Fans of the classic platformer Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee will once again be able to dive into the dark and twisted fantasy world created by Oddworld Inhabitants with a brand new remake. Announced from their Facebook page, game developer Just Add Water will be remaking the game from scratch with a new 3D physics engine, promising to keep the 2D blueprints of the original game intact and to avoid making the game more than a just resolution count increase with flashier art.
Abe's Oddysee enjoyed wide success when it was released back on the original Playstation in 1997. While a 2D platformer at heart, Abe's Oddysee features a lot of puzzle solving through the art of mind control. The physic alien must use these powers to rescue his fellow slaves from slaughter at their hands of their employer RuptureFarms meat packing factory.
Despite its brutal difficulty and broken save functions, Abe's Oddysee's engrossing storytelling and immersive setting garnered the game enough respect to make Abe the face of the Playstation back when Sony was still on the lookout for mascots to compete with Nintendo's recognizable heroes.
While originally planned as the Oddworld Quintology, the series has remained dormant since Oddworld: Strangers Wrath, the fourth entry in the series, was released exclusively for the XBox way back 2005.
Over the last two years however, Oddworld Inhabitants has seemed very keen on reinvigorating their long lost series. Aside from the Abe's Oddysee remake, Just Add Water has been working on HD ports of Stranger's Wrath and Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PC. Both were on show at E3 and garnered a lot of praise from long time fans.
No doubt Oddworld Inhabitants is trying to bank on the ease of HD ports and finally use the cash and resurging public interest to develop that elusive fifth game. Hopefully the series will catch on again with the power of 1080p backing it up, and Oddworld Inhabitants creator Lorne Lanning can relax knowing his dream has been completed.
The Abe's Oddysee HD remake is being aimed for a Summer 2013. The original game and its sequel Abe's Exodus are both available on the Playstation store for $9.99. The HD port of Stranger's Wrath is already available through Steam and the Playstation Network, but the Vita version won't happen until this coming June.
