Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
Developer(s)	Oddworld Inhabitants
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s)	Lorne Lanning (director)
Series	Oddworld series
Platform(s)	Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Windows
Release date(s)	Xbox NA November 14, 2001 PAL March 14, 2002 Game Boy Advance USA September 24, 2003 PAL October 10, 2003 Steam Winter, 2009
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen) ELSPA: 11+ USK: 12+
Media	DVD, Digital Download
Input methods	Gamepad, Keyboard

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee is the third game made by Oddworld Inhabitants. Originally announced as a title in development for PlayStation 2, it was instead released exclusively as one of the launch titles for Microsoft Xbox. It is the second chapter of the Oddworld pentalogy, following Abe's Oddysee and its "sequel" Abe's Exoddus. All the four Oddworld games, including this one, are going to be released on PC through Steam in the fourth quarter of 2009, as part of "Oddbox", a newly announced collection.

Plot

Taking place after the events of Abe's Exoddus, the story begins with a froglike Gabbit named Munch, searching for others of his kind. Munch continually uses a form of echolocation to call for fellow Gabbits, reminiscing about friendlier times before many of his friends were commercially fished to near-extinction in large nets. Unfortunately, owing to the delicacy of Gabbit eggs, known as "Gabbiar" (a parody of caviar) and the suitability of Gabbit lungs to replace those of the chain-smoking, dominant-species Glukkons, he is the last of his kind. While looking on a lonely shore, he is caught by an animal trap and taken by two Vykkers to their massive hovering base of operations, Vykkers Labs. There, they disagree on whether to sell Munch's lungs or to use him as an aquatic slave to gather trapped animals for them. They choose the latter, implanting a sparking sonar device in Munch's head. The plan backfires: when the two Vykkers leave, Munch discovers he can use the electrical properties of his new implant to free the furry-but-vicious lab specimens called Fuzzles, and enlist them into attacking the Vykkers and their cohorts. With his new army of Fuzzles, Munch manages to escape the dreaded facility.

Meanwhile, the Almighty Raisin tells the Mudokon hero Abe of Munch's plight, and commands him to find and rescue the Gabbit. The two manage to find each other just as Munch is escaping Vykkers Labs. After they destroy two Sloghuts (areas where Mudokons are forced to tend and feed Slog guard dogs) and help natives fend off Slig attacks, they find their way back to the Almighty Raisin. He tells them to go back to Vykkers Labs (particularly appalling for Munch) to save their respective species. The last can of Gabbit eggs is being auctioned in a few days as the last delicacy of its kind, and there are large stockpiles of Mudokon eggs in the fortress, intended to be used to hatch slaves. They infiltrate Vykker's Labs, and eventually save the remaining Mudokon eggs. What happens next depends on the actions of the player...

Endings

There are two different endings to this game: the "Good Ending" and the "Bad Ending".

• In the Good Ending, Abe manages to possess Lulu and then used him to win the can of Gabbiar in the auction, leaving Lulu bankrupt, after bidding 3 million Moolah on it. Soon after Irwin and Humphrey return to the laboratory, finding a stack of explosives ready to blow. The ensuing explosion kills them both and causes heavy damage to the Vykkers Lab's hull and thus the entire floating facility plummets to the ground. The crash causes a total collapse of its economy and infrastructure, thus making Vykkers Labs cease to exist.^[1]
• In the Bad Ending, Abe & Munch are attacked by Fuzzles for not saving them from the Vykkers who did experiments or tortured them and made the fuzzles suffer. Soon after, Abe's head is a trophy and the Vykkers are ready to take Munch's lungs for the Glukkon queen, Lady Margaret, killing Munch in the process.^[2]

Special Quarma

Angelic Quarma is a variation of good Quarma which shows a bonus newspaper after the ending movie saying how the economy is ruined (requires saving almost everything in the game and not allowing anyone to die.)

It is possible to earn Black Quarma, which will give the player another newspaper telling them that Abe and Munch are done for; the Glukkon queen gets new lungs, the last can of Gabbiar gets eaten and the Mudokon eggs have hatched. But to get this requires the player to kill every single Mudokon, Fuzzle and Egg Crate in the game (except the ones required to pass a level). This is likely to happen if you just try to complete all the levels as fast as possible.

Gameplay

Abe and Munch fighting alongside their fellow Mudokon friends.

Munch's Oddysee was the first game in the Oddworld series to be in 3D, unlike the 2D Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus. Just like the other two games, the GameSpeak function can be used to communicate with Mudokons and Fuzzles in the game and is the only way to lead them into the rescue portals. A new feature introduced to the series is the ability to use GameSpeak to force friendly NPC's to attack enemies. The GameSpeak was also modified to fit the Xbox controller (see below). However, there is no GameSpeak function for the enemies you can possess, such as Sligs, which now say random phrases, like "Poo-Brain" and "You stink brother!" (and if the enemies insult each other enough, they eventually start fighting). This differs from the previous games, where possessed enemies had their own GameSpeak commands.

Abe's chant possession ability was also changed. In Munch's Oddysee it appears as a small ball of energy which the player controls. In order to possess an enemy, you need spooceshrubs, which are green and ball-shaped. They can also be used for opening some locked doors. Other new features include Abe's ability to pick up objects and people, and different vending machine power-ups, such as Expresso, which increases speed for a limited time.

The most significant new feature is the ability to switch between Abe and Munch. Munch has his own abilities, such as using his sonar to control the Snoozers from the control panel, as well as pick up grabbers. He can also swim in water, while Abe can not. In the Munch's Oddysee booklet, it warns that Abe can only possess Industrialists, but in gameplay, you can possess all the same creatures as you could in Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, and for the first time, you can possess Slogs, though the options for controlling non-Industrialists are very limited. There isn't a proper use for possessing non-Industrial creatures apart from using them to fight each other; however, the possessed creatures are usually the ones killed.

Backwards Compatibility

The game is listed as backwards compatible on the Microsoft website. However, confirmed reports are that shortly after beginning a new game, a glitch (which is easy to trigger) causes all audio tracks to become mute for the rest of the game, excluding the ambient "dwonga donga" tune and some special music events.^[3]

Game Boy Advance version

Boxart for the Game Boy Advance version

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee was ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2003. It was developed by ART Co. and published by THQ. It's a 2D Platformer and a third Oddworld game made for a handheld console.

Apart from simplified graphics and a new storyline, the gameplay remained relatively faithful to the Xbox version. However, this port of the game received mostly poor reviews.

References

This article may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (October 2007)

External links

• Official Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee website
• Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee at MobyGames
• Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee at GameFAQs
• Pre-Munch's Oddysee videos
• Official website of Michael Bross - The music composer/sound designer for Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee