Video Game / Oddworld

*Pffft!* Heheheh.

The Glukkons were scared 'cause profits were grim.
Paramites and Scrabs had been turning up thin.
But Molluck was cool; he had a plan.
This new kind of meat? IT WAS US!

— Abe's Oddysee and its remake New 'n' Tasty

A series of games starting on the original PlayStation, the Oddworld series (the only series made by the aptly-named Oddworld Inhabitants) are four^note not including remakes and ports by third-parties games that take place on the alien planet of Oddworld. Revolving around either Almighty Janitor Abe and his friends or the Bounty Hunter Stranger, the games typically involve their protagonist going up against The Man in an anti-corporate, pro-environment plotline that is surprisingly not too anvilicious. Oddworld was originally intended to be a fictional universe consisting of an epic pentalogy of games (dubbed the Oddworld Quintology) that would have starred various different heroes and villains, as well as bonus titles to expand the universe's mythology. However, the ambitious project was left abandoned for a while until its recent reboot.

In Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (1997), the first game of the unfinished Oddworld Quintology, Mudokon cleaner Abe spies on an executive board meeting at RuptureFarms, a slaughterhouse/factory, where he learns profits are dwindling due to livestock sources reaching extinction. The execs, known as Glukkons, decide then and there that the way to drive profits up is to chop up the Mudokon slaves they have cleaning the factories. Naturally terrified, Abe escapes from RuptureFarms 1029 while rescuing as many of his fellow slaves as possible and, after meeting native Big Face, Abe must save the remaining wildlife, regain a lost ancient power, and return to RuptureFarms to liberate his people.

Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus is a bonus game that was created in response to the popularity of Abe's Oddysee, and it isn't part of the Oddworld Quintology. Starting exactly where Oddysee ended, Abe goes an a quest to take down SoulStorm Brewery, a distillery that makes highly addictive drinks from the bones of the Mudokon dead. Fundamentally similar to Oddysee, Exoddus adds Mudokon emotions and states (including angry, sad, excited and blind to name a few) and expands the dialogue options as well as the chanting ability (including the ability to possess your own farts). It also tripled the Mudokon slave total as Abe topples the SoulStorm Mining Co., Bonewerkz, Slig Barracks, and FeeCo Depot.

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee (2001) is the third overall game and also the second chapter of the Quintology. The game introduces Munch the Gabbit, who is the Last of His Kind. Gabbits are hunted to the brink of extinction for their eggs (sold as product Gabbiar) as well as their lungs. Munch is captured by a species of mad scientists known as Vykkers (whose existence was briefly foreshadowed in Abe's Exoddus), but escapes and teams up with Abe in an attempt to infiltrate Vykkers Labs, manipulate the Glukkons, win the last remaining can of Gabbiar in existence through an auction, and rescue the remaining Mudokons. Not only is it the first 3D game in the series, Munch's Oddysee introduces an additional race for saving (the Fuzzles), allows the player to control two heroes, lets the Mudokons level up and fight back (to an extent) and adds an anti-animal testing message to its range of anvils.

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, like Abe's Exoddus, is a bonus game in the series. Set in a Wild West far from RuptureFarms, the story follows a bounty hunter called "Stranger" as he tries to make enough cash for a mysterious, life-saving operation. Released as an expansive title,^note Since the Abe games are all set on continent Mudos, Stranger's Wrath was made to give an insight into other areas, and wasn't going to count as one of the main quintology games. Stranger's Wrath is more of a First/Third-Person Shooter that gives the player a critter-firing crossbow, as well as a more combat-based (and less platform-based) experience.

