Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee is a classic game that might be stuck in 2001 visually, but still is fun to play thanks to the story and characters.
It has been forever since I have seen Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, much less played it. It was one of the more popular games for the original Xbox and a big deal when it came to 3D adventures, as the gaming world was really starting to discover that bigger gameplay design possibilities were somewhat necessary and expected. It was also an Oddworld of a game that was packed with humor, filled with adorable and friendly characters, as well as social messages about class warfare and wrongdoings. Now, all of that is right back in your homes, not remastered at all, but portable on the Switch.
Let’s dig right into it.
The story behind the game is simple. Munch, a lovable fish creature, has lost all of his friends and is desperately searching his planet to find them. When he finally gets a signal, it ends up being a trap — literally a trap. Munch is caught, brought back to a lab, and experimented on. Abe, our other hero, is now out searching for Munch in hopes of saving him. The game focuses on both their stories as one is trying to desperately get to the other.
The sequel to the original is neat and in 3D. You get a two-player feature, where you play both characters, who have uniquely different abilities, though somewhat similar in structure. Both have two different powers, but both are charged with freeing those who need help, as well as getting help from those they free. It’s a neat helpful undertone of groundwork that pushes off a social message that we’re in this together, so we had best help each other. That’s certainly a message that the world needs to hear today.
Anyway, the gameplay design is simple between the two characters. Abe has to collect fungi growing on the ground to open up areas. The more fungi, the better chance that he has to open areas up. For example, if he collects 65 of these things and he reaches a gate that requires 60, then he can pass through. The game does its best to help out the gamer with the collection, as it allows Abe to sing a song and regrow the fungi if need be. The basic scheme of the problem solving here is that it’s a series of action puzzlers, which fits the world of Abe, as well as Munch perfectly.
The game also puts power-up vending machines in specific areas randomly, which is just weird/odd. You can collect certain power-ups to perform certain moves, such as obtaining espresso from a vending machine that, once drunk, allows you to run around the screen fast (imagine that), which helps you to avoid beasts chasing you. The power-ups come in various forms and are seriously there to make sure you can move through tough areas. It’s a very player-friendly game, to say the least.
Munch’s design is similar to Abe’s. The first mission that Munch gets into revolves around freeing fuzzy creatures from their confines in an evil scientist’s lab. Munch frees the creatures by using a laser that was implanted into his noggin (without his permission). The laser can also be used for various things, but each fuzzy creature released acts like Abe’s fungi, where the more Munch gathers, the more areas that are accessible. Again, there is a lot of ‘help’ and ‘friendship’ messages in this game, which I love about it. It makes it interesting and more importantly positive. It also makes you feel like you’re doing something great for a bigger cause. The structures of each hero, while cosmetically different, are essentially the same as the game goes on. It at least stays consistent with player agency, which is a good thing.
The gameplay design for each character is simple if nothing else. While that doesn’t do much for our refined tastes 19 years after the game came out, it does remind us that simplicity can just be as entertaining as complication. This game was also the groundwork for future 3D adventures that led to other titles that were bigger in scope. Oddworld showed that having a completely enormous 3D world without many boundaries is an attractive design for gamers to lose themselves in. It certainly paved the way for bigger worlds like a Skyrim or Fallout.
Does that mean we should forgive it for its age? Not exactly. While the humor is wonderful, the characters are memorable, the puzzles and power-ups fun, and while you can see the early scratches of large adventures, what it looks like now shows that the world wasn’t filled full of life. There are a lot of empty spaces in this game, which could be teeming with life and corrected with a remastering job. The game also contains a lot of ugly untouched 2001 textures that clearly came from a time period where stiff trees were acceptable environmental decorations. It certainly is a 2001 game from top to bottom. For game enthusiasts that love history, this game is well preserved in its time period, much like seeing Austin Powers in a block of ice. For folks exploring Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee’s for the first time, it might be a jarring downgrade to what they’re used to seeing in games, as the game has very much aged. For me, that’s not a dealbreaker at all, but it certainly could have been a good opportunity to let this title shine again on a newer console.
Having said all that, the game is still very much fun. It still has its charm and it still works for what it’s really trying to do — tell a fun story and convey a social message.
Overall, Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee is a classic game that might be stuck in 2001 visually, but still is fun to play thanks to the story and characters.
