#Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty

[zachsgamejournal]

COMPLETED: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee New 'n' Tasty

Within the past couple of years I played through the original again and absolutely loved it (to the best of of memory). While the vibe is great, and I'm pumped for more Oddworld, I was disappointed in what I hoped to be the definitive version of Abe's first adventure...

I was surprised that I chose to play this game. But having beaten Kena: Bridge of Spirits--I needed more beautiful adventures: NOW! I kinda new I was going to be playing Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath next--but those games are a bit graphically dated--and came out when we thought 3D graphics could deliver more than they actually could. So that desire to have pretty graphics, a great adventure, and delve into the realm of Oddworld brought me back to a game I wasn't sure I'd ever play: New 'n' Tasty.

Well...actually, I've played it before. I think it was on PS3. I was pretty pumped when it released because I LOVED the original. I was really excited to see the classic gameplay realized in a 3D environment. But I wasn't sure how they'd pull it off, because the puzzles and gameplay really is about these "screens". Probably more on that later.

What I remember from my first time replaying was that it was similiar but different. Because I hadn't played the original the world, I wasn't quite sure where they were deviating and where they stayed true. I only made it to Scabania before never playing it again (for some reason...probably kids). The game was cheap over xmas, and I bought it with almost every other Oddworld game, but I never really thought I'd play it. Yet, it called to me and I answered.

NOW, playing it again I have the benefit of having played the original fairly recently, and knowing that the original is a perfect work of art. So if I'm not feeling this version, it's because something didn't translate...and it turns out, things did not translate.

The first thing that got to me were the graphics. I was surprised to find them so bland. The whole time I was thinking, "Didn't they look better on PS3??" And my laptop is PS4 Pro equivalent. I think. I made it to the Scabanian temple before I found the graphics were set to medium. I pumped them up to full power and the game was much prettier. But I'm sad that I played the first half not seeing the game at its true glory.

This is important.

The art direction of the original is amazing. Quite often, the graphics were insanely realistic. As humorous and cartoony as it could be--some of the scenes are the most realistic and impressive I've seen in a video game. Unfortunately, there was a cost to moving to 3D on Xbox. The series couldn't rely on good art, it needed good technology. And while Xbox was the most power of its generation, 3D games still often had bland textures and block models. Some games, like Resident Evil Outbreak, were able to pull off amazing 3D graphics, but those were tight, small areas with restricted camera angles. The fully explorable world of Munch and Stranger had to sacrifice detail for freedom. Being released on PS3/PS4 (I don't know), allowed the team get more bang for the buck--but also using the side scrolling format allowed them to focus more attention to the immediate instead of sacrificing resources to render are larger world.

So yes, once I amped up the graphics I was more impressed. Even with low settings, they managed to transition many of the interesting, organic environments into cool 3D spaces. While the game clearly reuses resources, they're able to make each area feel pretty unique. This is mostly noticeable when escaping the factor at night and in Scabania.

Moving on from the presentation, I start to get disappointed...

The main problem with the game is precision. In the original, there's a station screen. Enemies within that screen can help you and enemies outside of it can't. There's minimal to no interaction outside of your screen. (I was thinking a lot of Celeste while playing this, how each screen in Celeste is a challenge that must be overcome one at a time.)

Anyway, in the original screen, Abe's movements were exact. If you pushed forward, he moved forward 1 unit. If you held down sneak, he snuck forward 1 unit. If you tapped roll forward, he rolled forward 1 unit. And if you ran, he traversed by whole units. This probably to some degree related to the use of a d-pad on PS1--but also that precision was necessary for the challenges you faced. You had to trust that Abe was going to jump to where he was supposed to, move where he was supposed to, and that "luck" was minimal to non-existent. It allowed level challenges that were very tricky, but if you figured out the right pattern of moves, you could get through it.

New 'n' Tasty lost that completely.

Instead of having set screens that have to be loaded, the game follows Abe like most 2D side scrollers would. Because of this, it's hard to know what the boundaries are. You can take over sligs, right--but in the original, sometimes the sligs would run off the screen and sometimes they'd stay. This set a parameter for the challenge you faced--can you take over this slig or not? Since there's no screens--it's hard to know when a slig is going to stay in range and when they're not. Same with the drones that zap you. Am I out of range or in range? It made each challenge a bit more organize, but that also meant there were many uncontrollable factors playing into success.

This was made worse by the controls.