Every Oddworld title achieved outstanding critical acclaim for their plot and gameplay (with the exception of Munch's Oddysee, which was invoked forcibly rushed in production by Microsoft and received a more generic reception). Unfortunately, despite the highly positive reception of Stranger's Wrath, it had very poor sales (a result of EA's failed marketing), which caused Oddworld Inhabitants to quietly disappear from the video game industry - leaving Oddworld's story hanging and many long-awaited games unreleased (a third chapter in the Quintology titled Squeek's Oddysee, a sequel to Munch's Oddysee titled Munch's Exoddus, a real-time strategy game titled Hand of Odd, and a dark and violent action game titled The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot). However, in December 2010, the formerly Xbox-exclusive entries finally received a cross-platform Updated Re-release in the form of the OddBoxx, including every entry so far in the series, up for download on Steam and the Play Station Network.

In mid-2011, the company made an unexpected (but by no means unwelcome) return to the industry, and promptly announced high-definition remasterings of Stranger's Wrath and Munch's Oddysee, which are to be released via digital distribution for PC, PS3, PS4, Vita and Wii U, and developed by British company Just Add Water Ltd.

The Oddworld Quintology was rebooted with a ground-up 2.5D remake of Abe's Oddysee, dubbed Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty!, and was released on July 22, 2014 for PS4 and later for Steam, PS3, Xbox One and Wii U.

A second game in the rebooted Quintology, titled Oddworld: Soulstorm, was released on April 6, 2021. It's a re-imagining of Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus as it was originally envisioned, as opposed to a straight remake like New 'n' Tasty was for Abe's Oddysee.

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Examples of the Oddworld franchise are presented here, so sit down and shut up!

