I can't say that this isn't weird.
I will argue that AE is actually a pretty dark game despite all that comedy in it's cutscenes. It's a lot grimmer than AO I think. I know AO has the whole Soylent Green angle going on - which is obviously nastier - but I think the themes of AE come across as darker. Simply because it's a more developed narrative. You have the exploitation of those blind Mudokons in the Mines, the natural environments have a haunted feel to them as opposed to AO's which felt like it was introducing Abe to this wonderful, natural environment that was simply being exploited. But in AE you're exploring dark burial grounds and tombs. It deals a bit with addiction, depression and extracting tears is pretty grim.
But it's goofier and funnier at the same time.
Whether or not AO was originally supposed to be like NnT, though. Who knows? But that wasn't really my point. My point was that since AE was actually a developed game it was a much clearer indication of the tone they wanted Oddworld to have. Particularly since it was released a year after the original.
So when they remade AO it makes sense they tried to inject some of that sensibility into the game. However, perhaps the problem here was that they didn't rewrite and redevelop the story like the upcoming Ratchet and Clank remake. Instead they injected most of this into the gameplay - in the form of idle chatter and ragdolls. It's a bit more cosmetic, ya know?
But, you know, I would still argue that where NnT fails isn't in its boost of humour but some of the visual design and sound design that creates a rather different tone than the original. Abe's deaths never feel as visceral, Slog chases and Scrab chases never feel as tense, Sligs beating Mudokons feel rather tame, Rupture Farms looks rather glossy (the dirty lens does the game no favours).
I mean look at that 2012 footage. It's not perfect but that opening segment creates a much different atmosphere - which I don't think some of the small injections of AE like humour would really detract from that much.
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