Why does no-one like Munch's Oddysee?

[GlukkonGluk]

In my opinion, MO is a brilliant game, but no one seems to agree with me. It was funny at times, had a very good storyline, it stuck to the traditional Oddworld theme, so why does no one seem to think much of it???

[Xavier]

It's part because of the disappointment of the fans who were expecting to find all the productions idea that were thrown at them in the final game. Much was expected, and finally not as much was finally delivered.

Also the game feels rushed, and could have been tons better with a few months more to work on it. But it had to be a Xbox launch game.

It just isn't as good as is could/should have.

[totor]

I think it's because in AO and AE, there's a deep and mystic atmosphere, which is one of the most important things for the Oddworld Origine. In this game (I've never played it, but I saw some video), there's more an "cartoony " atmosphere. That's why, as Xavier said, this game make a lots of gamers disappointed.

[GlukkonGluk]

Yes, it wasn't a dark atmosphere like the first two, but they did a good job at making it cartoony(the funny bits were actually funny)

[OddYouko]

Also the game feels rushed, and could have been tons better with a few months more to work on it. But it had to be a Xbox launch game.

It just isn't as good as is could/should have.

I agree on that.
I got through watching someones walkthrough today and I didn't find it fun to play at all imo. But to me the videos are the only thing I like about MO.

[Chronicler]

I myself LOVED Munch's Oddysee. It's just, compared to the first two games, it just wasn't that good. It has fun gameplay, a couple of cool added things too. However, one thing it doesn't have, is that dark and mysterious atmosphere that the first two games had. Everything is just too cartoonish. From the *boing boing boing* of Munch's hopping, to the Fuzzles themselves (Even though I did like them). Another prob. the game was originally planned for PS2 but everything was then quickly rushed over to XBOX. So basically the game felt too rushed for me. The PS2 Beta FMVs actually looked better than the final thing in my opnion.

[Ribeye King]

I liked it but it got a little repetitive and there were no hidden secrets!

[abe619]

In my opinion, MO is a brilliant game, but no one seems to agree with me. It was funny at times, had a very good storyline, it stuck to the traditional Oddworld theme, so why does no one seem to think much of it???

I AGREE WITH YE"
BUT XAVIER IS PROBABLY RIGHT!
BECAUSE REALLY ALOT MORE THAN THAT WAS EXPECTED.
BUT IT"S STILL A GOOD GAME.

[OddjobAbe]

Munch was my favorite Oddworld game, for some reason. I've never been able to put my finger on why, but there's something about it that seems more appealing than the other two.

[Wings of Fire]

Which two would these be? The last time I checked there was four.

[OddjobAbe]

I was referring to the previous two.

[Acegikmo]

MO just seems like an unfinished game.
The sound design is terrible.
Annoying repeatative sounds all the time.
And the level design isn't as good either. They could have done better if the had time, just look at how awesome stranger's wrath is

[DarkHoodness]

Everything everyone said here pretty much sums it up. It just feels like an unfinished game concept to me that has standards which are far, far below its 2D counterparts. It is a terrible game compared to what OWI were capable of at the time it was made, and it could've been better if they made different decisions. Plus they promised to make something sweet, and all they produced was something that tasted sour in comparison to what they promised (yes, I remember the hype. :P).

But I won't rant about it again. :P I've done enough of that in different topics.

[Sanssouci]

