Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty

New 'n' Tasty is a complete rebuild of the very first game in the Oddworld universe, 1997's Abe's Oddysee, this time in modern 3D graphics with substantially reworked sound, music, and lighting for every scene. Studio Just Add Water was tasked not just with visually refreshing the game but with practically rebuilding it from scratch in its own engine, while keeping the original level layout, puzzles, and pacing of the story of the worker Abe, who accidentally uncovers the Rupture Farms corporation's plan to process his own kind into food and must escape his own workplace in time to warn the others.

Compared to the PlayStation original, the most striking change is the shift from pre-rendered 2D backgrounds and flat characters to a fully three-dimensional environment, which makes the camera and lighting feel much more dynamic and the atmosphere of the industrial Rupture Farms factory denser, darker, and easier to read even during fast-paced sneaking sections. The controls have been finely tuned for modern gamepads and noticeably respond faster and more precisely than the slightly clunkier PlayStation 1 original; hidden collectibles and alternate paths through some levels have also been added that weren't in the original game, without changing the basic skeleton of the story, the order of the levels, or the core mechanics of sneaking, solving puzzles, and freeing Mudokons from cages and work lines.

New 'n' Tasty thus served both as an entry point for new players who never experienced the nineties original and would have been put off by its dated graphics, and as a nostalgic stroll for veterans, who suddenly saw familiar scenes and puzzles in a completely different, far more detailed visual coat.

Why play: The most accessible way into the world of Oddworld for players who want the experience of the original game without the dated graphical and technical limits of the PlayStation 1, but with today's comfortable controls.