The long-awaited second game on Oddworld Quintology, Xbox launch title Munch's Oddysee had a lot at stake. Poached by Microsoft to strengthen its new console, which has sold so much, we expected a lot from this long-awaited adventure; previous acclaimed title Abe's exodus Munch then promised with Oddyse de SqueekTo be continued, not to mention an unknown number of promised "bonus games", of which Exoddus was the first.
Of course, the hindsight shows that in a business as malleable as video games, you probably shouldn't be making big promises, and of course, the Oddworld series has derailed with games like Wrath of the stranger and a group of canceled quotas like Strange hand, Storm and Fangus Klot's brutal ballad. Oddworld was a kind of commodity unfortunately forgotten until in 2010, The Oddboxx brought the whole franchise to Steam.
Related Downloads:
For the first time, Oddysee of Munch and Wrath of Stranger had escaped the limits of the Xbox. We've already seen the latter on the Nintendo Switch on a very good port, and now Munch's Oddysee has followed suit with a technically excellent version that looks great on the handheld and the dock. Unfortunately, such technical talent doesn't outweigh the sad fact that Munch's Oddysee is the worst game in the Oddworld series, and always has been.
That doesn't mean it's absolutely terrible or that it has nothing to offer, but the move to 3D after Abe Oddysee and Exoddus was awkward, with the game opening area immediately setting off alarm bells when you take control of Abe and run to pick up and use little green balloons called "spooce" to trigger mechanisms. It is not Verry much Different from the grueling tutorial from the early stages of Abe's Exoddus, but it is a clear reminder that the game design was in a strange place in 2001.
He learns to navigate the world, to use the Gamespeak feature that defines the series to control other Mudokons, and is generally driven to perfect extremely specific actions in a specific order for the whole opening. This creates a fragmented and inorganic feeling that never goes away; this is in keeping with the feel of its predecessors, who adopted the "kinematic" approach, which means that each step has been carefully measured, but not at all suited to 3D space.
In addition to Abe, (of course) you will be able to play the title of Munch in his quest to save his species, switching between the two to solve puzzles. They each have their own special abilities, but there's not much for them: Abe can own creatures like before and order other Mudokons, while Munch can swim and order around the Fuzzies Tribble . Much of the cooperation is simply opening doors to each other and getting Abe Munch to go through the levels. It is not exactly a mental expansion, and it all seems very important.
Game control is fragile and doesn't feel well thought out – use the B button for a multitude of contextual actions, and you'll often find yourself doing the wrong thing. Your position is so delicate that you will sometimes have to physically move objects from other objects, so the game has no idea what you are trying to do.
In general, too many commands are applied to too few buttons, which raises the question of why the Gamespeak system doesn't use a modifier like in Abe games, like holding L1 or L2 and then pressing a button to select the phrase. At Munch's Oddysee, everything applies to facial pimples. The Switch has more inputs than an original Xbox controller, so why not use them? For more precision? It's not a vintage arcade title, it's a disappointing sequel to a beloved PlayStation blockbuster. No one will be angry if things change for the better.
The camera tends to work in small spaces, which, as you remember, include most areas of the game. It's just part of the packaging with the annoying feel of it all. We suspect that at that time, the people of Oddworld had a larger eye box than their stomachs. We can imagine that this two-character game works on a larger scale, but the levels here are short and repetitive, and often require that the same actions be repeated without any variation.
The claustrophobic feeling of the environment could be excused as a product of compromised design on an unknown console, but not enough here actually works to distract from faults. Oddworld's traditional creativity and humor is present in the scenes, but you won't pay six times the price of the steam version just to see them.
It is a pity, because it is a great port from a technical point of view: it works at 60 frames per second, both portable and anchored, with a much higher graphic fidelity than the original Xbox version. We encountered a few brief difficulties during the hours we spent with Munch & # 39; s Oddysee, but in addition, everything was easy. However, we only wish that this effort was deployed in all aspects of the presentation. The menus are awkward and confusing, but so is the game. Most confusing is an apparent complete lack of subtitles – all of the characters have unusual voices that can be difficult to distinguish from the ambient sound, making their omission somewhat obnoxious.