There are a lot of reasons why I do not like Munch's Oddysee

The stupid illogical story, from the beginning to middle to end and every ridiculous illogical task in between
The fact the stupid illogical story advanced the overall Quintology arc in no way whatsoever - but this is something I've only discovered in hindsight after hearing how Sam was to feature and etc
The poor puzzles
The boring unstimulating unrealistic environments (Mudos is now apparently made up of millions of small ridiculously high plateaus and cliffs upon which short green grass and stupid spooce shrubs grow)
The repetitous environments
The spooce
The abundance of powerups
The (bouncy) wheelchairs
The way mudokons magically transformed into one of two warrior classes - one of which shoots magical energy 'arrows'
The stupid egg resurrection system
The fact sligs mysteriously use non-lethal ammunition
The cartooniness
The blue fog
Poor graphics - characters were each only about 10 polygons large, with 10x10px textures
Some of the character design
The lack of FMV's and the abundance of Newspapers
The lack of any AI
The awful music and overrall sound design
The changes to established species - including scrab behaviour, paramite behaviour, slig behaviour, mudokon behaviour (etc)
The fact that everything I disliked about it was better in OWI's earlier games. Munch's Oddysee featured absolutely no improvement or progression whatsoever

[Fuzzle Guy]

Munch's Oddysee featured absolutely no improvement or progression whatsoever

It was Oddworld Inhabitants introduction to 3D...

I agree with most of the things you've said actually. But I prefer the way that Mudokons are in MO.

[GlukkonGluk]

Well, it would have been less popular if it was 2-D. The storyline isn't that illogical, but i suppose that depends on your point of view. Also, the previous games had their"cartoony" moments too, such as the final movie at the end of AE when Alf is doing a speech.

[Fuzzle Guy]

Well, it would have been less popular if it was 2-D. The storyline isn't that illogical, but i suppose that depends on your point of view. Also, the previous games had their"cartoony" moments too, such as the final movie at the end of AE when Alf is doing a speech.

I don't see how that's cartoony. People give speaches in real life too you know.

[Jordan]

I don't mind it. It was a lot of fun to play, but never gave off the Oddworld feel, if you know what I mean.

[DarkHoodness]

Sanssouci, I really agree with everything you said. :P

And one last thing. Don't forget guys, that OWI worked 3 years on MO.

3. Three. Drei. Troi.

T.H.R.E.E.

And that's all we got. Even Alector switched on her German version of MO today to test if it'd be in English, because we changed the X-Box language to English and some games change thier language accordingly. It works with Fable and Stranger, but it doesn't work with MO. She got bored by simply looking at the intro and turned it off, vowing to never touch it again. And she's a hardcore Oddworld fan - Look at the stuff she draws.

Doesn't that say everything? They could've made something better.

[MeechShrykull1029]

What? I was planning to play it!

[Xavier]

Well, go then, it's still a descent game...

Just not as good as we expected.

[voodoo]

Well I haven't played it yet because i never had an xbox but from what ive heard about it. my gripe would be that you take over 20 bullets to die by a slig, and the crappy gamespeak. such as sligs only have pathetic insults.. I prefered when sligs were silent and had a cool gamespeak(calling people names and vice versa isn't funny to me its just childish).

Well thats it for now I will think of some more when I actually play the game but I only have a 360 but I heard there is a problem with the backward compatibility, so I will have a reduced experience anyways

[Moosh da Outlaw]

MO wasn't exactly bad, it just wasn't wonderful either. There was so much more they could've added to it that the game feels somewhat hollow. I enjoyed playing it, but when it was over I was left sitting there going 'Wait, thats it? Its over?'
In short: MO had tons of potential that just fell through. Its dissapointing.

[OddYouko]

How come they had to rush with MO anyway?

[Wil]

They had to deliver the game in time for the Xbox release.

[mudling]

Along with everything else has said, it's like KOTOR 1 and KOTOR 2.
I played KOTOR 2 first and loved it, but the people who played KOTOR 1 had higher expectations, in that, they wanted what KOTOR provided, and not neccerarily anything different to replace this.
The Abe games opened us up to a fantastic dark and witty universe, then MO comes along, and altough it has it's good bits (Which everyone playing it as their first OW game will see), the OW fans will compare it to their other games, and in terms of the dark tone, etc. it lacked this.
Lorne himself is unhappy with this, becuase like everyone has said, the whole PS2- Xbox thing, and time restraints.
When I first played MO I loved it, then it got tedious for me.
You could also say that puzzle games have a harder time adjusting to the 3d format, it's only now that games are truley able to crack it (i.e. Portal).

