PS VITA – Munch’s Oddysee was released 13 years ago, which was supposed to be the second chapter of the storyline. Back then, Oddworld Inhabitants’ game was a decent, playable platformer on the Xbox. But how does it work on the PS Vita?

The Oddworld series came, saw and conquered in the end of the nineties. The pace of the game releases did start to slow down eventually, and after 2005’s Stranger’s Wrath, there were mostly just ports of the previous games up to last year’s New’n’Tasty!… but even that was just a remake of Abe’s Oddysee.

However, Just Add Water (the guys behind NnT) did take their tome to update Munch’s Oddysee, which started out as one of the exclusive Xbox launch titles, but ended up as a good addition of the PS Vita‘s lineup – and let’s face it, the Vita needed this!

Quarma is a bitch

Maximalists beware! Collecting things (which was absolutely okay back in the day, so this isn’t a negative aspect!) in this game is important, as the game has two endings – if we have a bad Quarma standing, then we will simply not be able to tackle on the last two levels and just get the bad ending. To avoid it, there’s a way to avoid the worse of the two endings.

You will have to collect enough items to have at least a 50% rating of good Quarma – but what exactly do you have to look for? For example, there are the Mudokon Scrubs and eggs, not to mention the Fuzzle characters – you should consider taking detours to look for them. Remembering them will be easy… make them furry and ballsy!

Two

Before you begin the adventure, there’s something that I need to make clear. If you haven’t played either of the previous episodes, then it’s a good idea to pick the Backstory option in the menu, because this will give you a brief explanation of the happenings of Abe’s Oddysee and Exodus using their cutscenes. It’s short, but helps quite a lot to understand what exactly is going on.

But the biggest addition to the franchise was Munch himself – in this game, you get to control not one, but two main characters, switching between them is not a problem. The story of the last Gabbit and the hero of the Mudokons tie together: so far, Abe was the star, but now he has to share the spotlight. Of course, the two characters have different abilities: Munch can swim, Abe can control other characters; Munch has a weak-but-useful sonar attack, while Abe can talk other Mudokons into helping him solve puzzles (which eventually will be a requirement to do so!)….

Puzzle

Of course, what would a platformer be without some puzzles? Don’t let the three-dimensional view fool you; you WILL have problems with the camera, so you should line up your jumps properly, otherwise you might end up falling down the pit and die. It happened to me as well – several times, in fact… This is basically the main flaw of the game – if you die, chances are behind the sometimes horrible camera angle…

But what about the puzzles actually? Sometimes it’s just a switch or an order is enough to open that door, but there will be cases when several Mudokons will be required to get going – you will figure them out eventually. In this aspect, the game shines – don’t expect Silent Hill-ish tasks (the first game’s piano puzzle was a b*tch 15 years ago!), because quite honestly, Munch’s Oddysee was aimed at a younger audience as well.

Unique

If by some chance you can get used to the camera (it’s possible), then you will spot something else as well. Somehow I found the HD remake a bit… bland. I dunno, could it be because of the bad lighting effects? That might be the reason why I thought of that…

However, I can’t leave out the fact that this game is unique – and therefore positive – in several ways. The characters are… well, bizarre to a point, all of them having high voices and funny animations in terms of their movements. The game takes nothing seriously, which is a feel-good moment in the current days of several million dollar-budget games.

It’s not a Gravity Rush and it’s definitely not Uncharted, but an old title in a new coat of paint. If you haven’t played it in the nineties, then it’s worth taking it now. It can help save you from boredom on a train trip, especially if the train’s WIFI is shut off for no reason…

-V-

Editor: Oddworld Inhabitants

Developer: Oddworld Inhabitants

Genres: action, fun

Publication: January 2015