Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty

[Overcast]

So just a few days ago, the remake of a PS1 game called "Oddworld Abe's Oddysee" has just been released on the PS4.

For those who don't know, Oddworld Abe's Oddysee is a game released in 1997 which has you play as a lowly mudokon slave working at a meat processing plant. You find that the company's profits have tanked and have resorted to using you and your fellow slaves as their next meat product. Understandably, Abe, the guy you play as, doesn't take this very well and feels the need to get the hell out of there.

The game is a 2D platformer with puzzle elements. You can run around, sneak by sleeping guards, talk to fellow slaves and freeing them. Instead of directly fighting your enemies, you can use chanting to possess them and do your bidding. Which in itself is pretty fun. The game also has very unique and strange character and creature designs. From the skinny and malnourished mudokuns, the worm like sligs that walk around in robotic pants carrying guns, the tiny paramites that have mandibles that make their faces look like creepy hands. They all stand out and give this game it's own identity.

The game went on to having a few sequels and a spin off game in the form of Stranger's Wrath, which is a first person shooter/third person action game hybrid. That was back in 2005 and up until now, we haven't seen a new Oddworld game.

Just a few days ago, Oddworld Inhabitents and "Just Add Water" the guys who did the remake have just released a complete remake of the original game. It isn't just a typical re-release with an HD coat of paint either, they completely redid the game from the ground up (no pun intended), from the cutscenes, the graphics, the controls, everything. The overall premise of the game is still the same, and the level layout is for the most part unchanged, but all in all, it feels completely new.

The game will also release on the PS3, Vita, Xbone, Wii U, and PC later this year. Which is kind of a smart move on the creators' part, as they also want to remake Exoddus as well. To do that however, they need to sell 250,000 copies. And if the game sells 250,000 MORE copies, we'll get to see a brand new Oddworld game as well!

So to those who have played and loved the original games, and to those who have missed out the first time, if you have a spare $30 on you, please support this game. Oddworld Inhabitants makes awesome games, and I would love to see them make more.

 

[niggers]

my first experience was with strangers wrath, that game kicked ass

 

[Overcast]

my first experience was with strangers wrath, that game kicked ass

Yes. Yes it did.

 

[Saney]

When's it come out on Steam?

 

[Waifu]

I remember playing obsessively when I was a kid. I'm excited!

 

[Overcast]

When's it come out on Steam?

Unfortunately, we don't have a set release date. Hopefully very soon.

 

[tobacky_vapor]

This is going to be a definite for me. I've been a longtime fan and hope this gets the reception it deserves, cause the gaming world needs to see this world, rather than your bland mainstream game.

 

[Mogambo]

Sweet! I was just thinking about Oddworld the other day and how they don't make games like that anymore. Ah, nostalgia. I'm glad to know I was wrong. Definitely going to give them my money!

 

[Watcher]

/v/ I remember was really gearing up to hate New and Tasty.

Now the community is largely just split on it. Most of it is lumped into the "It's Awesome" crowd. The "You only like it 'cuz of muh nostalgia" crowd that appears every time a game gets re-released. And the "it's not on enough platforms and/or too expensive" crowd.

Usually if a game is just okay like Dragon Age 2 /v/ considers it the spawn of Satan. So if the place that hates everything thinks it's alright it probably is.

Anyway I like me some Oddworld and would also love to see Exodus re-released as well. But I don't own a PS4 so I will have to wait til it gets released on the PS3 myself. As for the 200k copies thing it's very likely to sell that amount when it gets released on more platforms.

As for a new Oddworld game. In all honesty I'm only skeptical toward the idea. Oddworld has been trying to reinvent itself since Munch's. Even Stranger's Wrath did something COMPLETELY different in a completely different universe. Are they just going to do a sidescroller or are they going to try something different too? Since if it's the former it might not sell that well since sidescrollers are dead in the water right now. On the other hand if it's the latter it might suck.

 

[Overcast]

/v/ I remember was really gearing up to hate New and Tasty.

Now the community is largely just split on it. Most of it is lumped into the "It's Awesome" crowd. The "You only like it 'cuz of muh nostalgia" crowd that appears every time a game gets re-released. And the "it's not on enough platforms and/or too expensive" crowd.

