Patricia's Jewels: Oddworld: Abe's Odyssee (April Fools Swap with James Bevan)

The following post was from yesterday in honor of the Manic Expression April Fools' Day Swap. Each person who participated had to switch to another person's style of reviewing. I got James Bevan, who reviews a video game series called Jim's Gems. I hope you enjoy me not talking about Nickelodeon stuff.

Inspired by Derek Alexander (Happy Video Game Nerd) and James Bevan (Manic Expression)

Welcome to Patricia's Jewels, a video game series where I cover my favorite games. Whether it's triple "A", indie hits, cult classics, and underrated, obscure games that I feel deserve more recognition. Hopefully, my review will let you check out the game for yourself. Today's game we're going to cover is an underrated cinematic platformer back in 1997. Back in 1994, a new indie video game company by the name of Oddworld Inhabitants was founded by Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna. They wanted to step right outside the box of typical platformers that were hugely popular at the time such as Super Mario 64, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot by introducing a rich, complex universe taking place in the planet called Oddworld. They wanted to make the kind of games that they wanted to make, not the kind of games that were gaining popularity. So begins the Oddworld Quintology, a series of 5 games that would take place in Oddworld. The first game from this Quintology was Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee which debuted on the PlayStation on September 19, 1997.



The game stars our protagonist, Abe, a creature known as a Mudokin, who works as a slave in a meat-packing industry called RuptureFarms. While working overtime, he hears a conversation from his supervisor named Molluck the Glukkon saying that their stocks are going down and are at risk of going bankrupt. He comes up with the idea of using all the Mudokin slaves and use them as food called Mudokin Pops to bring up profits while saving money on getting other creatures for food. Abe, frightened at what he heard, is determined to save all the Mudokins before it's too late. 



The game plays similar to Prince of Persia and Out of this World, in which it's a simple 2D platformer with cinematic backgrounds, tough puzzles, and atmospheric music. The game features the amount of Mudokins that you have to rescue, the amount of Mudokins you already rescued, and the amount of Mudokins remaining. The character of Abe is a very simple minded, clumsy, and humble Mudokin. Remaining as a slave the majority of his life, he learned to take orders, but seeing his people in danger gets him the courage to rescue them and help them escape RuptureFarms. He meets up with different Mudokins that are normal, blind, confused, and suicidal. He uses an ability called GameSpeak to control the Mudokins and lead them to a portal that leads them out of RuptureFarms. Along the way, you learn different abilities such as telekinetic powers that you use to control the Glukkons, clever puzzles to get rid of them, and learn stealth to avoid them in tight spots. Abe travels to different ares in the game and learns new abilities and new things about his people. 



The story has a great mixture of humor and dark moments as you begin to learn about the Mudokins from Abe's visions from Big Face, a Mudokin Shaman, and the plans of Molluck the Glukkon containing greed and selfishness, and Abe's path to freeing his people. The scenary was really ahead of its time on the PlayStation. The scenary was both bright, dark, colorful, gritty, and atmospheric from the dark, depressing RuptureFarms to the lush, green forests of Paranormia, and the deserts of Scrabania. The music fits very well with the game by being ombious or catchy.

However, the game has its share of flaws. The controls are a bit dated by today's standards with the Triangle button to jump and the X button to pull off the GameSpeak, and the Square button to trigger Abe's abilities. Also, you have to save 1 Mudokin at a time and once you lose a Mudokin, they can't come back. They're dead and stay dead and you need a certain amount of them to get the good ending. Sometimes it isn't easy since it's a huge pain to control the Mudokins to lead them to the portal, especially the blind ones. But the biggest flaw in the entire game is that there are rarely any checkpoints in the game. There are a few, but once you die, you start in a level where you lose your progress unless you create a new save state on your PlayStation memory card every time you want to save. That can be a huge problem at times. However, those problems would be fixed in the later games.



Oddworld: Abe's Odyssee was received very well by gamers and critics alike, but complained of the "ugly" characters, confusing gameplay, and lack of save states. However, it was hugely praise for its innovation for cinematic platformers with its graphics, story, and gameplay. The later games to come out would improve the gameplay, continue the story, and introduce us to new characters and abilities. However, cinematic platformers lost interest to many gamers with the increasing popularity of 3D platformers and first-person shooters and the Oddworld Quintology had been hugely forgotten. In fact, the 5th game was never released due to the poor sales of games from the last two gamesMunch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath. However, more people are getting introduced to it due to the games being released on OnLive, the PlayStation Network, and XBOX Live Arcade. Coming this fall will be a HD reboot of Abe's Odyssee called Abe's Odysee New & Tasty will be released in the PlayStation 3, XBOX 360, and PlayStation Vita in honor of the game's 15th anniversary of its release. 

Overall, while there are a few flaws, Abe's Oddysee is a fantastic game that has a great story, beautiful graphics, atmospheric settings, and tough puzzles to solve. There's a lot of variety in this game and for people who love platformers, you deserve to check it out! 

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: The Angry Beavers with James Bevan

It's the year 1997. Titanic, Men in Black, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace were released in theaters. Daria, Ally McBeal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and South Park debuted on TV. If there was one Nicktoon that some people claim has as much adult humor as Rocko's Modern Life, it's The Angry Beavers.

 Joining me today in this special collaborated review is Manic Expression's own James Bevan. Welcome aboard, James.

James- Thanks for having me here, Patty. I'm honored to join you in talking about one of my favorite 90s Nicktoons. The Angry Beavers was one of those cartoons that hit my preferred sweet spot of being both weird and genuinely funny. There are shows that are weird, like Ren & Stimpy, Adventure Time, and Flapjack, that I could never get into because they focused more on the bizarre than the jokes. Thankfully, this show, like Rocko's Modern Life, Pearls Before Swine, and Chowder, doesn't skimp out on humor in its bizarre premises, and I love it.

The Angry Beavers is about a pair of beaver brothers, Norbert and Daggett, who leave their dam after their parents give birth to a second litter. Out on their own, the two build their own dam where they plan to enjoy the good life as swingin' bachelors. Naturally, their lives of independence are filled with a variety of bizarre adventures, sometimes caused by their own lack of competence/impulse control, other times thrust upon them by outside forces.

Norbert Beaver, the older of the two brothers by four minutes, was voiced by Nick Bakay, a writer and actor best known for providing the voice of Salem the cat on the ABC sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch. He is the more intelligent of the pair, and usually has an easy-going attitude unless provoked or annoyed. He is rather self-centered, and occasionally uses his cunning to manipulate others (mostly his brother) into helping him get what he wants. Still, he does care for Daggett, looking out for his younger brother when he isn't swindling or fighting with him. Norbert sees himself as a sophisticated ladies' man, though he is prone to indulging in more immature activities. He also has a fondness for cheesy 50s sci-fi and horror movies. An odd quirk he shares with Daggett is mispronouncing words by putting the wrong emphasis on certain syllables, sucy as saying "myoo-vay" instead of "movie".

Younger brother Daggett Beaver was voiced by Richard Horvitz, previously best known for providing the voice of the robot Alpha 5 on the first four seasons of Mighty Morphing Power Rangers. Less intelligent, quicker to anger and more impulsive than Norbert, he frequently finds himself in trouble for his poorly thought out actions. Since he isn't as manipulative as his older brother, Daggett frequently antagonizes his sibling by annyoing him or provoking him into fights. He has several verbal tics, most notably saying "eeeh?" when confused, or verbalizes punctuation, most commonly ellipses, by saying "dot dot dot" aloud. In spite of his general stupidity, he has occasionally shown moments of intellectual prowess in areas like construction and engineering, suggesting he may be a savant with untapped potential.



Patricia- Not to mention all the amazingly hilarious supporting cast consisting of their friends Barry, Treeflower, Bing, Wolffe, Truckee, Big Rabbit, and the coolest guy around Stump. In every episode, Norbert and Daggett would go through crazy scenarios in such simplistic ways. Whether it's releasing a new disco album, staying up all night for the first time, becoming pets to a strange family, or getting box tops to purchase a street sweeper, it's always so fun seeing Norbert and Daggett playing off each other in a funny way.

The show was created by Mitch Schauer (pronounced shower). He had been a producer in other animated shows such as The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo and Freakazoid! The shows would have a lorlt of inside jokes and references mostly based on the creator and voice actors. For example, did you know that Norbert's sisters Stacy and Chelsea were named after Schauer's two daughters? They even voiced the characters whenever they appear in the episodes they did.



James- Schauer did have fun with in-jokes, meta references, and breaking the fourth wall. One notable example I remember is when the brothers got a letter announcing the birth of Richard Horvitz's son Jack. Then there was the episode "The Day The Earth Got Really Screwed Up" where the narrator quits at the end after becoming fed up with the nonsensical plot. Again, I like this for the same reason I like Pearls Before Swine; the characters are aware of the medium they're in, and can use it to make some clever jokes. This was taken to its extreme in the unaired series finale, but we'll discuss that later.

The writers clearly wanted Angry Beavers to appeal to both young and old audiences, so they often relied on innuendo and references that would go over the heads of children. One of the most prominent examples I can think of is the episode "Beaver Fever" where Dagget and Norbert become disco stars and engage in behavior reminiscent of the Beatles (bed-in protests, Daggett sparking outrage after saying he was more popular than sliced bread - a reference to John Lennon's controversial statement that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, rumors that Daggett acutally died that parody the "Paul is Dead" conspiracy theory.) Jokes like this fly past you when you're younger, but you're able to appreciate them better when you understand what it's poking fun at.

 Like Rocko's Modern Life, there were times when several risque jokes slipped past the censors. Most of the time, these were pun episode titles like "Specs Appeal", as well as a slew of jokes based on the word "dam", but there were other examples. The writers created their own fake curse word "spoot" that characters would frequently utter in situations of extreme frustration or shock, similar to "frak" from the original Battlestar Galactica. There was also an episode where Daggett's excessive slapping of his tail is used as a euphemism for masturbation. These jokes weren't as extreme as Rocko working for a sex line or Yakko telling Dot to "finger Prince", but they still drew some complaints from viewers who didn't want children exposed to that material. Oddly enough, the one case of censorship as a result of complaints was bleeping out the phrase "shut up." It's strange that such a simple phrase is the only thing that would get cancelled, but consider that certain animated shows airing in Canada will bleep out the word "loser" out of fear that it might offend children. Further proof that censorship makes very little sense.

Patricia- Yes, indeed. The inside jokes were indeed quite clever. In fact, they were more hidden from the kids than Ren & Stimpy or Rocko's Modern Life were. While the show did garner a few Emmys and Annie awards as well as many nominations, for some reason the show did not get the same praise and recognition compared to Ren and Stimpy was. It wasn't until years later that The Angry Beavers was deemed as a cult classic similar to Rocko's Modern Life. Thanks to the awesome guys at Shout Factory, you can catch the episodes on DVD and on Netflix.



James- I can see why it's still appreciated today. The Angry Beavers, at least in my opinion, still holds up very well. It wasn't a perfect show - there were several episodes where the ideas weren't executed properly, but that's to be expected with any series. There were also times when some jokes fell flat, running gags were used excessively, and a joke lost its impact by being explained. Overall, though, there were far more hits than misses. The unique art style, absurd situations, clever writing, and hilarious banter between Daggett and Norbert keep it entertaining 15 years later.

The show ran for four seasons, ending its run in 2001. A series finale titled "Bye Bye Beavers" was in development but never aired. This episode would have featured Norbert learning that they were about to be cancelled, sending him and his brother into an existential crisis similar to the five stages of grief. Not only was the fourth wall obliterated, but there were several jabs that Nickelodeon concerning how they could keep the show going in re-runs and continue to profit from it while the staff didn't see as much money. This is presumably why it was never completed. However, an audio track of the final recording is available online. You can check it out right here.

 Richard Horvitz has done voice-over work for several animated series and video games, including Invader Zim, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Ben 10, Dave the Barbarian, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, Psychonauts, and Destroy All Humans. He occasionally performs stand up and sketch comedy. Richard is married to Kristen Lazarian and has three sons.


Nick Bakay continued to provide the voice of Salem in Sabrina the Teenage Witch until it ended in 2003. He has since made appearances in several live action television series such as That 70s Show, The King of Queens, and 'Til Death, in which he also served as a producer. He is married to Robin Bakay.



Patricia- As for Mitch Schauer, he co-created a mini web series with Paul Rugg in 2008 called The Sam Plenty Calvacade of Action Plus Singing, he wrote and drew a graphic novel called Rip M.D., he was the supervising director of the Super Hero Super Squad, and he's currently working on an animated series based on Rip M.D.



Overall, while the show does have its flaws and may not be as well put together and cohesive as Ren & Stimpy or Rocko's Modern Life, The Angry Beavers shouldn't be overlooked and is recommended to check out. James, thank you so much for joining me in this review. I had a ton of fun collaborating with you. We should do it again sometime soon.

James- Thanks for having me here, Patty. I was glad I got the chance to talk about this show with you. Here's hoping it will inspire people who missed out on The Angry Beavers when it first aired to give it a look.

Patricia- Well said, James. That's all for now. Tune in next time as we have a double feature review with the late 90's game show Figure it Out and Nickelodeon's attempt to having a kid's version of Third Rock from the Sun, The Journey of Allen Strange.



Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia and James