Bungie’s Oni Took an Innovative Approach to Melee Combat

Bungie is best known for creating the Halo and Destiny video game franchises. Prior to the Master Chief’s cultural prominence, though, Bungie released several beloved and acclaimed games for the Mac, including the Marathon series (i.e., Halo’s spiritual predecessor), the fantasy-based Myth series, and Oni.

Boasting a very distinctive aesthetic that was heavily influenced by Ghost in the Shell, Oni is arguably one of Bungie’s least-known games. Originally released in 2001, Oni was not without its problems, including some lackluster graphics and an underwhelming storyline. As the above video points out, however, it had one feature that still outshines many modern games: an innovative approach to melee combat that really made it feel like you were playing a super-powered martial arts dynamo.

I only played Oni once, circa 2001, and that was a demo on my brother’s computer. I still remember how it handled melee combat, and how easy it was to pull off some really cool moves with minimal effort that were perfectly in-line with its anime and cyberpunk-inspired vibes.

Given that Bungie is (sort of) rebooting Marathon, it’d be cool to see an Oni reboot with modern graphics and a more fleshed out storyline — but only if it kept the same basic melee system as the original. I think a lot of today’s gamers would be very pleasantly surprised by it.