Usually if a game is just okay like Dragon Age 2 /v/ considers it the spawn of Satan. So if the place that hates everything thinks it's alright it probably is.

Anyway I like me some Oddworld and would also love to see Exodus re-released as well. But I don't own a PS4 so I will have to wait til it gets released on the PS3 myself. As for the 200k copies thing it's very likely to sell that amount when it gets released on more platforms.

As for a new Oddworld game. In all honesty I'm only skeptical toward the idea. Oddworld has been trying to reinvent itself since Munch's. Even Stranger's Wrath did something COMPLETELY different in a completely different universe. Are they just going to do a sidescroller or are they going to try something different too? Since if it's the former it might not sell that well since sidescrollers are dead in the water right now. On the other hand if it's the latter it might suck.

From what I remember, WAY back in Middle School, I read that their next game was going to be "The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot". It was going to be a game where you played as this creature that was essentially a humanoid herding dog that shepherds various groups of creatures. Unfortunately, the game got canned.

It's probably going to be either that or something called "Squeak's Oddysee".

 

[Watcher]

So I recently dug over some of the footage and development info about New and Tasty and I'm a little... perplexed to say the least. Here's some image comparisons someone sent me.

>Buggy and glitchy as fuck.
>Literally in-game ads.
>You now have a health bar.
>You can survive falls that would have killed you in the original.
>There are new sneak-crouch controls that makes puzzles and navigation easier. The outdoor areas after the start factories are now easy as fuck.
>Infinite throwables, opposed to the strict limit of only a few, so you no longer have to play their uses.
>Puzzles and levels layouts have been changed to be a lot more forgiving.
>Quote from a dev: "We wanted to make puzzles more easier to understand."
>Checkpoints have been scattered all over the place.
>They've had to remove rooms/secrets due to the new camera angles, and how it's all one big screen instead of individual smaller screens. All the Mudokons you would save in the secret areas have just been moved into the normal rooms, instead of making new secret areas to accommodate them. Some puzzles also had to be removed due to new camera.
>Quick-saving.
>Voice acting is inconsistent, also everyone sounds like they are on helium. Some lines are also removed (the "he looks pissed" line from the opening for one). Also, Scrabs sound like lions suddenly.
>You can't use the D-Pad to move. It's now reserved for the voice commands, but they also confirmed you can't change the control scheme for some reason. Who uses an analog stick in a 2D side-scroller?
>The levels are too colourful, full of life, lit up, flashy and glowy. And that's not forgetting the random amounts of bloom that have been added in. Not run down and gritty anymore.
>Inferior animations. Scrabs no longer start ripping away your flesh and stomp you into the ground when you die (which made them terrifying as fuck back in the day). Sligs no longer explode with chunks of their body flying out into the screen. Blood is no longer splattered across the wall when a meat crusher falls on you.

 

[Overcast]

So I recently dug over some of the footage and development info about New and Tasty and I'm a little... perplexed to say the least. Here's some image comparisons someone sent me.

While I can agree New 'N' Tasty definitely isn't perfect. A lot of these complaints are false.

As far as I'm aware, all the secret areas are intact. They're slightly altered to accommodate to the new camera yes, but they haven't been removed.

Throwables are still limited.

Scrabs don't sound like lions, they still stomp on you and eat you after you die. Sligs still explode. He might have been referring to a placeholder sound effect in an earlier build when it came to the Scrabs, but I can assure you, they don't sound like lions in the final product.

Some of the other stuff is somewhat true. In the secret areas, there are ads for other indie games on the boards that show how many mudokons you have left. Frankly, I didn't realize they were ads for other games, as they were also showing off ads for Rupture Farms products like Paramite Pies and the like. I can understand getting annoyed at that, but it personally didn't bother me. Now, if the game completely stopped me to show said ads, then I would have been pissed.

Fall damage is more forgiving for the most part, although I don't think that's a big deal.

And yeah, there have been a few bugs and from what I've read, certain people have experienced crashes. I personally have experienced one room where the mudokons would answer to me, but didn't make any sound.

As for the graphics comparison. I really don't see THAT big of a difference between most of these. Hell, there's blood on the floor in the first NNT screenshot.

All in all, these complaints seems mostly petty to me. While it is true that JAW could have done certain things a bit better, I thought they did a great job at remaking the game.