General

• Absurd Brand Name: The evil corporations manufacture products such as Butt-Flo laxative, Headburn shampoo, and Gum Rot artificial sweetener.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: The Japanese version of Oddworld made efforts to reduce the dark and creepy tone of the original American version, portraying it as more cheerful and lighthearted.
  • Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee was renamed Abe a GoGo in Japan, and the characters were given higher pitched and more comedic voices.
    • Big Face, who is silent in the original American version, is given voice lines in the Japanese version (perhaps to make him seem less ominous).
  • Abe a GoGo was given a cheerful pop theme song titled Hello Hello, sung by the female Japanese group B/V. The song is used in the Japanese advertisement for the game, which depicts Abe having a dance party with a bunch of schoolgirls. Contrast with the American advertisement, which is pure nightmare fuel.
  • In Abe a GoGo, the scrolling messages on the LCD screens are displayed with pink text, as opposed to the red/green text in the original Abe's Oddysee.
  • The American design◊ of Mudokon Pops is gruesome and depicts a decapitated Mudokon head being impaled on a stick. However, the Japanese design◊ is softer, altering the Mudokon Pops to make them look more cartoon-like and less violent. The Japanese design has been officially made canon and used in all games since Exoddus.
  • The Japanese box art◊ for Abe a GoGo is Lighter and Softer as well, featuring a more upbeat and brightly colored art style, with a silhouette of Abe running.
  • Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus was renamed Abe '99 in Japan, and the Japanese box art◊ also features a more cheerful art style.
• Aerith and Bob:
  • You have Abe, Alf, Lady Margaret and Humphrey alongside Molluck, Phleg, Skillya and Aslik.
  • The creatures of Oddworld, which can be as exotic like Mudokon/Glukkon/Paramite, blatant like Meep/Slog/Slurg, or flat out lazy like Bat/Rat/Bird.
• Aborted Arc: As revealed by the Abe's Exoddus complete ending, Munch's Oddysee was originally going to have Abe rescuing his mother, Queen Sam. Also in Munch's Oddysee, Lady Margaret, the Queen of the Glukkons, was supposed to hold Molluck on trial for the destruction of RuptureFarms. Soulstorm's perfect ending sets this up as the Sequel Hook.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Exploited with the Greeters. They were originally meant to greet visitors to Magog Cartel, but eventually started electrocuting visitors while doing their meet and greet routines. This caused the Cartel to turn them into security guards instead.
• Aliens Are Bastards: And how! Once upon a time the Mudokons were a race of avian humanoids who arrogantly declared themselves the chosen people after seeing a giant crater in the shape of a Mudokon's paw in the surface of the moon. The Glukkons, an industrial race who were spited by this declaration, defeated the Mudokons in war, enslaved and brutalised them and destroyed most of their heritage to spite them right back. As if that wasn't bad enough, they drove most of the critters of their planet to near-extinction and their last-ditch plan to keep profits up is butchering their Mudokon workforce.
• Alignment-Based Endings: How many Mudokons (and in Munch's Oddysee, Fuzzles) you rescue affects your "quarma". Good quarma will result in an upbeat ending, whereas bad quarma will give you a significantly more unpleasant ending where the surviving Mudokons/Fuzzles effectively leave you to die.
  • Soulstorm adds a tally for the number of Sligs killed in a level. This doesn't count against the quarma rating from the number of Mudokons rescued, but there are badges and achievements that encourage the player to attack them with specific objects or, for that matter, spare as many as they can.
• All There in the Manual: Most of the stuff we know about Oddworld is from the website, Art Book or Word of God.
• Always Chaotic Evil: The Vykkers are seemingly sadistic by nature while lacking the backstory to explain such a mindset, though Doc from Stranger's Wrath notably doesn't exhibit such behavior despite being part of the same species.
• Ambiguously Jewish: Mudokons have many Semitic elements to their history, in particular as a slave race who were delivered from their bondage to former allies by a chosen one, historical claims of being The Chosen People and penchant for the Yiddish insult "schmuck".
• American Accents: The vast majority of Oddworld's inhabitants (save for Ze Brewmaster and Headley the Vykker auctioneer) sound American. Kept fresh, however, through variety in race and location (such as Clakkerz speaking in Southern Yat).
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • In some levels, you're required to find and listen to a bell tune and then repeat it at another part of the level to continue, using the chant to possess bells. Luckily however, you're not required to remember the tune, when Abe possesses the bells they will play it automatically.
  • New 'n' Tasty adds a few, some taken from previous installments and some new:
    • The bats are no longer invincible and can be killed by throwing bottle caps or rocks at them.
    • As in later games, several Mudokons can be interacted with at the same time, instead of one at a time, making some puzzles and sequences much less frustrating and needlessly hard.
    • A quick save feature was added. Saves can be made or loaded quickly with the press or hold of a button, which makes the game's trial-and-error aspects a lot more forgiving and less frustrating.
