Two lucky Oddworld fans just happened to walk into their local Wal-Mart in Renton, Washington, and to their surprise, they came across a Xbox demo console, of none other than Munch's Oddysee! Rick Bergh and Sapphire_8400 of the Exoddus Club have kindly allowed Oddworld-Web to post their impressions of the demo. The demo was with both Abe and Munch, and you had to toggle back and forth between them to collect all of the "spooceshrubs"... it was wonderful! The water looked very realistic, and was flecked with the light of the sun... Abe and Munch's eyes glow in the shadows, so when you're sneaking along (which you can do, even at running speed... it looks so funny!) you can see where you are. Abe's voice is SO cute!!! I just about died when I heard him say "Hi there, fellow chum!" Munch sounded very croaky like a frog, Abe scratches his rear end if you let him stand too long, and the powerups were a blast, especially the espresso where you run really fast! The pictures on the sides of the vending machines are adorable.. the espresso one had a smiling coffee cup with hypno patterns for eyes, and there was a jumping powerup, a climbing up walls powerup. I'll start with Abe. Logically enough, the left joystick controls his movements. How fast Abe goes depends on how far you push the stick. If you barely move it, he walks along at a nice pace. If you push it all the way in a direction, Abe runs, and pretty quick, too. Your character always moves in the direction you push the stick. More on the camera in a bit. Sneaking took a little while to figure out, but it's quite simple. The joysticks both push down like a button, so if the left stick is pressed down, then held and moved in a direction, Abe sneaks.

The D-pad on the left of the controller moves the camera. We noticed two different ways for the camera to function. The first is when you're walking around in an open area. During that time, the camera follows your character around, usually falling behind him after a while. It's also smart enough to know where it can't fit, so it won't follow your character into corners. We didn't see a single clipping error with the camera going through walls or anything. The other camera mode is a fixed-position camera. During these times, the D-pad moves your view, but the camera stays put. You can only look around from that vantage point. The little white button on the upper right of the controller "centers" the camera. When it's in free-roaming mode, this puts it behind your character. When it's in fixed mode, it puts the camera back on what you should be looking at. This was very quick and easy to use.

There are two triggers on the bottom of the Xbox controller. The left trigger makes Abe chant, while the right trigger... Well, we aren't sure what that does. When you push it, a ring of birds comes out of your character and orbits him (like a horizontal bird portal), a little wiggly halo thing appears over the character's head, and a number shows up. I believe this is related to the 'shrooms.

Ah, yes, the Spooceshrooms. These are the greenish orbs all over the place in all the screenshots. There are a certain number of them for Abe and Munch to pick up in the demo, and this is your only goal for the time being. We couldn't figure out much to do with them, but Abe can make them grow by chanting.

The right joystick didn't do anything, really, but when it is pressed down and moved, it causes Abe to slap. He doesn't just slap with one hand now, though. He uses both hands and sometimes a foot, too. Very funny, watching him have a little fit.

The four colored buttons on the right of the controller seem to be the ones that change function the most often. "A" (the green one) makes Abe jump. Yes, he jumps. Quite high, I might add. He does a cute little somersault in the air, too. "A" also is the action button, so when you are within the effective area near a switch or vending machine, your character will do what needs to be done when "A" is pressed. "Y" (the yellow one) is the greeting button for GameSpeak. "B" (the red one) is equivalent to "work" from Abe's Exoddus, and "X" (the blue one) is equivalent to "wait".

The last button that deserves mention is the little black one in the upper right-hand corner of the controller. This is a very important button: The one that lets you switch characters. When this button is pressed, there is a cute little noise and you instantly jump to the other character. This is how you first meet Munch in the demo.

Munch's controls are identical to Abe's, with just a few important exceptions. While he hops and, uh, hops faster just like Abe walks and runs, Munch can't sneak. He makes a cute springing sound when he hops, which would probably catch the attention of any Slig guards around. Munch can't jump, either. Yes, he hops, but he sure doesn't go for height. When "A" is pressed, he sorta... falls on his head. It's hilarious.

The right trigger does the same strange action that it does with Abe, and the left, instead of making Munch chant, causes him to let out a strange blue shockwave. Not sure what that does just yet. It's probably for possessing machines, but Munch's headport does something else, too. When the right stick is pressed down, it briefly sparkles orange. Hmmm...

So Munch is just like Abe, but can't jump? Wrong. He swims! This is where Munch is quite useful, as he is very fast and agile in the water. We couldn't figure out how to dive beneath the surface of the water (assuming it's possible), but Munch can very quickly move along the surface. He can also jump incredibly high out of the water, but his landing isn't very graceful if he ends up on dry land.

Short of explaining more about the GameSpeak, that's the controls in a nutshell. All of it was very easy to use once we figured out what buttons did what. The sneaking is very well-implemented, and having an area around the switches and vending machines that causes the character to be aware of the device makes it quite easy to use them.


Initial Impressions by Sapphire_8400
Controller Impressions by Rick Bergh