What Is Oddworld? | Great Adventures Review

Oddworld started with in 1997 with the 2D cinematic platformer Abe’s Odyssey.

There are five major games in the series, the latest released in 2021.

All titles are set in the eponymous Oddworld, a world of non-human characters and unusual (often deadly) animals and wildlife.

Among other things, the Oddworld series is known for:

1. A world of fantastical and exaggerated landscapes, of natural and industrial varieties:

2. A mix of puzzle and action-based platforming, sometimes involving the ability to control your enemies, and often with the goal of saving groups of other characters:

3. A long-term series plan and development history with twists and turns, including several cancelled games that have attracted fan attention

The mainline Oddworld games cover multiple genres. The series went into a long hiatus after the release of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath and returned with a reboot of the series.

Game	Genre	Release Date	Hero
Abe’s Oddysee	2D Cinematic Platormer	Sep 1997	Abe
Abe’s Exoddus	2D Cinematic Platormer	Nov 1998	Abe
Munch’s Oddysee	3D Puzzle Platformer	Nov 2001	Munch & Abe
Stranger’s Wrath	FPS	Jan 2005	Stranger
Abe’s Oddysee: New ‘n’ Tasty	2D Cinematic Platformer	Jul 2014	Abe
Soulstorm	2D Cinematic Platformer	Nov 2022	Abe

A quirk of the Oddworld series is the plan for a five-game “quintology”.

However, which games are canonical entries into the quintology may not be immediately apparent.

Abe’s Exoddus, though the second game in the series, is not considered the second entry into the quintology, but rather a bonus game. Similarly, Stranger’s Wrath is set in Oddworld but is not considered a part of the Quintology. Therefore, prior the series hiatus, there were only two games in the quintology: Abe’s Oddysee and Munch’s Oddysee.

This changed with the New ‘N’ Tasty, which was a reboot of the series. Now the series looks like this:

Game	Notes	Series	Quintology
Abe’s Oddysee		Original	1
Abe’s Exoddus			Add New	Bonus Game
Munch’s Oddysee			Add New	2
Stranger’s Wrath			Add New	Bonus Game
Abe’s Oddysee: New ‘n’ Tasty	A remake of Abe’s Oddysee and a reboot of the series.	Remake	1
Soulstorm	A loose retelling of the story of Abe’s Exoddus	Remake	Add New	2

Characters

The hero of the majority of the games is the hapless Abe of the humanoid Mudoken species:

However, in two games different heroes have taken the role of protagonist, as per the above table.

Also, the species that work, roam and rule in Oddworld are almost as important characters as the heroes themselves.

Themes

The themes present in Oddworld games include:

slapstick humour
environmentalist heroes vs industrialist villains
exploitation and resistance of a slave class.

Oddworld also doesn’t shy away from some gruesome and disturbing imagery, as you will see in any of the game’s “bad endings”.

Mechanics

The first game in the series established a few iconic gameplay features, demonstrated by these short game clips:

Possessing enemies

Commanding helpless (ocassionally helpful) allies with “GameSpeak” and leading them to rescue

Most future games in the series (but not all) used both of these features to varying degrees.

With the exception of Stranger’s Wrath, all games in the series have multiple endings. This started in Abe’s Oddessey, where if you failed to rescue at least 50 out of 99 Mudokens then Abe meets a grizzly fate at the of the game.

Starting with Munch’s Oddessey, your success at rescuing the unfortunate captives of each level is called Quarma, and sometimes you will not be able to pay the final levels of the games without passing a Quarma threshold.

The best of Oddworld

The first two games in the series are usually considered the high point in the franchise and the true classics. When it comes to fan-reaction, we would estimate the following (I have not included New ‘N’ Tasty is it is a fairy faithful recreation of Abe’s Oddysee):

Abe’s Oddysee	*****
Abe’s Exoddus	*****
Munch’s Oddysee	***
Stranger’s Wrath	****
Soulstorm	***

Oddworld’ best-known creators are Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna, and most of the games are developed by Oddworld Inhabitants.

We have said that atmosphere is key to the appeal of Oddworld, and with that in mind we can not overstate the importance of the music of Ellen Meijers and Josh Gabrie that so effectively sets the tone of the series starting with the first game: