Software:Oni (video game)

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Oni
Developer(s)Bungie West[lower-alpha 1]
Publisher(s)Gathering of Developers
Rockstar Games (PS2)
Director(s)Michael Evans
Producer(s)Hamilton Chu[1]
Designer(s)Hardy LeBel
Composer(s)
  • Martin O'Donnell
  • Michael Salvatori
  • Paul Sebastien
  • Brian Salter
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, PlayStation 2
ReleaseMicrosoft Windows
PlayStation 2
  • NA: 29 January 2001[4]
  • EU: 9 March 2001
Mac OS
Genre(s)Action, beat 'em up, third-person shooter
Mode(s)Single-player

Oni is a third-person action video game developed by Bungie West, a division of Bungie. It was originally released by Gathering of Developers for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS in 2001; a PlayStation 2 port developed by Rockstar Canada was released the same year. It was Bungie West's only game. Gameplay consists of third-person shooting with hand-to-hand combat, with a focus on the latter. The game's style was largely inspired by Ghost in the Shell and Akira and shares the same genre, being set in a cyberpunk world.

Plot

The events of Oni take place in or after the year 2032. In the game, Earth is so polluted that little of it remains habitable. To solve international economic crises, all nations have combined into a single entity, the World Coalition Government. The government is totalitarian, telling the populace that what are actually dangerously toxic regions are wilderness preserves, and uses its police forces, the Technological Crimes Task Force (TCTF), to suppress opposition. The player character, code-named Konoko (voiced by Amanda Winn-Lee), full name later given as Mai Hasegawa, begins the game working for the TCTF. Soon, she learns her employers have been keeping secrets about her past from her. She turns against them as she embarks on a quest of self-discovery. The player learns more about her family and origins while battling both the TCTF and its greatest enemy, the equally monolithic criminal organization called the Syndicate. In the game's climax, Konoko discovers a Syndicate plan to cause the Atmospheric Conversion Centers, air-treatment plants necessary to keep most of the world's population alive, to catastrophically malfunction. She is partially successful in thwarting the plot, saving a portion of humanity.

Gameplay

Konoko using a move effective on multiple enemies, the Devil Spin Kick

Oni is a third-person action game, focused on melee combat mixed with some gunplay. The player can punch, kick, and throw enemies; progressing into later levels unlocks stronger moves and combos. There are ten different guns in Oni, including handguns, rifles, rocket launchers, and energy weapons. Power-ups such as "hyposprays", which heal damage, and cloaking devices, which render the player invisible, can be found scattered throughout the levels or on corpses. Since the player can carry only one weapon at a time and ammunition is scarce, hand-to-hand combat is the most effective and common means of defeating enemies.

There are multiple classes of enemy, each with its own style of unarmed combat. Each class is subdivided into tiers of increasing strength. As in Bungie's earlier Marathon titles, tiers are color-coded, in this case by green (weakest), blue, and red (strongest). Also color-coded are the levels of health each opponent has, indicated by a flash when the player strikes or shoots them. Green flashes show the opponent has high health, red flashes show the enemy is near death.

Oni does not confine the player to fighting small groups of enemies in small arenas; each area is fully open to explore. The fourteen levels are of various sizes, some large enough to comprise an entire building. Bungie hired two architects to design the buildings.

The Oni engine implements a method of interpolation that tweens key frames, smoothing out the animation of complex martial-arts moves. However, frame slippage is a common problem when multiple non-player characters near the player are attacking.

Development

The game was developed by a core team of about twelve people.[6] The game's universe is heavily influenced by Mamoru Oshii's anime film Ghost in the Shell, with some additional influence from Akira and the works of Kenichi Sonoda.[1][7][8][9][10] The original plan was for Konoko to be a cyborg like Ghost in the Shell's Motoko Kusanagi. The explanation for her superhuman abilities was changed to be more organic with the addition of the Daodan Chrysalis concept by design lead Hardy LeBel.

Oni was originally expected to be released in the fourth quarter of 1999. Advertising was targeted towards that shipping date, and the game won E3's Game Critics Awards for Best Action/Adventure Game in 1999. However, development difficulties caused the release date to be pushed back continuously. The acquisition of Bungie by Microsoft in 2000 then led to the transfer of the Oni IP to Take-Two Interactive (which owned 20% of the studio prior to Microsoft's acquisition). Since Bungie's employees were moving to the new office location in Microsoft's headquarters or leaving the company, work on Oni had to be completed as quickly as possible. Due to a lack of time to resolve issues with the multiplayer code and to finish the levels intended for use by multiplayer mode, this functionality was omitted from the released version.