As I said, the original had Abe moving in predictable units. No matter where you jumped, rolled, ran, walked--Abe would always stop at specific points on the screen--allowing you to plan tricky jumps and maneuvers. NnT allows the player to move slowly, quickly, or somewhere in between. You never quite know where Abe is going to stop. And, the greatest sin, physics seem to have a play. In the original, moving meant Abe moved immediately. But in this, Abe often has to build up momentum. This makes timing really tricky. You have to account for the build up and animations. It's like in the Crash Bandicoot remakes. In the original games, pressing jump made Crash jump immediately. In the remake there was a windup where crash had to bend down before jumping. Meaning you had to press jump a split second before you intended to. making jmping horribly imprecise. Same thing here.

One of the worst things, there's only one jump button. In the original, you could push up to jump straight up, or push triangle to jump forward. That meant you could push a button and know the result. Depend on it, even. But now I have to press forward to jump forward. And if I don't push it correctly, Abe could take a step or two before jumping--leading to my death about 100 times. This was especially frustrating at the end, where I kept dying from the imprecise controls and momentum build up. This was also really annoying when possessing a slig. They weren't as responsive as the original, so tricky sections often required me to think ahead. I wasn't able to react to things, because if you were reacting you were already too far behind. You had to know, ahead of time, what you needed to do because every action needed to be activated a few split seconds before they were expected to be executed.

This honestly made the game nearly unenjoyable.

The other issue is the story. The story and cut scenes in the original are near perfect. I rewatched a little bit and saw that some of the cut scenes had been changed. There's a great slap stick moment in the original when Abe falls into a meat barrel. As he's flicking off goo, he hits his head on a low hanging pipe. As Abe falls back into the barrel, he passes two sligs that would have killed him immediately on sight. It's a silly moment that adds some fun. These things seemed to be missed or not as well timed in the remake. The original's story was just so tight and precise (like the controls) that it didn't leave wondering what was happening, or why.

That's all I really have to say. It was awesome to see this game get a facelift, but the controls and curious storytelling decisions cause it fall behind the original in the key areas that make the game great. So the the pretty 3D graphics come at a cost.

[ohfugecannada]

[wiredalienvampire]

abe's oddysee au where everything is the same except it takes place in June

[sweetiefayce]

Oddworld: The Promised Neverland homage (pt.1)

‘Kay, so I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole that is Oddworld lore…and I was *already* a big fan of the whole concept thanks to “The Promised Neverland.”

Surely this has been done before, but I couldn’t help paying some homages to the series—especially because it fits so damn well for obvious reasons!

And honestly…this is the most fun that I’ve had with my art for a long, long time. It’s like I remembered what I love about creating, and even *how* to do it. I remember loving symbolism and the significance of imagery…like here? I loved having the plates act as a kind of sick, ironic commodity: like the Glukkons absolutely would sell off “authentic” style dish wares with which to serve their workforce up on.

And even though I’ve only been able to play both the New n’ Tasty re-release and Soulstorm, I had a lot of fun trying to kind of reconcile the designs some for Abe and Alf? Alf especially; I liked the idea of him wearing his overalls down 90’s-ish style because it kind of acts reminiscent of his old loincloth, but still keeps him as visually distinct as Abe or Toby.

[incorrect-oddworld-quotes]

Molluck in rupture farms after being hit with lighting: uughhh my bones! That’s it, I knew I soulda- -Violent coughing-

-Bigface teleports in to save Abe-

Molluck: who the- how- why are you doing this?!

Bigface: Happy April fools! :) -chants and teleports him and Abe out of rupturefarms-

Molluck:

[mr-nutt]

In this video, I dust off my old copy of Oddworld and try to see why I never finished this game.

[datcloudboi]

List of Video Games Turning 10 Years Old in 2024

Alien: Isolation

Assassin's Creed: Rogue (the one where you play as an Assassin turned Templar.)

Assassin's Creed: Unity (the one set during the French Revolution.)

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky

Azure Striker Gunvolt

The Banner Saga

Bayonetta 2

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea (the DLC where you go back to Rapture)

A Bird Story (a sort of spin-off of "To the Moon")

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! (is this a sequel to 1 or a prequel to 1? I forgor)

Bravely Default (in North America)

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (the one with K*vin Sp*cey)

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (to date, the last new Castlevania game to release)

Child of Light

The Crew (going offline at the end of March)

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (a wonderfully strange game from the guy that made Deadly Premonition)

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (in North America)

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (in North America)

Dark Souls II

Deception IV: Blood Ties

Demon Gaze

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

Disney Infinity 2.0

Divinity: Original Sin (from the team that would go on to make Baldur's Gate 3)

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Dragon Age: Inquisition (the winner of GOTY at the very first TGAs)

Drakengard 3

Earth Defense Force 2025 (EDF! EDF! EDF!)

