and snapped his spine in one move. It seems that I haven't been taking advantage of my full potential for violence.

I'm tempted to keep going until I reach some proper story revelations, but I'm already way over my screenshot target and it seems like it's going to take a while, so I'm going to wrap this up here.

CONCLUSION

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It's kind of strange that I've been writing for Super Adventures for over a decade without getting around to Oni. What I think happened here, is that those laser dodging sequences really got to me the first time around. I don't even know if I was enjoying the gameplay back then or I was playing for the story, all I know is that I kept dodging those lasers over and over and over again until I had to admit that the game had beaten me, and I wasn't going to find out what happened in the end. So every time I saw the game box on my shelf and thought about playing it, a voice in my head said "Fuck that bullshit!" and I moved onto something else like Charly the Clown or Bad Rats or whatever.

But what do I think about it now after finally playing it again?

I'll start by talking about negatives, because the game's taught me to be aggressive and attack without hesitation or mercy. First, it looks like an early Dreamcast game, and I don't mean Shenmue. Okay a 2001 game looking three years out of date isn't a huge issue in 2022, but it's just really bland and empty and lifeless. And repetitive too! They apparently took the level design seriously, hiring actual architects, but the end result features too much of the banality of reality, and the constant backtracking to hit switches only makes the lack of variation more of an issue. I wouldn't be surprised if they added the objective compass after play testers kept getting hopelessly lost in identical rooms. Not that there's all that much to get lost in, as the levels are pretty linear overall and there's no scope for exploration. If you're very lucky you might occasionally find a hypo on top of a box or some ammo hidden in a corner, though don't count on it. The game takes about 10 hours to beat, but if you're a completionist and you do all the side stuff... it's still about the same time. This really isn't going to give you much beyond the core gameplay.

You can also tell that the game was a little rushed by the end of development by the little things. Like the fact you can't remap your controls in game. You can't even access the menu at all once the gameplay's started! The PS2 version does at least give you some presets to pick from, but it balances that by making the aiming a real pain.

Resolution aside, the PlayStation 2 version doesn't seem reduced at all to me. This isn't a Deus Ex or No One Lives Forever situation where the levels are cut up into tiny pieces on the console port or it runs unbearably slow. In fact at first glance you might assume that this was a console game ported across to PC, but once you play with the camera a bit it's obvious this was designed for a mouse. There's no aim mode that zooms in and reduces the sensitivity, there's no auto aim or lock on. If you want to send bullets towards someone's face you're going to put in the work and do it all yourself.

The camera is also completely unrestrained by the material world, so you can swoop it inside objects or into walls and get a nice view behind the scenes. The scenery always fades away to give you a view of the action so this never hinders gameplay, in fact it probably helps, but it does make it look janky and unpolished.

And I've never been a big fan of difficulty spikes combined with limited checkpoints. Even if the game does have difficulty options.

On the positive side, the voice acting's alright! So far the story's mostly been 'The Syndicate's attacking the bio-research lab!' and 'The Syndicate's attacking the airport now!', and I really couldn't give a damn about Muro, but there's enough mystery about Griffin's agenda and Konoko's nature that it's got my interest. The core of the game is its fighting system however, and there's a lot more depth to it than you might expect from a PC game with mouse controls. Battles never lasted long for me, but always had to think about what I wanted to do. It's a long way from basic brawlers like Streets of Rage or Golden Axe. I feel like someone who isn't me could get a lot more out of the game however, someone who can actually pull off fighting game moves. Or at least remember that they have them.

Overall Oni is one of the best licenced anime games I've played, and the fact that it's not licenced or anime is only a minor flaw. It's not a timeless classic like Doom or Quake, it does feel dated, but it also feels like a preview of a future of third person shooter/brawlers that we didn't really get. It's way above games like, I dunno, Enter the Matrix. And it definitely seems to have its fans, as they've created projects like Anniversary Edition and OniX to keep it alive, along with dozens of mods.

Would I play more of it? Absolutely. Am I likely to make a serious attempt at beating it? No. So it gets a shiny 'not crap' star but no trophy.

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Thanks for reading my words! If you want to share your own thoughts about Oni you can use the comment box below, but you can't use it to guess the next game. Not this time. Because next on Super Adventures, it's the Screenshots of the Year 2022!