15 Games You Didn’t Know Were Made by Famous Developers

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood – Bioware

Slow Down, Bull – Insomniac Games

Pocket Card Jockey – Game Freak

The Matrix Online – Monolith Productions

Shrek(2001) – DICE

Pushmo – Intelligent Systems

Justice League Task Force(SNES) – Blizzard

NHL 2K3 – Treyarch

Oni – Bungie

Tenchu – From Software

The Punisher – Volition

Wayne Gretzky Hockey- Bethesda

Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy – High Moon Studios

Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock – Supermassive Games

Urban Chaos: Riot Response – Rocksteady Studios

Bioware is one of the premier RPG developers around, and believe it or not they developed a Sonic RPG on the Nintendo DS. The title featured a world to explore and turn based combat, that let you boost damage by tapping the touch screen at the right time. There was also a fairly length story that took about 15 hours to complete.

Insomniac Games is, of course, best known for creating the dynamic duo Ratchet & Clank. However, there are quite a few side projects the team has developed in between their big titles. One of those is Slow Down, Bull which is billed as an “action collecting” game with a whimsical art style. The title has you controlling an overachieving bull to collect crafty pieces in an area, but he gets more stressed out an unwieldy the more you control him.

Pokemon is without a doubt the most well known games developed by Game Freak, and one of the biggest franchises of all time. Every once in a while, however, the developer will come out with an incredibly strange little title. First Harmo Knight, then Tembo the Badass Elephant, and now Pocket Card Jockey. A game with a wacky art style that combines solitaire and horse racing. What more needs to be said?

The Matrix Online would move onto be developed by Sony Online Entertainment after launch, but the initial build of the game was actually constructed by Monolith Productions. Yep the same company that made F.E.A.R. and Shadow of Mordor. The MMORPG title put players directly into the Matrix in the shoes of a human trapped within the simulation from the films.

It’s hard to imagine the team behind one of the biggest shooter franchises around making a Shrek game, but it sure happened. DICE handled development for the companion game of the first Shrek movie, that has the ogre completing “Good Deeds” for other fairytale creatures. It actually featured a separate plot from the film too.

From Software has a huge portfolio of titles from across their history, with the Dark Souls series being the most well known. You might be surprised to hear, however, that From  has also assisted with development on a number of Tenchu titles. They haven’t necessarily been the primary developer but have assisted with titles in the series like Wrath of Heaven, Fatal Shadows, and Dark Secret.

Before giving the  Saints Row series a superpowered makeover, Volition worked with one other hero, The Punisher. The PS2 and Xbox title blended elements of stealth, exploration, and combat together in loose adaption of the 2004 film. There was even a system that allowed The Punisher to interrogate and torture enemies in certain areas. How fitting.

Rocksteady Studios has developed one game outside of their Batman titles, and that’s Urban Chaos: Riot Response. It released in 2006 and followed Nick Mason, a member of the newly formed “T-Zero” riot response team. Mason has to engage members of the dangerous Burners and save who he can as they attack civilians, police officers, firefighters, and anyone else.