Table of Contents
- Oddworld is my favorite series of all time. In my opinion, this is the most underrated series of games ever. I figured it was time to give the series its due and rank them all from worst to best. Let’s open some bird portals and see what the series has to offer. The handheld titles will not be listed because I never played them and couldn’t be bothered to.
Oddworld:Soulstorm
Sadly, this is—at least for now—the final nail in the series’ coffin. This was intended to be the director’s cut, so to speak, of Abe’s Exoddus and canonically the second chapter of the Quintology. Hopes were high, but sadly dashed pretty quickly. Issues included glitches, poor AI, a tacky inventory, and an even tackier crafting system. All around, this game was basically dead on arrival and will, unfortunately, be the last title indefinitely.
Check out full review here
Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee
The franchise’s first step into 3D—and unfortunately a pretty big misstep too. Munch is a Gabbit whose entire species has been wiped out for profit and experimentation by the evil Vykker’s Labs. He is captured, must escape, and find his way to our old pal Abe to save the day. The narrative is solid; its execution is a wet fish in a dry bucket.
Despite the title, you play as Abe most of the time due to Munch’s limited land mobility—not exactly the best design choice if your main character isn’t even utilized for most of the game. The environments are incredibly bland, and many levels look very similar with no real distinguishing features. Most frustrating of all is the soundtrack. Oddworld is renowned for its slamming soundtracks, and this one just sounds like an infant banging his fists on a keyboard. This is an incredibly half-baked title, and the fact it was rushed to meet deadlines is painfully obvious.
Check out full retrospective here
Oddworld: New n Tasty
A faithful remake of the classic title. Abe’s Oddysee was a beloved classic, but let’s be real—it needed a fresh coat of paint and some quality-of-life improvements for modern audiences. Gone are the unforgiving checkpoints and the unnecessary backtracking to save one Mudokon at a time, and they even introduced difficulty settings for novice players.
One drawback, however, is the player being controlled with the analog stick; that never really works as well as the D-pad in side-scrollers. Also, the game looks too nice at times—Rupture Farms almost looks welcoming and hospitable.
Oddworld: Stanger’s Wrath
Wanting to take the series in a bold new direction, the developers said, “Let’s do everything fresh from top to bottom.” New setting, new main character, new gameplay, new narrative. We find Stranger, a lone bounty hunter who is on the hunt for 20k to pay for a lifesaving surgery, making his way from town to town to clean up any outlaw activity and make a profit along the way.
Stranger was a fresh change of pace for the series—a competent fighter who can handle a horde of enemies and actually use weapons. Released at the height of the FPS boom of the mid-2000s, this makes for a charming relic of its time and the most approachable game in the series for newcomers.
Check out full retrospective here
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
My favorite game of all time. Abe must save his species from being turned into tasty treats. Being a skinny weakling, he has to rely on his wit and cunning to traverse a harsh and hellish landscape where literally everything is trying to kill you. It’s a beautiful 2D cinematic platformer with some of the most stunning visuals ever seen in a PS1 title, featuring cutscenes that are movie-tier quality and still hold up today. This is not for the faint of heart—its checkpoints and backtracking can make it extremely challenging. Thankfully, the PS5 re-release has a rewind feature to ease some of the pain.
Check out full retrospective here
Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus
Released just nine months after the original, Exoddus does everything Oddysee did—bigger and better. Double the game, double the discs, double the content! Abe makes his way to Necrum Mines to put a stop to the desecration of ancient Mudokon graves at the hands of the Glukkons. Along the way, he finds out they are harvesting spirits and bones to make their brew! Everything wrong with the first game is ironed out to perfection. The unforgiving checkpoints are eased with the new quicksave feature—you make your own checkpoints and can even restart a path if it gets too sticky. Mudokons are still the lame-brain chumps they were in the previous game, but here you can talk to all of them present on screen to prevent excessive backtracking. Possession returns, and you can possess everything except the kitchen sink—Slugs, Glukkons, Paramites, and Scrabs! Each has its own unique gameplay and abilities. Objectively, this game is a masterpiece and the gold standard of the series.
Check out full retrospective here
As of now, Oddworld is dormant with no signs of a future game anytime soon. However, credit where credit is due: Oddworld Inhabitants have done a bang-up job of making all their games available on modern consoles for old fans and newcomers alike. Anyone looking to see something odd and unique—this series is for you.
