Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee

"A very clever game, unfortunetly botched by the awful control."

Story
You are the last surviving Gabbit. You can swim faster than almost any other creature in Oddworld. Your wheelchair let's you move faster on land than almost any other creature on Oddworld. You have a speech impediment. Thus is the story of Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee. If you followed the Oddworld story thus far you know that Abe, the hero of the last two games, set out to free his fellow Mudokens from the evil corporations. He went through great puzzles, amazing graphics, and innovative controls to get there. This time you have two heroes, Munch and Abe, to help free the Mudokens, Fuzzles, and find that last can of Gabbiar to save the Gabbit race. As much as I am making fun of the story, it really is a decent one, filled with all of the odd (sorry 'bout the pun) humor we're used to.

Controls
Let me start with the controls, and a few words come to mind; frustrating, confusing, senseless. In my opinion they figured they could map every action in the game to the A button. Jump, pull switches, use items, pick up people... so on. It is quite annoying to try and do something with the A button, only to do something else also mapped to the A button. Why? I don't know. The rest of the main fire buttons, X, B, and Y are dedicated to the talk commands, and if you hold them he says something else. You use these to tell Mudokens (or Fuzzles) to follow you, work, fight, or whatever. The L trigger centers the camera, which is also quite a pain, and the R trigger brings up your Quarma and life. Simple platforming in this game becomes a chore, and getting Mudokens to do what you want is even worse. The control almost ruins the game.

Gameplay
Gameplay is sometimes a bit simple and mundane, to exciting and original. Most of the Fuzzles are very straight forward, that don't take much thought, because you have already done them, twice, three times before. The occasional original puzzle does pop up, and it's in the moment you figure them out for the first time, that this game shines so bright, it makes you want to go blind. The typical puzzle, though, consists of taking the Mudokens and slowly clearing out the Sligs until the end of the level. Or switch in the Fuzzles instead of the Mudokens, and you get the idea.

Sound
I can't complain one bit about the sound though. All the voices are, well... odd, but they are well done. The sound effects are varied and the background music fits very well. There is not much to be said in this department, as sound isn't very important to this game.

Graphics
Graphic wise, it is decent. The water effects are very nice, the terrain is well modeled and all of the bad guys are neat to look at for the first time. It's nothing Playstation 2 couldn't have done though. The environment is usually pretty colorful on the outside, and the futuristic metal on the inside levels. The only problem would be that all the environments, inside and out, are small. It would have been absolutely wonderful to have just a huge Mario-esque castle to explore, or an overworld of any sort. There was a lot of wasted potential in that department.

Lastability
The game will last you a little while the first time through, about 20-30 hours, and since there is a different ending, if the control didn't totally make you lose all of your hair, you might consider doing it all over again, although once you figured out all of the puzzles, this game can be completed in as little as 3 hours! There is no multiplayer, though I don't see how it could have been done anyway.

Bottom Line
All in all, it really isn't a bad game. With some innovative puzzles, decent graphics and sound, and a very amusing story, it's sure to keep you busy for the time you play it. If it wasn't for the absolutely horrible control, nasty camera, and the repeating of the same puzzles, this would have been a must have, and that is exactly the type of things they fix in sequels, so there is a lot of potential there. Buy it if you need something to keep you busy, in the puzzle/platforming department, don't buy it if you already don't like the Xbox controller, because for those of you with little patience for controls, it'll be thrown across the room multiple times. Do buy it if you like the previous Oddworld stories, and a different type of gameplay.
6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/14/02, Updated 04/14/02