The Evil Within (from the creative director of Resident Evil)

Fable Anniversary

Fairy Fencer F

Far Cry 4

Freedom Planet

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign

Hyrule Warriors

Inazuma Eleven (in North America. And digital only.)

Infamous: Second Son (as well as its expansion, First Light)

Kirby: Triple Deluxe

The Last of Us Remastered (just one year after the original version came out...)

The Legend of Korra (the game from PlatinumGames that you can't buy anymore)

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

Lego The Hobbit

The Lego Movie Videogame

Lethal League (from the team that would go on to make Bomb Rush Cyberfunk)

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (the third and final chapter of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy)

Lisa: The Painful (yes, really)

LittleBigPlanet 3

Lords of the Fallen (not to be confused with Lords of the Fallen, which came out in 2023)

Mario Golf: World Tour

Mario Kart 8 (the original version)

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (the prologue to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which came out 18 months later)

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Might & Magic X: Legacy

Murdered: Soul Suspect (it's like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, but not as good)

Natural Doctrine

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! (a from the ground up remake of the first Oddworld game from 1997)

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (yes, it got a sequel. I don't know how or why.)

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

Pokemon Omega Ruby & Pokemon Alpha Sapphire

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy (the last time that Professor Layton himself was the protagonist. At least, until the New World of Steam comes out)

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Pushmo World

Risen 3: Titan Lords

Sacred 3

Samurai Warriors 4

Shadowrun: Dragonfall

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (the 3rd one)

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

Shovel Knight (yes, really)

Skylanders: Trap Team (the 4th one)

Sniper Elite III

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Steins;Gate (in North America)

Strider (the one from Double Helix)

Sunset Overdrive

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS (or Smash 4 for short)

Tales of Xillia 2

Tales of Hearts R

The Talos Principle

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call

Thief (the reboot)

This War of Mine

Toukiden: The Age of Demons

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (this game merged the storyline of the War for/Fall of Cybertron games with the storyline of the Michael Bay movies. I’m not joking)

Transistor

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Wasteland 2

Watch Dogs

The Witch and the Hundred Knight

The Wolf Among Us (sequel this year!)

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z

Yoshi's New Island

[cardo-de-comer]

More Oddworld art please 👀

yay... just finished soulstorm and started new 'n' tasty so i suppose i'll draw more because i'm becoming addicted

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

last night i could barely sleep thinking about oddworld ps1. every oddworld game released post-ps1 (including the remasters) arent really that creepy. theyre a little bit unsettling in the stories and implications but the gameplay itself isnt CREEPY. abe's oddysee thrives on the darkness and the poorer image quality because in terms of actual gameplay, it's a puzzle platformer. the gameplay itself isnt very intensive for anything other than timing, which makes it even CREEPIER because it sort of provokes fear of the unknown. everything's a little bit blurry and incredibly dark and you never really know if anything's gonna come out of the shadows, because a lot of the time, they will.

the new 'n' tasty version is still creepy, don't get me wrong, but it's nowhere near on the same level. the story's still there, the ominous signs, but it lacks the genuine fear. also i know nothing about soulstorm and from what ive heard im not missing out soooo :P

tw for like. idk if i can call it gore??? its like raw unprocessed meat on the bone (the first half of the game takes place in a meat processing plant) but it demonstrates what i mean better than the image above

also to anyone who's never played before this area has chunks of meat rhythmically shooting towards the screen

[bosskie]

Molluck Sports

Yeah, you probably never thought of seeing Molluck playing Wii Sports... Me neither, until I got this random idea today (yesteday) and I had to sketch it... Oh, and yes, he has a golden Wii remote; he is a Gluk, he cannot just have a regular one.

It has came to my mind to sometimes think of how a Glukkon would be able to play video games but I never had an idea like this... Yeah, it's kinda tricky for them to use controllers and they should sit to be able to use both hands, but something like a Wii remote could be used while standing. Soulstorm Glukkons have those special 'arm holes' so they are able to use their hands 'as hands' and therefore they are probably quite good at standing on one arm.

I gotta say that my favourite stuff to draw is random silly stuff like this. That 'emotion effect' is actually an reference to the same effect used for Mii characters. Oh, and yes, I do have created a kinda cursed looking Molluck Mii but it's alright, he is still cute in a certain way. Yeah, I like those Wii games (all Wii sport/exercise stuff and Wii Party) and I barely have any other Wii games... I'm not good at getting into new games 'n' stuff, so I bet that that's also why it took me so long to get into Oddworld too since I had known it for many years before I found my interests toward it. I'm a person who just tends to replay the same games for decades.

