Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty!

Yeah to me it really feels noticeably botched somewhere, for one thing there's no real moodiness or darkness to it, everything looks all overly-bright and cleaned up, the overall design is distinctly kiddified. The effects of the original 1997 classic simply looked better because they were designed to work with that system's capabilities, they worked much better in the game's favour and the experience of playing it felt that much deeper and more rewarding than this version, not to mention it was much tighter and more fluid to control. The original Abe's Odyssey felt darker and more dangerous than this one, and its spiritual elements felt more awesome and mystical, New N' Tasty feels like an Odyssey that's been stripped of its edge, the first game's backgrounds were coated with grime and blood splattered around, whereas this mainly uses clean surfaces, the 90s game had more realistic cutscenes where Abe looked more like a living creature as well as a more realistic use of lighting, here the animatics are ugly and don't look right, and you barely even notice any lighting here because everything's over-exposed all the time anyway. The death animations of Abe and the monsters are toned down and I freaking hate the stupid goofy voice they gave to Abe, it almost feels like it's poking fun at the original at points. They go so cartoony with it, it's noticeably dumbed-down and more aimed at a younger audience. The old game's graphics had more innovative motions and touches because they were pre-rendered, it gave things a wonderful in-game motion blur that really captured the imagination... So a darker, grungier, and much more fun to play original game wins out easily, New N'Tasty is okay, but it's little more than a gussied-up hollow shell that fails to capture the tension and wonder of the original, which is why that game will always be the best and this can go straight to heck! X.

New 'n' Tasty was touted as a remaster of the classic Abe's Oddysee, and although on a surface level this would appear to be the case, this new edition lacks much of the charm of the original. Due to the 2.5D visuals and active camera, the gameplay and puzzles of the game have had to undergo significant changes to suit this new perspective format. These unfortunately work to its detriment, simplifying previously complex obstacles and making the solution to others unclear. Furthermore, blatant in-game advertising and an overuse of bloom effects instead of real lighting and detail gut this title of any soul.