I would not be the person I am today if not for Oddworld
 

This might be a little bit too close to Off Topic (or a blog), and I understand if it gets moved to OT/baleeted, but I felt that it was appropriate to post it here. This might be a little bit too sappy for some of your tastes, but deal with it. This is my heart over here. This is also an inexplicably long-ass post, so I marked where I start talking about Oddworld with an Asterisk.

Let's get a few quick facts out of the way first: I was regularly beaten, slapped, spat at/on, insulted, bullied and generally abused by my Dad until I was about 15. I assumed this was the norm for everyone and obediently kept my sad little trap shut. He was an ignorant, manipulative bully who thoroughly terrorized my Mother, Sisters and I for the duration of his 23 year marriage. He's left us wracked with debt, various psychoses and an extremely cynical view of the world, bless his cake-encrusted heart. He was a thorough and detailed vision of what I never want to be. He's not dead or anything either, his joblessness and failure just got the best of Mom and they separated in early 2010. He left the house calling at least everyone a cunt eight times. A real winner.

I was a rather lonely kid. We moved three times in the first 10 years of my life, and though my sisters who are 2 and 5 years older than me, respectively had no trouble at least maintaining school friendships and local friends, all I had were two dudes who lived on the same block as us before we moved. After that the best I had was this kid who lived down the road from the farm I lived at for a few years (my favourite place) who used to poach frogs and string them up in his room. My parents forbid me from being friends with him after a single conversation with his mother. 3 Years of nothing but green grass and that dog of mine who bit the bullet a month or two ago. You can just taste the nostalgia, gentlemen.

I happened to befriend a kid at school who let's call Rake. Rake was the creme de la crap of local Schoolchildren; we all wanted to be his best pal. But we had no fucking idea why. In hindsight he was kind of a chubby dumbass. One day, he invited me for a sleepover. I was just baffled. Partially because anyone would willingly want lowly, worthless Simon at their house, and partially because he lived a solid 45 minutes away on the opposite side of town. Through much excited phone-chatting, we got permission from our parents and I was carted off to Rake's.

Rake would later turn out to be a manipulative little turd who really messed up my perception of a long-lasting friendship in Grade 8, but who is also saddled with a teen pregnancy at this point, so the point is moot.

Anyhoo, Rake's house was full of video game systems and big ol' TV's and all the best toys. He was one of those kids. I was enamored with the concept of such a lifestyle, but something stood out. At one point he crammed a blank disc into his modded Playstation.
"What could this further wonder possibly be?" my 9 year old self pondered.

*It was as you probably guessed, dickhead, Abe's Oddysee.

I'd never seen anything like it. Since, y'know, all we had was a SNES that I frequently beat in mad, Donkey Kong Country-riddled rage.
It was bloody, it was gritty and it was so strikingly and intensely appealing to my (literally) bruised ego. Any adoration I had for this awesome kid and his awesome stuff was instantaneously snuffed out and replaced with a nuclear bomb of surprise that anything this fantastic and imaginative even existed in mass produced form. I had the opening monologue memorized. The initial Rupture Farms music has been stuck in my head for 10 years straight, and it will keep on going. I had never seen anything like it.

But the next day I went home, still in a bit of Oddworld-induced shellshock. That year we moved back into Belleville, and by Christmas we had a PS1. Over the next few months and under my machinations my parents were annoyed into finally locating a copy of 'That oddgame.' We bought it in early Summer 02. It was still sealed. I remember that day better than most birthdays.
I took it home and commandeered the Playstation for the following 60 days. I drew terrible pictures of Abe. I made awful Scrab and Paramite noises in public. I had fantasies of being carried off and nominated CEO of the Mudokon/Slig best pals corportation. Most importantly of all though, I learned an extremely important life lesson:
If someone is like you, be their friend as best you can. If something isn't like you, make it explode with your mind or throw something at it and see what happens. Or maybe just run your twiggy ass away quick fast and find somewhere they cant getcha.
So my dad's rages, his insipid little flights of fancy about deserving respect for having the amazing ability to eat more of our Halloween candy than all of us combined, suddenly came to meet some airborne obstacles and a difficult-to-catch victim/amateur pitcher (I wasn't always the giant sexy frankenstein I am now, I used to be quick little bugger). Yes, Oddworld taught me to fight back against an abusive, misappropriated figure of power in a completely applicable (albeit roundabout) way. I could not make this shit up if I tried.

Obviously puberty and sheer teenage defiance played their part, but man, after doggedly pouring my heart into this game, even managing to save about 70 Mudokons or so, seeing Molluck get his shit wrecked by a lightning bolt was beyond satisfying. It planted a seed of faith in 'what goes around comes around' that is pretty much unshakeable to this day. Along with you know, do good. And junk. I got some real good throws in on him, too. You ever seen the look on a grown manchild's face when his bullied son picks up a power drill? Beyond priceless. Cherish the thought.