A sequel was in development at Angel Studios for two years before being cancelled for unknown reasons.[11][12]

Music

Half of the music was composed by Martin O'Donnell in collaboration with Michael Salvatori. Other tracks in the game, which had already been implemented before O'Donnell and Salvatori joined the project, were composed by the music company Power of Seven, which specialized in electronic music genres such as techno and ambient. The Power of Seven team consisted of founder Paul Sebastien, as well as composer Brian Salter and Kim Cascone, who served as a sound designer for the game;[13] the team had previously worked together at Thomas Dolby's audio technology company Headspace. O'Donnell, who served as the game's audio lead, decided to keep the tracks Power of Seven had already composed, while composing roughly the same amount of music himself.[14][15] Select tracks from the game were made available on MP3.com in 2000, a year before the game was released.[16] A soundtrack CD of the game's music was bundled with purchases of the game at Best Buy.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic(PC) 73/100[17]
(PS2) 69/100[18]
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGameStarStarHalf star[19][20]
Edge7/10[21]
EGM3.33/10[22]
Eurogamer7/10[23]
Game Informer6.5/10[24]
GameProStarStar[25]
GameRevolutionB[26][27]
GameSpot(PS2) 7.1/10[28]
(PC) 6.9/10[29]
GameSpy80%[30][31]
GameZone(PC) 9/10[32]
(PS2) 8/10[33]
Hyper90/100 (PC)[34]
IGN(PC) 7.5/10[35]
(PS2) 7.3/10[36]
Next GenerationStarStarStarStar[37]
OPM (US)StarHalf star[38]
PC Gamer (US)72%[39]
The Cincinnati EnquirerStarStarStarStar[40]
Playboy75%[41]

The game received "average" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[17][18] Some reviewers were unimpressed by the minimal detail of the environment graphics,[42] the lack of intelligence on the part of the AI in some situations,[43] and the plot, which was occasionally criticized as underdeveloped.[44] The game's difficulty in combination with a lack of savepoints was sometimes cited as a negative.[45]

The absence of LAN-based multiplayer, which had been demoed at hands-on booths at Macworld Expos during Oni's development, but removed before release due to stated concerns over latency issues, contributed to some lower scores from reviewers.[35] Some of the game's content was cut as well. This included the "Iron Demon", a large mech shown in-game in one trailer. Also, many of the weapons featured in the trailer and the game cover were not in the game.[citation needed]

On the positive side, Oni received the most praise for its smooth character animation and large array of fighting moves, as well as how it blended gunplay and melee combat.[46] Thus, reviewers gave Oni mostly average-to-good scores in recognition of the enjoyment factor of the game. Jeff Lundgren of Next Generation said of the PlayStation 2 version: "It may have been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait. In fact, in a number of important ways, this is the game The Bouncer should have been."[37]

In the United States, Oni sold 50,000 copies by October 2001.[47]

Anniversary Edition

The "Anniversary Edition" was made by fans and the community, based on years of research, and enhances the retail copy of Oni. The first official release of the edition was made seven years after Oni's release, hence the original name of the project, "Seventh Anniversary Edition".[48]

