Just Add Water

I've been playing the Oddworld games again. I've never articulated just how fucking crazy I was about this series I was when I was a kid. It's an easily (and perhaps appropriately) forgotten fact that the reason I signed up for OWF in the first place was to show off my totally-rad self insertion fanfiction, about some Mudokon with long black hair and telekinetic superpowers. Shucks. It gets worse.

When I was in grade 8 I had to write a story about a character named 'Charlie'. The point of the assignment was to create a narrative based on a paragraph describing an overturned caravan carrying someone named 'Charlie'.
In my version, Charlie was a clakker who had the whereabouts of some outlaw. Quickly forgotten about after he's grilled by Stranger.
I wrote an awesome little story, fanfiction or no. As massively awkward and fat I felt standing up in front of the class to tell it, they were rapt by my second paragraph. Most of them didn't know what the shit Oddworld was anyway, so to them it was just a weird little bounty hunter story.

Oddworld was my safety net. It was my precious, untouchable, purely individual thing that I shared with anyone but never explicitly wished for them to understand. It could have been anything, for whether because of nature or nuture, I would have found something to anchor myself to.

I've played every Oddworld game. My points of pride in this specifically are Oddworld Adventures 1 and 2 and the horrible Munch's Oddysee game for GBA, I've held them all in my hands. I had 'em all! I've bought Strangers Wrath Five times across three different systems. It's still one of my favorite games.

I just bought Stranger HD on the Vita. Last week I bought New N Tasty. These are really, really good releases/remakes. I was never doubtful of the quality of NnT, but I was worried it wouldn't 'feel' right. To me Oddysee and Exoddus (moreso Oddysee) always had this amazing, impossible to replicate atmosphere. I was sort of spoiled by how well these games played and told their story at the same time.

New N Tasty is not an approximation of Abe's Oddysee. It is Abe's Oddysee. It's such a lovingly crafted game. I really hope the community gets asked to provide vocals again. It would mean so much to me to be able to contribute anything.

Christ, I've been plotting out a spec script for SligStorm on the off chance that gets revisited. I always loved that idea, and I'm still completely enamored with this series, in a big way because it has this awesome, bizarre fanbase.

Truculent and contrary as I feel ALL THE TIME I have to recognize that I've been buoyed in my creative endeavors by how positively people are treated for working hard at their craft here, fan-oriented or not.

At first, this was my sabbatical. The place I could chime in on something I knew a bit about, start communicating with people. After it became clear I had a knack for creative insult it became my angry hugbox. People loved to see me go off on anyone who wasn't them. And this was fine, because I was a teenager and it's better I blew off my steam acting like King of The Internet than stealing or burning or injecting clorox into my asscheek, or whatever children do. Cellphones.

Then I went MAD WITH POWER and started insulting everyone. That was also awesome, but awesome in the way that Tetsuo was awesome before he turned into a gigantic psychic amoeba. That very quickly alienated some people.

I dunno,I guess I'm reflecting that this website actually feels like a place to me, there are people, differing cultures (OT FOR LIFE), I've made friends here, like actual friends who have been super supportive when I needed it and put up with all kinds of hairiness. I'm not trying to put it on a pedestal-this is a website after all-but it's also a community, through and through. It feels worth it to have stuck around.

Which brings us to the title of this blog: if any of you dudes from Just Add Water are reading this, thank you so much. You kept the dream alive guys, and not even the most reticent of fans could say you didn't deliver an amazing product with New N Tasty. The funny thing is, that name really grew on me. I thought it was really dumb at first, but it's spot on. The game feels New N Tasty. And I just love those Sligs. I've already paid for it, but I'd happily spend the money again just to play NnT on the Vita. So get on it!