Abe’s Odessey: Oddworld – New n Tasty… is the long-awaited new mouth-full from Oddworld Inhabitants. It came to consoles last year and PC gamers have been chomping-at-the-bit to get their hooves on it. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a reboot of the original Playstation puzzle-platformer which was much loved by nearly every gamer back in 1997. The story is simple but poignant – Abe must free his people from slavery before they all get turned into snacks for their evil overlords. The game’s comment on society is humorous yet scarily relevant.
Abe’s Odessy has had a huge graphical makeover – bringing the art up-to-date in glorious 3D HD. The artists have managed to perfectly recreate that original feel whilst rendering it in crisp 3D and adding sparkle with heavy bloom lighting. The sound is beautiful too – matching perfectly with the visuals to create an all-engrossing world which will keep you fully immersed. Though if I’m brutally honest, it has in some ways lost a little charm and detail when compared against the original.
Even better, the gameplay has had a tweak too, the control systems have been refined – especially in the GameSpeak department where things have seen a much needed overhaul and the the result is an impressively sleek experience. They’ve also added some tricky new sections and solutions to the game, to ensure it has some fresh food for all you hungry Mudokons who clocked the original. Everything about the translation to 3D has been done superbly in my opinion, and the very few faults that the original game had have been ironed out. For me this gives the game a King the Jungle status in the world of platformers.
So should you buy New n Tasty? Does Sonic have an odd penchant for collecting jewellery? Damn right he does! If you liked the original then you’ll love this reboot – it gets everything right. And if you never played Oddworld then this is the perfect way to be introduced to the game. Oddworld is a fun-packed morsel with a storyline that’s still meaningful to modern audiences and it’s absolutely loaded with character. The only reason it’s not getting top-marks is that it’s not technically an original game. Much as I love this version, it’s still only a reboot. Don’t get me wrong – I certainly think it’s worth your money… Abe’s Odessey New n Tasty is quite frankly the muts nuts… But originality (or lack of) has to count for something!