    • There are easier difficulty modes, which add visible checkpoints and a health meter a la Munch's Oddyssee that can be refilled by chanting when birds are nearby (Not to be confused with the bird portals).
• Artificial Limbs: The Sligs have cybernetic legs.
• Asbestos-Free Cereal: Most forms of in-universe advertising are brutally honest, but twist it into a positive:
  SoulStorm Brew... twice the flavor... twice the bones... twice the price!
• Bad Boss: The Glukkons, who have a habit of treating their guards as horribly as the slaves; even sligs caught sleeping will be executed then court-marshaled.
  V.P. Aslik: Uncle Aslik's been takin' good care o' ya, right? I love all-ya like you was my own, right?! But if we don't catch this Abe guy... IT'S THE BREW VATS FOR ALL-YA! Now, what're ya waitin' for?! Get back ta work!
• Badass Adorable: Abe and Munch, to a certain extent. Also, the Fuzzles.
• Bag of Spilling:
  • Oddysee and Exoddus have frequently doors marked No Shrykull or No Farts that will remove the Shrykull power or explosive farts after drinking Soulstorm Brew, should you cross them, to prevent Sequence Breaking. Some passages also remove grenades, if you had them, for the same reason.
  • In Soulstorm all items except the Antidote are removed from your inventory after completing a level. Why Abe ditches that flamethrower or explosive drinks after quitting from location is anybody's guess.
• Beast Man: Clakkerz are essentially humanoid chickens.
• Bee People: The Mudokons, Sligs and Glukkons are all eusocial species, with the only known Mudokon queen being held captive, the Slig queen abusing and then selling her children as low-cost security, and the Glukkon queen residing in a palace. Paramites are apparently eusocial as well.
• Behind the Black: Secret areas are typically hidden behind foreground objects, through tunnels, and down drops that should be in plain sight for Abe.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Abe seems like an amiable little goofball, but get in his way and he'll have no qualms about taking over your mind and making you run into a meat saw.
• Biblical Motifs: Oddworld contains various allusions to the Bible. Divine fate apparently made the Mudokons the chosen people. Abe is a Messianic Archetype who rescues his people from slavery. The title Abe's Exoddus is an obvious reference to the Book of Exodus in the Bible. Various characters and entities have biblical names such as Abe (named after Abraham), Molluck (alternate spelling of Moloch, a false deity condemned by God), the Magog Cartel (named after one of the sons of Japheth), Mudos (tweaked anagram of Sodom), and Nolybab (unseen city which is Babylon spelled backwards).
• Bizarre Alien Biology: This is Oddworld, after all.
  • Bizarre Alien Locomotion/Multipurpose Tongue: Fleeches use their tongues both as a way to ensnare their prey and as a makeshift grappling hook.
  • Bizarre Alien Reproduction: There are several species that can reproduce eusocially. Vykkers also reproduce asexually.
  • Bizarre Alien Senses/Super-Senses: Lacking eyes, Scrabs sense electrical impulses to find their prey, and Paramites navigate primarily through smell, rather than vision.
  • Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: While we haven't seen them yet, the female queens are much larger than the males of their species.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: While Abe has generally good intentions, his main method of rebellion is blowing stuff up, and he not only kills countless Sligs and Glukkons, but laughs about it afterwards. To be fair, the Sligs can often be seen abusing Mudokon slaves for no other reason than because they find it fun and how they laugh when they kill Abe or another slave. With that in mind and the fact that Abe was once a slave himself meaning he probably experienced or saw this on a regular basis, it's no wonder he feels a bit of enjoyment in turning the tables. It still reflects the whole Black-and-Gray Morality.
  • The other Mudokons also have no qualms about leaving him to die if he doesn't save enough of their pals, and the Mudokon race as a whole has a history of being somewhat supremacist and holier than thou.
  • The appearance of the moon with the Mudokon handprint led the Mudokons to believe themselves to be racially superior to their Glukkon allies. The Glukkons responded to this by shunning magic, moving underground and indoors where they wouldn't have to see the sky, becoming industrialists, enslaving the Mudokons, and eventually seeing them as food.
  • Munch's Oddysee is notable in that, in order to enter Vykker's labs, Abe and Munch give the harmless oaf of a Glukkon, Lulu, riches and fame, only to take it away for their own ends and ruining his life on a whim. The kicker? Despite being justified the good ending still shows Lulu begging for money on the street... but then again, Lulu got rich because of a fake charity he created so him losing all of that money to help an actual good cause can very easily feel like poetic justice.
  • Soulstorm downplays it by offering for the first time non-lethal ways to deal with the Sligs.
• Black Comedy: Much of the humour in this series is very dark, once you get past the Toilet Humor and occasional slapstick.
  • In Abe's Exoddus, the scene that introduces Blind Mudokons has Abe accidentally leading one of them to their death, forgetting he was blind. Said death is shown in a somewhat comedic manner, in contrast to the rest of the game.
