Interesting thing in Mass Effect artbook
 

It's not super related but I just downloaded the Mass Effect artbook and one of the concepts for the Krogans looked like this.

http://i.imgur.com/AW3Gyf5.png

Pretty cool and Oddworld-looking. Even has a chest tattoo thing that looks like Abe's chest scar.

He seems really confused about how he looks

Pretty Oddworld looking indeed

Thanks for sharing :)

To be fair the weird bits of skin and the holes do look a bit weird.

On the other hand I wish something like this was actually in Mass Effect. I've yet to see something with the same alien design style as Oddworld and while uniqueness is good, I wish the style was used more.

Ripoff or coincidence?

Ripoff.

Pretty obviously Oddworld-inspired, especially with the chest tattoo.

Is Oddworld popular enough to get ripped off though? Although Mass Effect came out in 2007 and it was in development since 2004 which was before Stranger even came out so maybe it was back then.

Oddworld is/was definitely popular enough to be ripped off, especially by sci-fi game artists.

Remember that Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus were both big hits, sold a lot of copies and won lots of awards.

Which game hasn't been ripped off by ME team?

I think maybe someone at Bioware was just feeling a little bit inspired by the Oddworld design motifs :)
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/...path-prefix=en
On the other hand, I've heard people say that the Headcrabs from Half-Life are ripoffs of the Paramites, but I honestly doubt it considering that HL1 only came out a year after Abe's Oddysee. It's definitely an uncanny similarity, I'll admit, but probably just a coincidence.

Headcrabs from Half-Life are ripoffs of facehuggers from Alien, though

Yeah Headcrabs are pretty much Facehuggers

I can't really think of games that have been ripped of by ME tbh.

Mass Effect sucks

That could definitely be a little nod to Oddworld, though it seems odd that they'd stick it on a bulky, warmongering species like the krogan, which is basically the opposite of mudokon culture. Although I guess it could make sense since both races were pushed almost to extinction.

The holes do make it look super alienesque, but I don't see them serving any practical use, it'd be too easy to break bones with so little hide or muscle to protect them.

Yeah he wouldn't be able to stretch out his arms without splitting all his skin. Pretty awful design.

I like the design, but yeah the weird skin bits do seem to make it uncomfortable to move in general.

It's not really an original observation.

Slogs look a bit like dogs.

youre fucking crazy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbV4NQbhnL8 (at 1:24)
The pet from Men In Black 3 looked a lot like a paramite. Awful movie, but good creature design.