In the last few decades, hundreds of development studios have built towering reputations to become household names. Sometimes, however, between the Game of the Year winners and strong genre entries come niche titles that never found an audience. Despite the acclaim of the talent behind them, they’re somehow overlooked, and become forgotten.
Oftentimes these games are victims of releasing before the breakout hit that puts the studio on the map. Other times, they’re bottlenecked by their release platform of choice, or simply don’t hold general appeal. From the charming, humble debut title to the laughable blunder, here are 10 forgotten games that are worth digging up.
1. Rocket: Robot on Wheels – Sucker Punch
For years, Sucker Punch had seemed to be stuck a little in the shadows of the other big Sony studios. The Sly Cooper trilogy is great, but often preceded in conversation by Ratchet and Clank or Jak and Daxter. inFamous was heralded as a reason to own a PS3, but despite a quality PS4 outing the IP has become largely forgotten. Fortunately, Ghost of Tsushima has seen them break out of this trend by being a huge, entirely unique hit, with a sequel and live action adaptation on the way. But before all of this came their most forgotten game of all – Rocket: Robot on Wheels.
What you know them for:
- The beloved Sly Cooper trilogy (not that fourth one though)
- inFamous, a set of gritty superhero-style games where you can be a hero, or a menace
- Award-winning Kurosawa-em-up Ghost of Tsushima, soon to be followed by Ghost of Yotei later this year
Setting the game in an amusement park gave it a distinct identity from its peers in the genre
Hardly the snappiest name, but don’t be fooled – R:RoW is a charming N64 platformer that was surprisingly creative for its time. Beyond just being a standard Super Mario 64 clone, it incorporated realistic physics 5 years before Half-Life 2 made it popular (and admittedly, a year after Jurassic Park: Trespasser made it unpopular). For being the first game the studio ever released, it shows incredible innovation and it’s a crying shame it didn’t end up being their breakout hit. Sadly, it’s also not easy to get your hands on the game anymore, with no re-release in sight.
2. Disruptor – Insomniac
While not officially bought by Sony until 2019, Insomniac Games has always been one of the central pillars of PlayStation libraries. Since their Spyro the Dragon trilogy became among the greatest hits on PS1, they’ve gotten bigger and bigger. Ratchet and Clank (PS2) put an action-oriented spin on the tiring mascot platformer genre, and persisted as recently as 2021’s solid Rift Apart.
Their big PS3 franchise was the Resistance series, an underrated set of gritty first-person shooters about repelling an alien invasion in an alternate 1950s. After a brief tango on Xbox One with the enjoyable but underperforming Sunset Overdrive, Insomniac came back to Sony with the excellent Marvel’s Spider-Man, ushering in a new standard for Marvel videogames.
What you know them for:
- The original trilogy of Spyro games, later remade by Toys for Bob
- An absolute boatload of Ratchet and Clank games, most recently Rift Apart
- Web-slinging epics Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, with Wolverine soon set to join their own Marvel Universe
While not the best FPS on the PS1, Disruptor was no slouch in presentation
Despite so many years of blockbuster hits, a few projects of theirs ended up being forgotten games – most notably their first ever game, Disruptor on PS1. Releasing in 1996, it was an FPS with heaps of cheese-laden live-action FMV cutscenes. On top of gunning your enemies down in the style of Doom, you had access to psionic powers that would drain a separate gauge, over three years before the much more popular System Shock 2 did the same.
Despite great production values, it was dismissed as one of many Doom clones and sold poorly. Fortunately, Insomniac took Disruptor‘s failure to heart and pushed on to become the studio we know and love today. Sadly, Disruptor is not available to buy anywhere – but folk at retro remaster extraordinaries Nightdive are interested in bringing it to modern platforms.
3. Way of the Warrior – Naughty Dog
When it comes to pedigree, you don’t get much bigger than Naughty Dog. One of the few studios whose work not only drew the attention of the videogame industry, but even further beyond into the larger entertainment industry thanks to HBO’s The Last of Us. Before all that, they broke graphical boundaries with the wonderfully zany Crash Bandicoot on the PS1. While they parted ways with the IP after three platformers and a kart racer, its importance to them is felt all the way through to a wonderful cameo in Uncharted 4.
What you know them for:
- Crash Bandicoot 1, 2 and Warped, all playable via the modern N Sane Trilogy remakes
- The darker and moodier Jak and Daxter franchise from the PS2 era
- Modern-day cinematic masterpieces such as the Uncharted franchise and The Last of Us
- Before long, we’ll also see their latest project Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet
Naughty Dog ended up hiring friends and family to portray the digitised fighters of Way of the Warrior
But just before they hit it big with Crash, Naughty Dog gave the fighting genre a spin with little-known 3DO exclusive Way of the Warrior. Essentially a Mortal Kombat clone on a shoestring budget, digitised actors fought one-on-one, casting spells and performing fatalities.
Certainly nothing ground-breaking, which reflected in contemporary review scores. Still, if there’s one thing they pioneered, it was involving legendary musician Rob Zombie in the soundtrack, who’d later come to be associated with the Twisted Metal franchise. Unfortunately, unlike Twisted Metal (with Season 2 just released on Peacock), Way of the Warrior was lost to time – much like the 3DO itself.
4. Ricochet – Valve
If you game on PC, you’re almost definitely doing so thanks to Valve. Steam, the number one hub for games? That’s all them. They’ve also been at the center of the recent handheld PC boom, with their Steam Deck racking up over 4 million sales. They’re not famous for having a steady output of new games, but every single one has left an immeasurable mark on the gaming landscape.
What you know them for:
- They need no introduction; Team Fortress 2? That was them
- Esports mainstays Counter Strike and DOTA 2? Also them!
- Some niche games called Half-Life I suppose?
Valve are famous for not releasing games unless they consider it a big deal – perhaps Ricochet is why they adopted this stance (credit: Valve)
Well, unless they’re either Artifact, a very well-known failure of a DOTA card game…or Ricochet, which fell between the cracks entirely. Releasing back in 2000 as what is essentially a modded Half-Life, it takes direct inspiration from TRON and its deadly discs. You simply bounce from platform to platform – not with a jump button, but with dedicated jump arrows – and try not to lose your head while taking out opponents online.
While Valve’s older titles such as Team Fortress Classic and Half-Life Deathmatch maintain a cult following, Ricochet doesn’t even really have that. No wonder, as after you’ve played 10 minutes, you’ve experienced pretty much all the variety on offer. But if you want to host the weirdest LAN party ever, it’s still up for sale on Steam.
5. Oni – Bungie
While most commonly associated with their worldwide sensation Halo, and now the more controversial Destiny universe, Bungie started as one of the few studios fully committed to making games for Apple Macintosh. After some smaller hits like Pathways into Darkness, they really hit it big with the Marathon Trilogy. Often considered the predecessor to Halo, they were to Mac was Doom was to DOS. After many genre switches and revamps, Microsoft swooped in to buy them along with Halo as it approached release, and history was made.
What you know them for:
- Currently best known for their huge live-service title Destiny 2, still ongoing to this day
- Created and helmed the Halo franchise during its first – and best – decade
- Preparing their upcoming extraction shooter Marathon for launch – but it’s been hit with delays
Even now, few games have the blend of martial arts and gun-fu that Oni boasts (credit: Take-Two Interactive)
This title, Oni, came just months before Halo would set the future of Bungie in stone. As the only game ever made by their offshoot studio Bungie West, it veered from the first-person action Bungie was known for, opting for a third person perspective instead (much like the original Halo was once planned to be). It gathered a small cult following over the years for its unique and complicated melee combat, but critics were unimpressed. The graphics were a large source of this, going for an anime-inspired cel-shaded aesthetic, long before this became popular. Fans of Ghost in the Shell should give it a look – unfortunately, Oni has yet to see a digital rerelease.
