Oni

One of my coworkers gave me a Zip disk with a 77MB demo of Oni for the Macintosh. Since the iBook has enough power to run it, I tried it out.

While I've never played more than a demo of Tomb Raider before, I've also watched my friend Alan play, and I have to say that Oni has a feel similar to it. Just substitute Konoko for Lara Croft, and high tech robots 'n' aliens for tigers, gorillas and such, and you've made the transition.

I only went through the training mode last night, with Kelly serving as cheerleading section ("you did good, Daddy!"). Using this game with a mouse and keyboard is going to be tedious, and if I do end up buying it, it'll be for the PS2, since then I'll have a gamepad.

Right now, I'm not sure I'll buy it at all, since the first blush of the demo makes me think it is more shooter/fighter than clever in any special way. I was really initially interested in it for the anime theme, but given that this seems like a thin veneer on top of Tomb Raider, I'm not so sure now. Later reports as I have time to play the demo.