10 Incredible Forgotten Games From Massive Studios

Developers are the beating heart of the video game industry, controlling not just what comes next, but what to focus on from the past; what aspects of graphics and gameplay to take forward with them, and how to align titles with tastes while advancing new stories, styles and technologies.

But with so many great games coming out of their doors, some companies forget to hit pause, take stock and bask in the glory of their own achievements. In fact, many of them just pass straight onto the next thing, not a care in the world. And while many of these games were popular at the time, some of them were not, failing to make a mark on the gaming landscape and sending a message to the people who made them.

For these and an array of other reasons, relating to developers going bust, gaming changing over time, and appetites for certain properties waning, some pretty excellent titles have been lost in time. Alas, no more! We are here to take you back through 10 incredible forgotten games that you just might want to pay attention to in the future.

As the developer responsible for perhaps the most acclaimed sci-fi shooter of all time - Halo - Bungie have proudly sat astride its few but major accomplishments for most of their life. But that doesn't mean they don't keep a few aces up their sleeve. Like, way, way up their sleeve. 

The only game developed by Bungie West, cross-platform cyberpunk actioner Oni married its anime influences (most noticeably Ghost in the Shell and Akira) with a third-person, shooter/beat-'em-up format, putting us in the shoes of Konoko, an agent of the future Technological Crimes Task Force who turns against her employers to uncover the secrets of her past. 

While its graphics and gameplay might not hold up today, at the time (2001, to be precise) it was up there with some of the better games. Sure, the shooting is nothing to write home about, but the fighting elevates it above similar titles, with a smooth, satisfying physics - reminiscent in many regards to Eurocom’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, which came out a whole two years later.

Original copies are hard to come by, but Oni nurtured an underground following for years, leading dedicated fans to release the Anniversary Edition of the game, which expanded on the retail edition with a mod installer, patches for bugs and new features, and core fixes for glitches.