But yeah, I imagine that Molluck is playing bowling here. Would you dare to play with him? I imagine that he ain't good at losing but he can keep cool when it's needed, oh and he got the wrist strap on, so no worries. I would at least like to play with him, love to actually. Also yeah, there probably ain’t video games in Oddworld but I just sometimes like to put Molluck into my own world, like here, when I create stuff about him.

I have also been back to Blender stuff now, doing a Molluck model. Just got the basic shape done, gotta sculpt it and then retopology it and do other 'fun stuff'... It's just a lot work, especially when I have never done it before, but it's what I wanna do. I'm trying to make the naked model first and then make him some clothing, like that his clothing isn't a part of his model, like I assume that in New 'n' Tasty there are two different Molluck models, a naked one and a clothed one. I wanna make him 'undressable', for realism and other reasons... This Glukkon is just all I want... I cannot help it, he just feels so right.

I have felt worse again but Molluck helps me to keep my head together and keep going, when my mind just tells me the worst possible stuff...

[bergwerkderbilder]

Tag Masterpost

I'm doing my best to tag and organise all my posts, so have a list. I usually also tag places, quest/tale names and characters. Will update the list with new tag series as needed.

endless Witcher 3 gifs

Kaer Morhen gifs

Novigrad gifs

Redania gifs

Skellige gifs

Velen gifs

White Orchard gifs

Witcher colour palettes

Novigrad in colour palettes 

Oxenfurt in colour palettes

Redania in colour palettes

Skellige in colour palettes

Toussaint in colour palettes

Velen in colour palettes 

White Orchard in color palettes

Witcher 3 Scenery - screenshots

Witcher Sacred Spaces - temples and altars ect.

more fandoms under the cut

Ghost of Tsushima

Ghost of Tsushima endless gifs

Ghost of Tsushima in colour palettes

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Scenery

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in Gifs

Assassin's Creed Odyssey in Palettes

Cyberpunk

Night City gifs

Cyberpunk 2077 in colour palettes

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy in gifs

Guardians of the Galaxy in colour palettes

Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn Scenery

Horizon Zero Dawn endless gifs

Horizon Zero Dawn in colour palettes

Mass Effect

Mass Effect 1 in gifs

Mass Effect 2 in gifs

Mass Effect 3 in gifs

Mass Effect 1 in colour palettes

Night in the Woods

Night in the Woods in Palettes

Oddworld New and Tasty

Oddworld N&T in gifs

Movie gifs:

The Road to El Dorado in gifs

Samurai Champloo in Gifs

Studio Ghibli

Laputa: Castle in the Sky in gifs

My Neighbor Totoro in gifs

Spirited Away in gifs

Star Trek Wrath of Khan in gifs

[wiredalienvampire]

Happy Birthday to Oddworld: New N' Tasty!!!

This silly game is now...9 years old...(christ)

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

the remake for oddworld: abe's oddysee is on sale on GOG for $5 rn

the original is going on 27 years old now and it's still legitimately one of the best puzzle platformer games i've ever played; delightfully gruesome visuals, tight writing, inventive control methods, and it's just plain fascinating on every level from concept to execution, from the character designs to the anticapitalist narrative

everything i hear abt the remake is that it's THE way to play (and given the introduction of an easy mode, where the new hard mode is close to the significant difficulty of the original, i am inclined to agree)

do yourself a favor and pick this one up, it's an absolute gem

[clobertina]

Oddworld hyperfixation go BRRRRRRR

Anyway... These are some Scrab headcanons I have that are random and don't matter to the Oddworld lore... I have them because I'm just that much of a nerd with Speculative Biology LOL!

-Scrab Headcanons-

-All behaviors I headcanon Scrabs acting like are partly inspired by animals like hyenas, birds of prey, terror birds (prehistoric), elephants, lions, tigers, and meerkats (fun fact! meerkats are the most homicidal animal in the world believe it or not!). To make things unique considering Oddworld is a different planet, I imagine female Scrabs being bigger and more aggressive than the males (like hyenas and meerkats), with them possessing longer beaks yet also having slightly less color than the males (will explain why further down).

-Considering on the Wiki, it states Scrabs are only hyper aggressive to Scrabs outside their pack. It makes a lot of sense honestly... It explains why they murder each other in Abe's Odyssey, Exodus, and New N' Tasty; while in Munch's Odyssey they are seen in large groups... However it's still pretty contradictory to what we are shown and told if you ask me. So, to make Scrabs different to Paramites (because Paramites are known for their pack structure and mechanic behavior-wise) I think I came up with an idea explaining the change in behavior in Munch's Odyssey!

