Munch's Oddysee
Score: 50% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: THQ Developer: Microsoft Game Studios Media: Cartridge/2 Players: 1 Genre: Platformer
Graphics & Sound: Even for a GBA game, Munch's Oddysee falls a little short of the quality standards in video game graphics. The isometric view would have worked much better if things weren't so pixilated all of the time, or if there had been a few more terrain tiles to go around. Things get worse when the view switches to a 3D plane where you can walk Abe or Munch towards or away the foreground, a disorienting experience at best. The sound is about fifty-fifty, with the voices and effects being pretty good and the music being downright annoying. The tracks are nothing more than 3 second loops, and they switch unpredictably. On the upside, most of the effects stay true to the regular console games, which will make fans of the franchise feel somewhat at home.
Gameplay: Munch's Oddysee teams up Abe and Munch, two misfit aliens, to help stop yet another Glukkon threat. Abe won his freedom in the first game on the PlayStation, and now with the help of the only surviving Gabbit on the planet, Munch, he must fight, or at least solve puzzles, to prolong that freedom. Munch's Oddysee stays true to the original games with its puzzle style gameplay and lack of run and gun action common to platformers of similar layout. Abe must enlist the aid of his friends to help him open doors, and Munch has the useful ability to control platforms and robots. Unfortunately, the chance to control robots to do your bidding doesn't occur as often as would have been nice, because this is one of the finer points of the game. Abe can also control the minds of Glukkons, but similar to controlling the robots, these occurrences are few and far between. The rest of your time will be spent running around and pulling levers, and occasionally standing on a switch that will open a door on the other side of the level. The gameplay isn't the only thing that is lacking in Munch's Oddysee. There is little to no character development, and all of the humor that was ever present in the previous titles is nowhere to be found. Had there been an ounce of story telling within the levels, instead of only in the very infrequent cut scenes, the torture of each puzzle wouldn't have been that bad.
Difficulty: Munch's Oddysee's difficulty comes in your ability to solve puzzles, or to put it more clearly, your patience to stick with the monotony of the game. The hardest part will be resisting the urge to put your Game Boy down after the first few levels. Most of the levels consist of pulling a series of levers, standing on the right platform, or switching back and forth between Abe and Munch until you can find an exit. Though simpler is usually better, it didn't quite work out that way in Munch's Oddysee.
Game Mechanics: Gamespeak, one of the biggest selling points of the previous titles, makes an appearance in Munch's Oddysee, albeit a small one. Abe can tell his buddies to follow him and give him a hand from time to time, and Munch can command any Fuzzle he's got following him to attack his enemies. The real falling off point in the game is the control. It is rigid and requires a lot of button mashing at times, especially when you're trying to deal with your fellow Mudokons. The worst, though, is trying to jump to the right platform. After you've struggled long and hard to figure out that it actually was a platform and not part of the ground, this action is tricky guess work at best. Apart from that, there isn't much else to the game besides jumping on platforms and pulling levers. The best parts of Munch's Oddysee are kept to a bare minimum, and the lack of humor or any sense of a story don't do much to fill the gaps. Fans of the series will be sorely disappointed with this title, and newcomers will be turned away in the first few minutes of frustrating play.
-Snow Chainz, GameVortex Communications AKA Andrew Horwitz
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