6. Shattered Steel – Bioware
If story in a videogame is ever a subject of discussion, it’s usually not long before a Bioware game is mentioned. RPGs are their bread and butter, and they’ve been baking for generations. From the original Baldur’s Gate duology, and later KOTOR and Jade Empire before hitting big with their sci-fi epic Mass Effect (which they plan on returning to in the future). There is no arguing that their latest games have seen them in a bit of a slump, with Dragon Age: The Veilguard failing to find much success from its legendarily troubled development.
What you know them for:
- Decades of iconic western RPGs beginning with Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2
- Insurmountable juggernauts such as the Mass Effect trilogy and Dragon Age: Origins…
- …and some not-so-glamorous stains such as Anthem and Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Hard to imagine there being a non-RPG Bioware game (credit: Interplay)
But their first game could have well ended up being their last. Enter Shattered Steel: a mech game riding on the coattails of the then-popular MechWarrior games. Critical response was tepid in spite of fun features like damaging individual mech parts, or deformable terrain. It’s not a bad game at all – they’ve gone on to release far worse. Fortunately, if you’re more fond of the first-person sorts of mech games as opposed to Armored Core, you can still buy Shattered Steel on Steam and GOG for PC.
7. The Lost Vikings – Blizzard
Where there’s an appetite for a multiplayer game, Blizzard usually has what you’re looking for. Diablo IV gives you endless loot and dungeons to explore with friends, while World of Warcraft is the quintessential MMORPG. If you’re more into guns, Overwatch 2 gives you an expanded version of the game that popularised the “Hero Shooter” subgenre. And even though it’s not a priority for them anymore, their RTS origins with Warcraft and Starcraft remain beloved.
What you know them for:
- Former Game of the Year Overwatch, and its more controversial successor Overwatch 2
- MMORPG poster-child World of Warcraft, and the greater Warcraft IP it spawned from
- The genre-defining ARPG series Diablo, currently on its fourth mainline entry
- Let’s not forget Starcraft! Even if Blizzard did…
Even before the advent of online gaming, it’s interesting to see Blizzard still focused on multiplayer gaming (credit: Activision Blizzard)
But even before they hit it big with their RTS classics, Blizzard had a few other games to their name. Most beloved among them is The Lost Vikings, a curious puzzler for the SNES (and later ported many times). Far from the sweeping stories of Warcraft or the detailed background lore of Overwatch, The Lost Vikings is a simple, endearing story of three Vikings getting abducted by aliens and lost travelling through time. Its most influential feature was the three player co-op, which inspired the beloved Trine franchise.
Fortunately Blizzard are not ones to forget their roots – The Lost Vikings is still available for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch via The Blizzard Arcade Collection.
8. Commander Keen – id Software
While the history of first-person shooters can be traced back to the 80s, we may not have them as we do today if not for id Software catapulting them into the mainstream. Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake are arguably the three founding pillars of FPS games, which makes it amazing that they call came from the same talented team in the span of a decade. Even today, id continue to be hard at work on making new Doom titles. With such a concrete foundation in games that put a gun in your hand, it’s crazy to imagine them making, say, a cartoony platformer.
What you know them for:
- The popularity of the FPS genre began with id, and Wolfenstein 3D
- One-upped themselves with DOOM; most recently with the brilliant Doom: The Dark Ages
- Their Quake franchise reached new levels of frenetic movement, and one of the first huge multiplayer FPS communities
Four solid adventures and all he got for it was his head stuck on a stick as a Doom easter egg…
And yet that’s exactly what they did before Wolfenstein solidified their future! Commander Keen was spawned from an attempt to make a custom port of Super Mario Bros. 3 to DOS – something Nintendo were not interested in. From these ashes rose an original platformer IP that saw a total of four titles from id, as well as a belated fifth game from another studio.
Keen gathered a solid following and the games had a fine reputation, but with the swing into more mature territory after Wolfenstein, id lost all interest in going back. Under Bethesda, an attempt to modernise the brand for mobile phones was announced, but vanished entirely after negative feedback. Fortunately, you can still pick the original DOS Keen saga over on Steam and GOG.