Hope that was clear, I have a habbit of confusing people.

[Gastje]

I do like it, but I like it way less due to the gameplay being different then Abe's Oddysee and Exoduss. It was 2D, which made it pretty difficult and plus the unique gameplay (rescuing others, no offensive weapons and just the power to controle others) it was one in a million.
IMO, Munch Oddysee ruined the gamplay by becoming 3D.

[Oddey]

I like it but compared to the first two it's just not really so good. First reason is the lack of creepy atmosphere. While some of the industrial places brought sparks of the fire back, it just didn't work as well. And the cartoony moments... Well sure they were funny (I laughed so hard at the shaman.) But there were way too many of these moments. The puzzle theme we were used to was ripped away entirely. There was so much that I thought would be there but it wasn't. I did actually like the slig behavior a little, but it was funnier to watch two sligs saying "What?" at each other. I like Munch and the fuzzles but it was just so easy with the egg system. All you had to do was let Abe do the action, and let Munch bring him back when he got killed. All in all, fun game, too easy, and not what we expected, but some things in life are bad.

[Sanssouci]

storyline isn't that illogical, but i suppose that depends on your point of view

Logic is not subjective

here are examples of stupid story design:
-The highly valuable last gabbit alive is captured with the express aim of being used to find and retrieve other captured animals - even though the Vykkers are more than capable of doing this themselves/with interns in their like bubble ships
This is made even stupider by the fact gabbits are slow, one legged, have weak arms and are clearly more at home in the sea - yet the last gabbit on the planet was given the task of roaming around the continent capturing fuzzles. Right. Just how in God's name was Munch supposed to perform his duty for the Vykkers?
-Munch and Abe are commanded by the Big Raisin to help a particularly lazy Glukkon become one of the richest Glukkons on Oddworld. Why? Why?!
Reasons why:
So they could use said Glukkon to buy the last can of gabbiar with the amassed fortune - a ridiculous proposition; why would the Big Raisin, Abe and Munch want to invest 3000000 or so moolah into Vykkers Labs? Why do they need to spends weeks amassing Lulu's fortune when they can possess and steal the gabbiar from any owner without giving 3000000 moolah to the vykkers?
Another possible reason: Because donating the money from various small businesses in the countryside sends them bust. Not bad in theory, but considering they are more than capable of infiltrating and possessing the head Glukkon of each such business, why donate the money to Lulu if it is only going to be invested in Vykkers Labs? Better to take the money youself, or just destroy the businesses and burn the money

The story is just stupid. There's no need to use Lulu. There's no reason to invest so much money in the Vykkers, which are hardly a native-friendly company; hell, there's no reason why Abe should even go and help Munch in the first place. I can't remember if the Big Raisin did actually justify sending Abe to the Big Well to help Munch...
It's not like Abe needed Munch's help to rescue a few eggs, and it's not like any of the Quintology arc was advanced around Munch - as far as we're aware, Munch is just going to bugger off and raise a hundred gabbiwogs (which will then get fished out of the sea and eaten by the now-richer-than-ever Vykkers. Once they've built a new ship that is)

Of course, I suppose the story is only illogical if you presume the characters not to be the stupidest beings in fiction and if you presume them to have motives and ambitions which fit into their established character

Oh, and who is this Big Raisin creature? Why are Abe and the mudokons suddenly so eager to do his bizarre bidding?
Maybe he's really a glukkon in disguise and is blackmailing them with the Queen's life. Suddenly the story all makes sense!

[mudling]

There was actually much more to the story, and there weren't going to be lulu machines randomly in every boss's office, despite the fact they they laughed outright at his fund.
But this all got trashed with the xbox change and the time restraints, they realy had to work with what they had, and wrap the story around that.
But there's been worse cases. I mean, at least it has an ending (KOTOR 2 is quite the opposite, I loved every other bit of the story though).
It's not what Lorne intended though, so let's hope we see Munch's real story one day.