Meeps and Clakkerz are obviously sheep and walking chicken-people; I've never played MO or SW, I've just seen pictures, and those were my immediate thoughts. I can't think of a single thing even slightly similar to a Mudokon, Glukkon, Slig, Slog, Scrab, Paramite, Elum, Fleech or whatever.
The design of the environments are very odd, too, but it's not just the spindly palm trees and strangely-formed rocks. The 2D platforming environment is vastly different to our wide, flat landscapes. To me, Oddworld in fact looks less odd in the cutscenes where flat areas of ground are obviously visible: the desert in the opening scene, and the Brew and Happy Ending cutscenes. There are weird rocks and there's some curious architecture, but it's flat just like our own world. As I said, I haven't played the latter two games, but I'm fairly sure that the strange narrow pathways of the AO and AE contribute quite strongly to the oddness of it all.
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