Notes

  1. ↑ Ported to PlayStation 2 by Rockstar Canada.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kushner, David (June 2000). "Ghost in the Machine". SPIN 16 (6): 86. ISSN 0886-3032. https://books.google.com/books?id=6N0JSkTI3j4C&q=david+kushner&pg=PA86. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Gathering of Developers Ships Oni Nationwide for the PC and Macintosh". 29 January 2001. http://www.godgames.com/main.php?section=news&page=press&pr=ONI_Ships. 
  3. ↑ "Oni sur PC" (in fr). https://www.jeuxvideo.com/jeux/pc/00003640-oni.htm. 
  4. ↑ "Oni ships for Mac, PC, PlayStation 2" (in en). https://www.macworld.com/article/165576/oni-2.html. 
  5. ↑ "ONI : news". 7 March 2001. http://www.application-systems.de/oni/meldungen.html. 
  6. ↑ Wescott, Jeff. "Interview: Oni Level Designer David Dunn". Archived from the original on August 24, 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20000824155730/http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/00/dunn/p3.shtml. Retrieved June 16, 2023. 
  7. ↑ Al-Shakarchi, Harry. "Interview with lead engineer Brent Pease". Bungie.org. http://oni.bungie.org/special/part1/brent.html. 
  8. ↑ Al-Shakarchi, Harry. "Interview with concept artist Alex Okita". Bungie.org. http://oni.bungie.org/special/part1/alex.html. 
  9. ↑ Kane, Alex (30 March 2017). "Flashback: 'Oni', Bungie's Cult Classic Inspired by 'Ghost in the Shell'". http://www.glixel.com/interviews/oni-bungies-classic-inspired-by-ghost-in-the-shell-w474297. 
  10. ↑ Watson, Michael (June 1999). "Interview with Lorraine Reyes, Art Director/Creative Director of Marketing at Bungie Software". http://macledge.com/interviews/oni-reyes/index.chtml. 
  11. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (7 December 2016). "Oni 2 was once in development, here's what it looked like". http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-12-07-oni-2-was-once-in-development-heres-what-it-looked-like. 
  12. ↑ Alexandra, Heather (5 December 2016). "Bungie's Cult Classic Oni Almost Had A Sequel". https://kotaku.com/bungie-s-cult-classic-oni-almost-had-a-sequel-1789693658. 
  13. ↑ "Kim Cascone: "blueCube( )" Interview". 1998. http://spiderbytes.com/ambientrance/index.htm. 
  14. ↑ Audy-Rowland, Nico (October 2004). "Nico Interviews Marty O'Donnell". https://halo.bungie.org/misc/nico_marty_interview.html. 
  15. ↑ "Interview with Marty O'Donnell, Total Audio". 2000. http://oni.bungie.org/archives/odonnell.interview.html. 
  16. ↑ Mullen, Michael (April 27, 2000). "Bungie's MP3 Contribution". https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bungies-mp3-contribution/1100-2451769/. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Oni for PC Reviews". https://www.metacritic.com/game/oni-2001/critic-reviews/?platform=pc. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Oni for PlayStation 2 Reviews". https://www.metacritic.com/game/oni-2001/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-2. 
  19. ↑ Norands, Alec. "Oni (PC) - Review". Allgame. http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=19306&tab=review. 
  20. ↑ Thompson, Jon. "Oni (PS2) - Review". Allgame. http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=24182&tab=review. 
  21. ↑ Edge staff (February 2001). "Oni". Edge (94). 
  22. ↑ EGM Staff (April 2001). "Oni (PS2)". Electronic Gaming Monthly. http://www.zdnet.com/egm/stories/main/0,11589,2685291,00.html. Retrieved 14 April 2014. 
  23. ↑ Bramwell, Tom (8 February 2001). "Oni Review (PC)". http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/r_oni. 
  24. ↑ Reiner, Andrew (March 2001). "Oni". Game Informer (95): 67. http://www.gameinformer.com/Games/Review/200103/R03.0806.1747.56607.htm. Retrieved 14 April 2014. 
  25. ↑ Uncle Dust (29 January 2001). "Oni Review for PS2 on GamePro.com". GamePro. http://gamepro.com/sony/ps2/games/reviews/10917.shtml. Retrieved 14 April 2014. 
  26. ↑ White, A.A. (January 2001). "Oni Review (PC)". Game Revolution. http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/oni. 
  27. ↑ White, A.A. (February 2001). "Oni - Playstation 2 Review". Game Revolution. http://www.game-revolution.com/games/ps2/action/oni.htm. 
  28. ↑ Gerstmann, Jeff (31 January 2001). "Oni Review (PS2)". http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/oni-review/1900-2680708/. 
  29. ↑ Kasavin, Greg (17 January 2001). "Oni Review (PC)". http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/oni-review/1900-2675313/. 
  30. ↑ Thernes, Ryan "StoneWolf" (27 January 2001). "Oni (PC)". GameSpy. http://www.gamespy.com/reviews/january01/oni/. 
  31. ↑ Alupului, Andrei (14 February 2001). "Oni". PlanetPS2. http://www.planetps2.com/features/reviews/2001/oni/. 
  32. ↑ Lafferty, Michael (9 January 2001). "Oni Review - PC". GameZone. http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r11978.htm. 
  33. ↑ The Badger (23 April 2001). "Oni (PS2)". GameZone. http://ps2.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r11978.htm. 
  34. ↑ Jones, Gareth (March 2001). "Oni". Hyper (89): 52–53. 
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 Adams, Dan (30 January 2001). "Oni (PC)". http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/01/31/oni-3. 
  36. ↑ Perry, Doug (1 February 2001). "Oni (PS2)". http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/02/02/oni-2. 
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Lundgren, Jeff (April 2001). "Oni (PS2)". Next Generation (Imagine Media) (76): 74. 
  38. ↑ "Oni (PS2)". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. April 2001. http://www.zdnet.com/opm/stories/main/0,11891,2687487,00.html. Retrieved 14 April 2014. 
  39. ↑ "Oni". PC Gamer: 96. April 2001. 
  40. ↑ Saltzman, Marc (7 March 2001). "'Oni' fun in spite of flaws". The Cincinnati Enquirer. http://www.cincinnati.com/freetime/games/reviews/030701_oni.html. 
  41. ↑ Ryan, Michael E. (5 March 2001). "Anime Adventure: Oni". Playboy. http://www.playboy.com/sports/games/oni/index.html. Retrieved 14 April 2014. 
  42. ↑ Hill, Mark (13 August 2001). "PC Review: Oni". PC Zone. http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=3708. Retrieved 14 April 2014. 
  43. ↑ Eilers, Michael (29 January 2001). "Oni". Inside Mac Games. http://www.insidemacgames.com/reviews/view.php?ID=120&Page=5. 
  44. ↑ "Firing Squad's review". http://www.firingsquad.com/games/onireview/page2.asp. 
  45. ↑ Clydesdale, Jimmy (25 January 2001). "Oni". Game Over. http://www.game-over.net/review/jan2001/oni/. 
  46. ↑ Misund, Andreas. "Oni Review". Gamer's Hell. http://www.gamershell.com/pc/oni/review.html. 
  47. ↑ Keighley, Geoff (October 2001). "GOD's Games". Computer Gaming World (Ziff Davis) (207): 31. http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_207.pdf. Retrieved 27 March 2020. 
  48. ↑ "Anniversary Edition - OniGalore". https://wiki.oni2.net/Anniversary_Edition. 
  • Oni Central community portal
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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