Townspeople rejoice! That odd platformer that came bundled in with your OG Xbox is now on your Nintendo Switch. Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee was the third entry in the Oddworld franchise. It was also the first to feature a new addition to the playable inhabitants of Oddworld, the titular Munch.
Whilst the gameplay between protagonists was similar, it provided a 3D platforming twist on a cult classic. Nostalgia glasses are recommended for the optimal experience but Munch’s Oddysee has a narrative catch-up video so everyone is on the same page moving into the continuation of a gaming trilogy.
Ageing Alien
The good time goggles won’t forgive the poor aging of some elements within Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee though. Players need to be aware that this is literally a straight port with 16:9 support over the old faithful 4:3 aspect ratio. With all of this comes the bumps and warts of mind 2000s gaming.
Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee is a game that has players crowd managing other NPCs to attack enemies, open doors and other actions such as waiting and following. The sound engineers didn’t consider / didn’t have the tech to change volumes of NPC voices when talking at once, this amounts to ten of Abe’s buddies chanting all at the game time to open a door whilst blowing out whichever speaker system is employed at the time. The volume was mostly set to near-zero during the review playthrough.
Also, the mechanics and character mapping hasn’t really aged well. For example, picking up comrades to throw over an obstacle is performed by pressing B which creates several issues.
When using any interactive item, it can take a while to put the antagonist in the exact spot to trigger the desired action. Secondly, if enemies are behind a barrier or wall where workers need to be directed to chant to open said barrier, there’s a chance they’ll think you’re asking them to attack.
Keeping It Tight
Technical glitches aside, the control layout and performance is tight enough to stand up to modern-day standards. The option to invert the axes in the game’s menu is a blessing for some, including myself.
Such things are forgivable in a fifteen-year-old port to a modern console, but it wouldn’t have taken much for the dev team to pop the hood and iron out a couple of things.
The presentation however is dressed up with silky smooth frame rates and a decent draw distance. The textures, although outdated, look great for the time and work well with the level design shown throughout Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee.
It’s refreshing to see a franchise that works in both 2D and 3D with few control or artistic hiccups. And the lore of the franchise is both cheesy and dark at the same time. Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee draws on outlandish 90s cartoons to dress up the narrative with irony, understatement and sarcasm.
The end result is that Munch’s Oddysee is more or less a straight port of an OG Xbox title. It’s a decent puzzle-platformer that has its bugbears, no doubt about that, but for what it’s missing in polish it makes up for in charm. Bags and bags of charm.
