I can proudly say, I started with AO in like, 1999 (although I played the PC Demo as early as 1998) and over a year later I found out there was a Sequel called Exoddus so I got that for my birthday as well. And Munch actually (and Halo) played a huge part in the question what made me buy the first Xbox, but I immediately felt that the game was lacking something...
The 2D gameplay just didn't translate so well into a 3D world, and it had extremely touchy controls. Don't get me wrong, it's still a GOOD game, since it's the Oddworld universe, the great CGI sequences and the characters that compensate the flaws in gameplay. It's funny because recently I ran across some guy on Youtube who commented on a New'nTasty video, he liked Munch the most... I explained to him it was probably through nostalgic reasons, and that the strengths of the franchise are in the first 2 games.
As far as Stranger ist concerned, I didn't get that game until I recently got the HD version from GoG, so I'm looking forward to playing that game, I heard it's better than Munch.