9. Kinetica – Santa Monica Studio
David Jaffe and Santa Monica Studio undeniably caught lightning in a bottle with God of War. Between the brutal action, larger-than-life bosses, and ridiculous edginess, it captivated a generation of gamers. It saw a huge shift in approach to combat in action games across the entire industry. Heck, we wouldn’t have had the Werehog in Sonic Unleashed if not for GoW… so, not all positive impacts, but still.
With such a strong IP on their hands, it’s no wonder Santa Monica have continued to do nothing but make more of them since. And yet, it’s worked better than most 20-year-old franchises can claim, with the soft reboot God of War (2018) selling beyond 20 million copies, eclipsing sales of the rest of the prior GoWs combined.
What you know them for:
- The excellent God of War trilogy spanning the PS2 and PS3, defining a generation of action games
- An even more popular Nordic reimagining of God of War on PS4, followed by God of War: Ragnarok on PS4/5
- …seriously, that’s the only other franchise they’ve ever directly developed, though they’ve supported countless other Sony games
Kinetica, Wipeout, F-Zero – all dormant. We need a futuristic high-speed racer back on shelves!
But, in typical fashion, there was one other property Santa Monica gave a go, before casting it into the aether. Kinetica is a one-of-a-kind racing game from 2001, early in the PS2’s lifespan. Rather than conventional vehicles, it saw scantily-clad humans with wheels on their arms and legs cruising at blistering speeds. It was a remarkably deep and unforgiving game, with a trick system both essential, and easy to screw up the landings on. Despite all this, it captured the Y2K aesthetic with style, and could’ve blossomed into a standout racing franchise. Perhaps Santa Monica might finally return to it once they’re bored of Kratos? In the meantime, you can still get the game on PS4 and PS5.
10. Ninja Blade – FromSoftware
One of the more unlikely studios to score mainstream success, FromSoftware was once a humble low-budget AA peddler. Specialising in games that prioritised mechanical depth over flashy graphics, they garnered strong followings in Japan. Once upon a time, this slot might have gone to Armored Core, their first big franchise that fostered a huge mech-battling competitive scene in their home nation of Japan.
International success, on the other hand, came from their 2009 title Demon’s Souls, the precursor to their later title Dark Souls. This marked a massive turning point that ended up with the release of 2022 hit Elden Ring – its success speaks for itself. And it is off the back of their newfound stardom that they saw fit to revitalise the Armored Core series with 2023’s Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, finally breaking it out of its niche.
What you know them for:
- The entire “Souls” genre can be traced to PS3 game Demon’s Souls, and later the Dark Souls trilogy
- TGA 2022 winner Elden Ring, if you’re one of over 30 million people who bought a copy
- Single-handedly sustaining the mecha genre with the customisation-heavy Armored Core series
All style, no substance – Ninja Blade lacked gameplay or story depth but its action is still top-class
So instead, lets take things back to 2009. Just a week before the release of Demon’s Souls cemented the fate of the studio, they launched another game for Xbox 360 and PC. One that followed more modern, trendy sensibilities of the time, rather than Demon’s Souls‘ old-school difficulty. Ninja Blade was envisioned as a Hollywood movie in videogame form. As such, the game features a comical degree of quick-time events. Every level across the game’s short campaign is littered with sudden cutaways to button prompts and increasingly absurd action sequences. Protagonist Ken can’t even retrieve a sword without making a spectacle of it!
It takes the exaggeration of Devil May Cry with the stylings of Ninja Gaiden, but the quality sadly fails to match both. Just imagine the world we’d live in if Ninja Blade had been the breakout hit instead of Demon’s Souls…
Altogether, it can be a fun time going through developer libraries and finding obscure games, despite the prestige of the people making them. It’s a crying shame that of these ten, only five of them are still sold (second-hand sales notwithstanding). If you do happen to remember any of these games, shout it out below! Feel free to put in a word for any other overlooked games from world-famous studios in the comments too!