-As I stated above, I imagine the males and females being different. To add to that, I headcanon (like elephants, just reverse the sexes) males sticking together in a group raising/protecting the babies. For males, they have brighter reds and yellows than the females in order to impress them for mating. In mating season, the pack will decrease by almost half as most males will leave when hearing the female's mating call. By the end of the season, there are only three outcomes; males returning with their newly hatched offspring (I headcanon Scrabs laying eggs), males returning with no offspring as a result of the babies dying, or males not returning at all due to them failing to impress the female. Although male Scrabs are less aggressive, they are still hyper aggressive to any of those they consider a threat or as food. Although female Scrabs are solitary and hyper aggressive, male Scrabs are quite social, but ONLY to those in their pack. They are seen often grooming eachother, sharing food, and some males are even seen caring for babies in the pack when another male is the father!

-For females, once they become of age, they will leave the Scrab pack and become purely solitary. The females while living their solitary lives will fight any Scrab they encounter to the death unless the female recognizes the sent of their opposer as one she has previously mated with (similar to a male tiger) or recognizes the sent as one who is related to her. If the female recognizes the other Scrab as one she is related to or previously mated with, she will affectionately groom them and, if they are lucky, hunt food for them (once again like a male tiger) until she goes back on her way. The female Scrabs are also the ones that initiate the mating call! Once the male appears, he will begin his mating dance. If the male fails to impress her, she will kill and eat him (like most bugs); However, if he succeeds, she will not only mate with him, but will stay around with him until she lays her eggs. Once she lays her eggs, she will leave to resume her solitary life, and the male is left to protect and tend to the eggs alone until they hatch. Once they hatch, he will lead them back to the pack (like a lioness). He is able to track them down by following the sent trail.

-Scrabs (like birds of prey) will not hesitate to eat their prey alive. Like prehistoric terror birds, they will use their beak to inflict incredible damage. Scrabs can also impale their victims with their beaks as if Scrabs weren't brutal enough.

-They may be blind, but they can "see" their surroundings very well by sensing vibrations in their claws and smelling using incredibly powerful sent glands!

-(These are canon facts, but it concerns their behavior so I'm adding it still) Scrabs are incredibly fast and can jump far. Once they kill their prey (or other Scrabs) they will often "dance" on their body... Possibly to make it easier to tear apart and eat. Sometimes when attacking, they may use their claws to pierce their prey as well!

And there we go! My Scrab headcanons! As you can tell, these are PURELY just headcanons! I'm a huge Speculative Biology nerd and I just COULDN'T pass up the opportunity to come up with behavior ideas for my favorite Oddworld creature!

If this does well (though I'm not expecting it to, it's just random thoughts and ideas lol) I might do the same thing here but with the Paramites next time!

[mable-stitchpunk]

I was just watching a playthrough of New N Tasty. Do you know how much of a shock it was when I saw the name Mr Ryce? I thought you just made it up!

Nope! In fact, it was that sign that sort of help spearhead the whole story, weirdly enough. XD That and the line Brewmaster drops in Soulstorm about union representatives. I had been trying to concoct an Oddworld idea for a while, with little success, but those two things somehow triggered a whole story.

[warrenwoodhouse]

PlayStation 4 Themes to try Out

Ok, so I was thinking a while ago about writing a blog post about my favourite PS4 Themes. Here is my list and I’ll update this post with new Themes every so often. Enjoy!

Dishonored 2: Emily and Corvo Dynamic Theme

Dishonored 2: Throne Dynamic Theme

Dishonored 2: Karnaca Dynamic Theme

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider Dynamic Theme

Dreadnought: Cargo Yard Dynamic Theme

Far Cry 5 Dynamic Theme

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Within Static Theme

Game of Thrones Dynamic Theme

Ghostbusters Dynamic Theme

Life is Strange Dynamic Theme

Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty Dynamic Theme

PAC-MAN Championship Edition 2 Dynamic Theme

PlayStation 20th Anniversary Dynamic Theme

PlayStation Wrapup 2020 Dynamic Theme

Suicide Squad Dynamic Theme

STEEP Dynamic Theme

Ubisoft 2017 Dynamic Theme

The Order: 1886: Airstrip Dynamic Theme

The Town of Light Dynamic Theme

Dear Esther: Landmark Edition Dynamic Theme

Until Dawn Dynamic Theme

Warframe: Excalibur Dynamic Theme

WATCH_DOGS 2 Dynamic Theme

These are my favourites. Check them out whenever you want.

Changelog

12th March 2024: Updated list

20th November 2017 at 12:08 am: Created post