Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! features original voice actor, overhauled music

The remake of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty!, will feature overhauled music, dialog and effects, according to a developer diary on the game's official blog.

"What we're doing with New ‘n' Tasty is re-doing the original music, keeping to the same style and feel as the original," the game's audio engineer Mike Taylor said. "The cut-scenes in the game are all brand new, and are being re-made from the ground up, so we're getting new music written and rewritten for those scenes by Michael Bross."

Although the developers weren't able source the game's original sound effects to reuse, they wouldn't use them if it were possible due to modern gamers high expectations of audio quality.

"We did find some voice samples, but not at CD quality, and with very limited variations," Taylor explained. "There was only one voice for the Mudokon Slave, for example — the sound was pitch-shifted up or down depending on environment and location!"

Lorne Lanning was brought on again to provide the voice for Abe and the Sligs, cementing the original feel of the Abe/Mudokon "Hello / hello / Follow me / OK" audio. To further flesh out the world's audio effects, Oddworld Inhabitants put the call out for fans to the assist with voicing the various Mudokon characters. Hopefuls were invited to record and upload their samples by July 26, then share the file with the studio's account on SoundCloud.

Developed in conjunction with Oddworld Inhabitants and Just Add Water, the reimagining will retain the level designs and puzzles of the original, but with "slight modifications" such as ditching the old game's scrolling.

Premiering at the 2012 Eurogamer Expo by Oddworld founder Lorne Lanning and developer Stewart Gilray, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! will launch on the Xbox 360, Windows PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4.