Remember Oddworld? The series that started off with the puzzle platformer Abe’s Oddysee on the original Playstation in 1997? Anybody? You would be forgiven for not remembering. The last big release of the series was Stranger’s Wrath in 2005. After that, the developers—Oddworld Inhabitants—stepped out of game development, returning in 2010 to begin re-releasing the series with the help of Just Add Water. So far, they’ve put out the OddBoxx—a collection of all four games—on the PC and an HD port of Stranger’s Wrath for PS3 with Munch’s Oddysee set to follow by the end of the year.
As you can see, Oddworld Inhabitants and Just Add Water have been quietly working hard to bring the series back into the spotlight. So, what’s next? An HD remake of the game that started it all.
At the Eurogamer Expo yesterday, Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning along with the help of Just Add Water’s Stewart Gilray revealed the title’s new name, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee New N’ Tasty. Gilray expressed distaste in using HD in the game’s title because they did more than give it a fresh coat of paint,”We’re starting from nothing and rebuilding an entire game from scratch.”
On the look of the remake, Lanning called it “neo nostalgic”, where they,”take the nostalgia and…turn it to 11,” by keeping 80-90% of the original puzzles and level design while running them with new technology. The result is rather stunning, check out the first gameplay clip below:
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee New N’ Tasty is on track for a 2013 release on PSN (PS3 and Vita), PC, and XBLA. If you have the time, watch the full presentation here to see just how passionate Lorne Lanning is for the world he created and his determination to finish the “Oddworld Quintology”, his original vision for the series.