Beyond my daddy problems, the scope of Abe's Oddysee. The infinite world I was scrambling around in. Paramonia and Scrabania were literally the most beautiful things I'd seen at that point in my life, and I still get a little teary thinking about adjusting the contrast up or down in Scrabania to make every single screen look perfect.. It taught me humor, how you should do the right thing even if your friends are drunken wankers, the beauty and utility of ultraviolence, how Mechanical Pants have downfalls, that there can be a middle ground between faith and industry, not to trust everything you're told...I could go on. You get it. I was absolutely, 100% coocoo bananas about Oddworld. It was my favorite thing. It's still one of my favorite things. Beyond wonderful, beyond nostalgia. Just...perfect. Except MO, well, even MO. I adored it when I finally bought myself an Xbox (which also happened to piss my dad off, sweetness.)

It's been a full decade. I've gone through countless game systems, copies of all of the games, various peaks and valleys of fandom (ever gone to the trouble of tracking down my fanfictions? Them shits were used as School Projects) and all sorts of other misadventures have fallen into my lap.

I called my local Electronics Boutique (Canadian Gamestop, pre-Gamestop) literally every single day for a month before the release of the GBA version of Munch's Oddysee. They thought someone was messing with them until I actually came in and bought it. I still love it.

If you're wondering what provoked this...tsunami of text, look no further than This Thread. I also feel like I've never really expressed WHY I'm a fan of Oddworld, seeing as I've been here for five years now.

And that's it.

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http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...0596220197.jpg

I just thought the game was fun

I just thought your mom was fun.

Edit: Oh, rep, well now I'm just a turdburglar.

Yeah, regrettably I'm too nice for just that snide comment.

I can't think of a good reply to this. I hope you'll be happy with some rep.

I thought about making a mock story of this, equal in length and detail, but the game being mario with the kid ingesting mushrooms and getting high and jumping all over his abusive father. I then decided that would be in poor taste and that I do not have the attention span for such a feat. I shall instead call your story inspiring and pos rep you.

Yeah Oddworld's pretty cool.

I liked Oddworld because it was one of the first games I played for my very own console in my entire life. Bless my Uncle for giving me his PS1. You ever get that feeling Mac, when you see like some amazing natural landscape and your mind flits to Oddworld?

+rep

My story is simple.

I played Abe's Oddysee on the "Demo 1" disc that came with all Playstations back then.

Then I was hooked.

I believe that I saw Abe's ugly mug on a copy of Abe's Oddysee game in a rental store nearby my house, and thought he looked cool. So I rented the game a few times, but never owned it. My Dad later bought Exoddus when it came out, but to this day I have never owned Oddysee for the PS1.

I really think this thread should be discussion about how Oddworld changed our lives, not simply about how we found out about Oddworld. There have been plenty of threads for the latter topic and they're not near as meaningful as the former one.

Well, Oddworld has encouraged me to learn programming and CG. Besides that, there's not much the game has changed my life.

I became aware of Abe's Oddysee because it was a birthday gift for my older brother.

back then, we played the game often I guess. My younger brother got farthest into the game, but then I looked up walkthroughs and became the 1st to finish it.

My brothers never completed it. Currently, they don't like it because they think it's gay.

The reasons why are:

1. Almost all of the characters litteraly have no balls.

2. Relitively crappy graphics.

3. Not fun.

My younger brother thought it sucked because it was 2D.

My older brother doesn't like it because it's linear.

I'm the only one that plays the games.

I hope they'll have online/LAN play in the HD remakes as well as AIs to play with/against..

Oddworld has always been a big part of my life too. It made me and my dad bond very well trying to defet Abe's Oddysee on the Playstations and the videos that i've done as well.
I don't think it ever changed me as a person...wait no, I say hello in Abe's voice when i see my friends.

I am glad I played Oddworld.

Infact, I'm proud to be born the same year Abe's Oddysee was released. I can't really remember when I found out about it, probably when my Uncle brought his PS1 over. I had a babysitter whom I used to play Oddworld with all the time. Oddworld was one of the games that I searched up on the internet one day and stumbled upon this forum, I was particulary interested in the Oddworld Mario & Luigi Super Star Saga syled spritres thread which inspired me to create my own artwork on MS Paint. Most of it being sprites of course. I also have been recently trying to form my own fictional universe which was inspired by Oddworld and other fictional universes I've stumbled across.

So yeah, I guess you can say Oddworld is a large influence in my life.

None of you losers is going to make a post that beats the original. Stop trying to compete and just fucking appreciate Mac's post.

Me and my ego <3 you for this , but the fact that people are kind of opening up because of something I posted isn't something that happens everyday. Though I'm not sure I'd like to see someone say Abe prevented sexual assault.

I think it would be nicer of people to respond to your post directly as well as telling their own story, though. They just come across to me as "yeah well here's how it happened to ME", though I'm likely reading them somewhat over-exaggeratedly.

Also the posts "I just thought the game was fun" and (especially) "Yeah Oddworld's pretty cool" suck.

OddWorld hasn't really been a big part of my life; they're just pretty fun games.

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Sorry, intentional shit stirring.

You do realize I wasn't serious, do you?

Yes. That's rather the point.

Well, that certainly explains a lot.

Well, what is your excuse Havoc?

I think alcoholic mom and early dying dad pretty much cover most of it.

