Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
Developer(s)	Oddworld Inhabitants
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s)	Lorne Lanning (director)
Series	Oddworld series
Release date(s)	NA November 14 2001 PAL March 14 2002
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen) ELSPA: 11+ USK: 12+
Platform(s)	Xbox, Game Boy Advance
Media	DVD
Input	Gamepad

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee is the third game made by Oddworld Inhabitants, released as one of the launch titles for Microsoft Xbox. It is the second installment of the Oddworld quintology. Though the game is listed as backwards compatible with Xbox's successor, the Xbox 360, most people find that significant glitches make the game unplayable.

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 calls for fellow Gabbits and reminisces about friendlier times when many of his friends did not die to nets. Unfortunately, owing to the delicacy of Gabbit eggs (a parody of caviar) and the suitability of Gabbit lungs to replace those of the chain-smoking 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 sonar and a trap-opening device in Munch's head. The plan backfires: when the two Vykkers leave, Munch manages to use his new implant to free the furry, but vicious, lab specimens called Fuzzles (like laboratory rats) 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 several 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.

There are two different endings to this game: the good ending and the bad ending. In the bad ending, Abe & Munch are attacked by Fuzzles. 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. 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. 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 infrastruture, thus making Vykkers Labs cease to exist.

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 a game enhancer since Black Quarma requires the player to kill every single Mudokon and Fuzzle in the game.

Gameplay

A battle in the game

Unlike the previous two games, 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 sayings, like "Poo Brain" and "You stink" (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.

Pre-Munch's Oddysee

Munch's Oddysee was originally intended to be exclusive for the PlayStation 2, however this version was cancelled to make the game exclusively for the Xbox, taking advantage of increased graphical capabilities. However, there were many different features that didn’t make it into the final version of the game. The differences are listed below:

• Sligs were originally able to climb ladders.
• Abe was able to hide in the shadows like in the previous games.
• Sligs smoked cigarettes.
• There was a giant hamster wheel on which the Mudokons ran to power the machines in the facility.
• Sligs were able to beat up Mudokon workers like in the previous games.
• Abe could toss Sligs out of the window, smashing the glass, and making the Slig fall to his death from a great height.
• The Recycler was to have an LCD screen chart for how much meat and fat there was in the chopped up character and to also show how much of it was useful.
• Mudokon natives could grow trees by chanting.
• Mudokon workers wielded chain-saws for chopping down trees.
• Flying helicopters, probably similar to the Flying Sligs.
• A scene of a few Mudokons struggling to walk in the wind. In the same video it then showed a scene with an army of marching Sligs. The marching scene was kept in the game, but as a poor quality movie. The sligs are also marching the opposite way, which can be noted in one of the levels.
• A flying helicopter dropped a SoulStorm Brew vending machine which lands on a Mudokon. The vending machine then fired SoulStorm Brew cans at another Mudokon that knocked him out. The last can landed into the Mudokon's mouth, forcing him to drink it.
• In one other early video shows a possessed Big Bro Slig going to a vendor machine to equip the Blitz Packer, a weapon that can fire SoulStorm Brew cans and can also do the same effect as the SoulStorm Brew vending machine mentioned above, also in the same video it appears that Big Bro Sligs can equip a riot shield to protect themselves from damage.
• Creatures called Meetles were meant to appear in this game.
• The Mudokon queen, Sam, was originally intended to appear in this game as according to the best ending of Abe's Exoddus, it also mentions that Munch was to tell Abe what happened to her. Since Sam was being held at Vykkers Labs during the game, it is unknown of whatever happened to her after Vykkers Labs collapsed.

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 and published by THQ. It's a 2D Platformer and a third Oddworld game made for a handheld console.

It received a poor ratings and reviews, as many have complained about the poor controls, the music being skipped every time you leave one small area, and the lack of good graphics for the game when compared with the more successful Xbox version. According to the reviews, it was missing all the humour and charm that made all of the main Oddworld games so interesting.

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

Donate to Wikimedia