Ah yes, the Oddworld series, the wacky brother of all those 90s action platformers. You thought Earthworm Jim and Rayman were a bit strange, try again. For those unfamiliar, The Oddworld franchise is one of the good old days and has gained a large cult following over the years. Munch’s Oddysee is the third installment in the series, following up on the events after both Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exodus. Does it still pack a punch after all these years? Let’s find out.
Oddworld Recap:
So for those unfamiliar with the whole Oddworld franchise, let’s do a quick recap first:
Oddworld is the name of the planet on which all four Oddworld Inhabitants games are based, extant in another dimension. The planet was initially described as ten times the size of Earth. Still, Oddworld Inhabitants’ president and creative developer Lorne Lanning have since explained that Oddworld’s surface area is ten times the size of Earth’s, given that Oddworld is predominantly a dry-land planet and Earth is primarily water-covered. It has its sun and thus its orbit resulting in a unique clock and calendar. At some point, the planet suffered huge natural turmoils that resulted in volcanic crusts forming a new layer upon the entire world. When that crust collapsed, it created giant 1000-foot craters all over the planet. The planet has a total of three layers, each with its climate, temperature and gravitational levels. The giant holes were then used by the various Oddworld species to house their cities, whose tips could be seen protruding above the crust surface when looking across the landscape.
Only one of Oddworld’s continents has been featured in the games – Mudos – and only a tiny fraction of Mudos has been seen in-game. The journeys of Abe through Abe’s Oddysee, Abe’s Exoddus, and Munch’s Oddysee take him through that small portion, composed of fields, jungles, deserts, caverns, and swamps. Industrialist species decimate much of the planet for their profit; city-sized factories and mass transit systems represent this. (Thanks to the official Oddworld website for the needed information).
Oddworld Munch’s Oddysee:
Alright, up to speed? Let’s dive into this particular entry. Like I mentioned before – the Oddworld series starts with Abe’s Oddysee; At the beginning of this game, Abe is a happy, ignorant worker at RuptureFarms, a meat-packing plant, but discovers that the plant’s boss Molluck the Glukkon has decided to use the factory’s Mudokon slaves as a source of meat. At the end of the game’s introductory sequence, which is a retrospective voice-over by Abe, he runs for his life. Abe’s Exoddus begins where Abe’s Oddysee ends. Abe’s abilities in this game were similar to his skills in the first game, with an expanded ability to communicate with other characters in the world using GameSpeak. Here, Abe is informed by ghosts of his species that Necrum, a Mudokon burial ground, is being excavated by Glukkons, using blind Mudokons as slaves.
Fast forward again; Following the events of Abe’s Exoddus, the Glukkons commercially harvest the froglike Gabbits nearly to extinction, collecting them for their eggs, to create a caviar-based delicacy called “Gabbier,” and their lungs, needed to replace their own because of their excessive chain-smoking habit. Munch, the last surviving Gabbit, is captured and brought to Vykkers Labs, a floating research fortress, where the Vykkers prepare to harvest his lungs for the Glukkon queen, Lady Margaret. After having an electronic device attached to his head, Munch finds he can use it to help break free captured Fuzzles, who help him to break free from his confinement. At the same time, the Mudokon hero Abe is instructed by the “Almighty Raisin,” an ancient oracular creature, to find and rescue Munch upon learning of his predicament. Abe reaches the Lab, just as Munch manages to escape via a waste chute, and work together to return to the Raisin.
Hidden in plain sight:
Munch’s Oddysee has a cool feature, hidden in plain sight – you can either start the game or watch a cool video about the start of the game and how everything came to be (kind of like the whole story you just read, but then in cutscene form). The entire game is sown together with cutscenes, a nifty feature that adds to the 90’s nostalgia. Although the game is named after Much, the Oddworld variant of walking caviar, you start with Abe. While researching the area surrounding the laboratory, you get a … visit from a spiritual priest-like fellow who claims to help you with your quest – give to you by the almighty Raisin (yes, I know).
Controlling Abe felt a little bit sluggish at first, but once I had a hang of the controls, it worked fine. For returning players, this is the ‘first’ time that Abe is playable in 3D, with a change to its chant/possession ability as well. Upon reaching the outskirts of the Lab, you gain the ability to control specific NPCs, which appears as a small ball of energy that the player controls. You can only generate these mind-controlling balls by the collection of the spherical ‘spooceshrubs,’ which may also be used for opening some locked doors. Other new features include Abe’s ability to pick up objects and people and different vending machines, which supply new skills for a brief moment, mostly in the form of coffee canisters.
“The entire game is sown together with cutscenes, a nifty feature that adds to the 90’s nostalgia.”
The most significant new feature added to this particular entry is the ability to switch control between Abe and Munch. Munch has his skills, such as using his sonar to control the Snoozers from the control panel, as well as pick up grabbers. He can also swim in the water, while Abe can not. Playing with Munch felt like a breeze, and the graphical shift between the first ‘Abe’ section and the ‘Munch’ section was a bit too big. I know this is a remastered version and that the Abe part was rendered in an open-world setting, while Munch’s was being controlled in a factory setting (less loading), but still – the difference was too big. Luckily this graphical … error? was fixed after said segment, and I was thrown into my ‘tales of two brothers’ gameplay. Controlling both Abe and Munch, mind-bending, and swimming my way through enemy territory in search of a solution to our mutual problem.
Gotta collect them all:
One thing you have to keep in mind while playing Munch’s Oddysee is that you need to collect everything you see and try to rescue as much as possible. If you don’t, you might end up with ‘a Black Quarma Rating’ – if the player fails to save enough Fuzzles and Mudokon scrubs, achieving the level of “Black Quarma,” the game ends when the pair find themselves ambushed by the Fuzzles. The latter turn on them for not rescuing their kind from the Vykkers. As a result, Abe is killed and has his head displayed as a trophy, while Munch is killed by the Vykkers while extracting his lungs for Lady Margaret.
Luckily there is also the other side of the medallion:
If the player has saved a reasonable number of Fuzzles, and Mudkons scrubs, the pair begin working to rescue the eggs of the Mudokons before the auction is to take place, sending them to a transport commandeered by Abe’s fellow Mudokons. Eventually, the pair manipulate Lulu to attend the auction and take part in it, with Abe managing to maintain control on him win the auction. In the resulting chaos, the pair rescue the can of Gabbiar and escape from the Labs.
The main problem with the whole Oddworld series is that it was designed as a series of five video games, the Oddworld Quintology, with each game introducing a new hero. He would join the existing band of revolutionaries on their journey to put an end to the exploitation of cultures, people, and the natural world by profiteering capitalists. Munch’s Oddysee is the actual second Quintology title. But somewhere halfway in production of said title, the decision was made to switch to movies instead of games. This is still felt throughout Munch’s Oddysee, which makes it suffers from a lack of variety and an overabundance of repetition that keeps this game from genuinely shining as I wished it would.
Conclusion:
Once you get the hang of the mechanics and controls, Munch’s Oddysee is a fun trip down nostalgia lane. And that’s where it should be, nostalgia lane – I just wish they had polished it a bit more, instead of leaving it hanging like this. For those who have never played or heard about Oddworld (except Stranger’s Wrath of the latest installment, on route for release this year ‘Soulstorm’), this probably won’t be a title that many people will pick up. On the other hand, most of the people I know with a Switch are from the ’80s and ’90s and grew up on titles like these. Why not revisit them, even if it’s just for nostalgia-sake. Or if you are into the 90s and early 00s action-adventure platformers from the PlayStation and Xbox era (like Sphinx), this one might be one to keep an eye out for.