I was anticipating precisely this response from you. It's a sad, mean statement but hey, I can absolutely account for part of my anger and frustration with ignorant, useless people having root in the abuse dealt out by my dad (and people like him). It's no revelation that there are ignorant, bad-for-society sociopaths like him all over the world, his kind of laughable, fantasy-driven thought process doing nothing to help anyone but hurt and embarass those around him.

Hey, my dad's mom was an alcoholic too! Criminy, you two could be brothers!

Man, what a dick.

The first time I ever heard of Oddworld was when I lived in Perth, Australia, and my uncle Matt played nothing but Diablo and AO/AE on his PC. Later on, when I moved to England, I bought Oddworld Adventures 2 for the Gameboy Color and played it non-stop until it broke in the wash. :fuzgrin:

I'm glad you enjoyed Oddworld Adventures, I hated it.

It was pretty bad, Not as bad as Munch's Oddysee for the GBA though :/

I enjoyed Oddworld Adventures when I was out of the house. It wasn't a great Oddworld game but it was still fun.

I remember when I got Oddworld, which was probably when I was about 3-6. I was at my uncle's house, my uncle being a great fan of the whole gaming thing, who always happened to have the best games that I would otherwise never have heard of. It was late in the evening, and as usual I was playing on his computer, which I loved to bits, because of a mouse game of some kind, which I cannot for the life of me remember at all, and because of Moorhuhn, which also holds a special place in my heart.

I cannot quite recall how I was introduced to Oddworld, but I do remember two things. The glow of the slig's red eyes as I hid in the shadows for the first time and my uncle's awesome surround sound system, which really made every sound feel that much more real. It feels so unreal now, because I did not understand what was happening, but it was scary, and yet it was compelling and amazing. And fun. Tantalizing sligs by hanging on a ledge, then hoisting up at the last moment remains my biggest joy in the game, which was what I spent a good deal of time experimenting with.

My uncle would pop tips in about how to play the game more expertly, and that I was supposed to save the mudokons. I managed to get past Rupture Farms and make it to the stockyards. This was where the game really fastened itself into my persona. The greens, the yellows, they seemed so real, and yet not at all. Something about them invokes a feeling of wonder and amazement in me, even now.

Then I met a scrab. For me, a scrab was the ultimate thing to fear. If there was something hiding in your closet, it had better not be a scrab. That part where you had to jump into a scrab cage and run across? It took me ages to get past, simply because I did not think to jump up on the ledge. When I finally managed it, the colors shifted even further, into a deep purple which speaks to me of unnatainability, because that screen was always so difficult for me to reach.

The free fire zone. This area is memorable because all throughout my childhood, I would go outside, gaze up at the stars, always before I went to bed. If I did not get to do this, I would not fall asleep, according to my loving parents, both of whom were fascinated with Oddworld, particularily my mother, who helped me with the game, and probably finished a better part of it than I did. But I digress. The free fire zone was so beautiful and yet so creepy. The shadows of impaled mudokons, wildy twisted branches, barbed wire, and sligs always ready to shoot you, and scare you right out of your wits. Not to mention the very ambient music, howling wind, and crickets.

And slogs. This is probably where my fear of barking dogs of any kind stems from, as slogs would do it constantly, and would proceed to eat you. Then considering you had to make them chase you most of the time, proved to be possibly even scarier than the scrab, which I had just learned about.

And of course, Abe's moon. Without a doubt, the most nostalgia awakening cutscene I will ever witness. What can really be said about it? It looked so real to me, almost as if Oddworld was a reality. This is actually where I stopped playing, as I believe it was New Year's Eve, and as a result, we were going to watch the fireworks.

Anyway, after this, I think I tried out Abe's Exoddus, which was almost creepier for me. Especially since the first place I tried out was actually Necrum. Not the mines, but the jungle. With it's red tinged background, small platforms, abundance of birds, and... Fleeches. Oh good lord, fleeches. I don't even have to explain anything when it comes to fleeches. But anyway, I did not play the sequel all the long at the time. But my uncle sent me a copy some time later, after I had gone home.

I think Oddworld has helped to shape who I am, but I am not sure how. I just felt like writing a detailed way of how I discovered Oddworld.

One thing etched in my memory:

The primal fear attatched to the change of music that signifies you are on the same level as a Scrab.

Oddworld didn't change my childhood, it formed it.
Then I discovered Jak and Daxter and gave up trying to get past all those bonesaws in the brewery. Until about 2004 that is.
Now it regained status as one of my favorite game series.

Fleeches scaried me on Exoddus. They gave me nightmares, Horriable nightmares about being eaten alive.

I played on Crash Bandicoot to cool my self.

I'm fine now.

Fleeches made me laugh for some reason. Greeters on the other hand...let's just say that I first discovered my fear of clowns after being literally shocked at that electrocution at Feeco. (pun not intended)

Strangely, I was never scared of anything in the Oddworld games. Clanker from Banjo-Kazooie, however....

I was scared by the majority of things in Oddworld. Especially the part with the Fleeches in Necrum where you had to pull the levers in those rooms which dropped the Fleeches from the ceiling. Scared the hell out of me.