The title whose failure thwarted the original plan for the Oddworld franchise returns on Switch.
Creating expectation is always a double-edged sword. It can both move large masses to buy the title and it can sink it if the result does not live up to expectations. Munch’s Oddys knows a lot about that. The title that now comes to Switch after a long journey, was originally conceived as the second installment in the Oddworld series even before the release of its first installment. However, as soon as the success of the first installment, Abe’s Oddysse, was confirmed, Munch had to wait for his chance, relegated to the direct sequel that was Abe’s Exodus.
Both Abe releases were excellent titles that combined 2D platforms and puzzles with a very clever use of video and pre-rendered backgrounds to achieve an excellent 2D graphic finish on PSX. Nothing to do with this title, released alongside the first Xbox as an exclusive title.
Precisely the absorption of GT Interactive (the publisher of the game) by Infogrames, and then the signing of the exclusivity agreement with Microsoft for its launch, had a lot to do with the result of this game. This time there were the economic and powerful means to make a game that went far beyond the limitations of the previous ones and surpassed them in everything. They wanted to expand the scale and be much more ambitious.
The ugly duckling from the franchise
It’s extremely rare for a developer to speak ill of their game, but this title has that honor. “Technical and temporal restrictions meant that the title finally released in November 2001 fell far short of the original vision of Oddworld’s inhabitants”, states the study on its website, where the original vision of the study is also included: “a revolutionary title that combines action, adventure, role-playing, strategy and simulation, with driving, raising of creatures, environment management and useable addictions for the benefit of the player, day cycles and class struggle. ”
It might seem like there is a joke component to such a hyperbolic claim, but what was shown before launch was really in line with those promises. “Raise monsters, stations, tribal wars and a huge and evolutionary world to explore”, as he pointed out in his Reviews at IGN at the time. Obviously all those promises were left in limbo.
But what matters is what we can now play on our Switch: the game that finally came out that November 2001 for the Xbox launch without further news. A title already recognized then as repetitive, which managed to save to a certain extent from burning due to its setting and the prestige of the franchise at that time. A franchise that truncated and could never be the same again.
Munch’s Oddysee is, or rather attempts, a 3D translation of puzzle mechanics based in part on voice commands introduced in Abe’s Oddysee. Despite the title, Munch is almost constantly accompanied by the star of the franchise, Abe, with whom he combines to solve the puzzles that are presented sequentially during each level of the game.
Some puzzles that usually consist of the correct use of the skills of each of the protagonists, combined with the use of different power up. Here they take the form of drinks that we can take from vending machines. Abe is still able to talk to his fellow humans to sing before doors to open them, as well as throw them over obstacles, while Munch can swim and free the fuzzles, aggressive creatures capable of killing whoever gets in front of us, as well as throwing rays from your head if you drink a “zapper” soda.
Skills that, in turn, combine over and over in different variations to finally feel, unfortunately, repetitive, and lacking the magic of the franchise’s early titles. Yes it is true that at some moments we can control robots or cranes to vary a little, but in general the feeling is that we will be doing the same thing over and over again.
A soulless port
But that is not the biggest problem with this version, but the version itself. Relaunched on Android (in principle for Ouya) in 2015, this “port” (the word remaster is too big for it) for Switch is a slightly modified version that shows the graphic shortcomings of that conversion.
Thus, although the game looks cleaner thanks to the higher resolution, it does so at the cost of losing the lighting of the original Xbox, so not only is the setting lost, but the few polygons and the scarce one are much more noticeable. Drawn distance from the stage. The poor textures or the pixelated appearance of the menus do not help either, which are also quite archaic and with a slight waiting time between options. What was acceptable on PSX could perhaps have been renewed 25 years later.
The levels are interconnected with video scenes that explain the story, but they do consist of small 3D rooms, far removed from the open world that is distilled in current video games, although this should not be bad in itself. if it were not for the feeling of a continuity between scenes is lost.
Another huge problem is that of collisions. In a game where many of the actions are contextual, the inaccuracy when opening a lever, releasing a fuzzer or trying to grab a partner to throw him over an obstacle is enormously frustrating. To this is added some imprecise controls in general, with complicated jumps to calibrate, and a camera that has aged as badly as all the crazy cameras of the time, determined to offer impossible angles to contact with the edges of the stage and that will suppose us a nuisance on more than one occasion where the game asks us for precision.
Another annoying detail is that the game, apart from not being localized to Spanish, lacks subtitles and, regardless of the level of knowledge of that language, it is sometimes difficult to listen to the explanations that the Modokons give us at the beginning of different sections. .
It is even sadder that, as this version is a port of the port for Android, the cinematics (presented with a high level of compression that fills the image with artifacts as if it were an old low-quality video) were shown in the old standard 4: 3, when in said 2015 version they were re-adapted to 16: 9.
It’s a shame, because maybe this game, reformulated and updated, freed from the pressure that did so much damage to it at the time, perhaps it would have had an opportunity to shine among the enormous offer of indies as it could not do it at the time, but here we are before a port that worsens what we saw almost 20 years ago.
CONCLUSION
Unlike what happened a while ago with the fantastic recreation of Abe’s Oddysee that was New n’Tasty, Munch Oddysee comes to Switch with a port of the Android version that, although it improves the resolution and frame rate of the original release, offers an experience Aged and visually unappreciative of a game that already originally suffered from problems that prevent it from reaching the potential that its creators intended.
THE BEST
- The world created for the Oddworld franchise and the setting are still the best of the game
- The title shows some original ideas at the time
WORST
- In addition to having been criticized at the time, its repetitive gameplay has aged poorly
- Problems detecting collisions with objects that offer contextual actions
- Slow and impractical menus, more typical of 20 years ago, very compressed cinematic scenes and at 4: 3 … The port can be improved
Improvable
It can have acceptable elements and entertain, but in general it is an experience that will not leave a mark.