• Bland-Name Product: Several in-game products appear to be this. Expresso, a power-up from Munch's Oddysee, is a clear parody of the drink espresso, while Blastos, a crafting item from Soulstorm, is an obvious parody of Mentos.
• Blatant Lies: The Glukkon propaganda, which not only labels Abe as a terrorist (despite the fact the Glukkons own slaves), but consists entirely of contradictions.
  Sign: It has come to my attention that some employees believe that Bonewerkz can be shut down by turning off the five main boilers. Rubbish! This filthy lie is spurious, reprehensible and completely untrue! Furthermore, any employee who turns off all five workwheels and shuts down Bonewerkz will be immediately down sized.
• Bombardier Mook: Flying sligs have a helicopter rotor attached to their tail rather than mechanical legs of other sligs. This allows for them to move in more than just horizontal directions like ground sligs and go up and down or diagonally. Their weapon of choice? Grenades. Lots and lots of grenades.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: Both Sligs and Glukkons; though the Sligs have their masks to explain it, the Glukkons can do it because it's creepy.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": The more normal creatures of Oddworld suffer from this, such as Meep, Slurgs, Chippunks and Oktigi to name a few^note Respectively: weird sheep, squeaking slugs, insulting chipmunks, and telepathic octopuses.
• Capitalism Is Bad: The Magog Cartel embodies many of the negative traits of capitalism associated with this trope, including unsafe working conditions, the destruction of Oddworld's ecosystems, and employees who are treated as slaves.
• Chekhov's Gun: Abe's Exoddus shows a room under construction labelled "Vykkers Lab". Vykkers Lab later appears in Munch's Oddysee as a giant airship.
• The Chosen People: The Mudokons believed themselves the chosen people after the appearance of a moon with the shape of a Mudokon handprint on its face. They became arrogant and this alienated their former allies the Glukkons who eventually underwent an industrial revolution and enslaved them.
• Cinematic Platform Game: The first two games, at least. Soulstorm returned to it.
• Cool Airship: Vykker's Labs and smaller Vykker aircraft are an odd mix of this and the Flying Saucer trope. Lulu has one of the former. As does Molluck, come Soulstorm.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: The Glukkons.
• Crapsack World: Played With; At the beginning, Oddworld in general had been an extremely industrialized hellhole with no sense of hope. Hundreds of species were on the brink of extinction because of greed (And one species, the Meeches, are extinct), and one species has been reduced to one singular member from Sekto's overhunting. Mudokon workers are treated as slaves and valued just as much as the animals they process, Sligs encroach on and deface sacred landmarks to process more of these animals, and some places are so polluted that you can't even see the sky. However, thanks to the heroic actions of Abe, Munch, Stranger, and their friends and allies, who have been successfully putting the forces of evil in its place and overthrowing their reigns of terror, saving the innocent from the tyranny of said evil forces, and allowing the surviving species to gradually recover and repopulate, Oddworld slowly but surely becomes A World Half Full, as its generally uplifting Good and True Endings (which are the canon endings) can attest to (even if the outcome is a bit more bittersweet on Stranger's behalf, given his circumstances).
• Cute Creature, Creepy Mouth: The Fuzzles, which look like cute bouncing fuzzballs, but have a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth which they use to chomp on anybody who pisses them off.
• Debut Queue: The initial plan for the franchise was a five game series, starting with Abe - each additional game would add another new character to the playable party and be titled "Oddworld: Newcharacter's Oddyssee". The other mentioned character who would have joined the team would have been "Squeek", a tiny and friendly parasite-like creature. A character named "Nod" was rumored to join the team after Squeek, but Word of God confirmed this to be a hoax.
• Denser and Wackier: The characters and plots become over more outlandish and comedic (while still maintaing an overall dark atmosphere) as the series progresses.

• The Dog Bites Back: The whole point of the games, besides the Green Aesop. The protagonists are members of races that have been oppressed and/or hunted to near-extinction, and manage to get back at their victimizers at the end of the games. Even the Fuzzles apparently get some vengeance.
• Dragon Their Feet: Molluck was defeated in the first game, but was revealed to be the overseer to the Big Bads in the second game.
• The Dreaded: Scrabs are considered extremely dangerous, to the point that even Fleeches (Which are able to effortlessly swallow sligs and mudokons) want nothing to do with them whatsoever.
• Dystopia: Most of Mudos on Oddworld is a series of industrial wastelands with a species-based caste system, with the eating of sentients being commonplace.
• Ecocidal Antagonist: Oddworld is a Crapsack World filled with ruined natural environments because these types of villains are dominating the setting.
  • For the main series, the Glukkons are an industrial-focused species that prioritize satisfying their greed and materialistic desires above all else, turning the world around them into a polluted, barren wasteland, and using their Slig troops to hunt several species to near-extinction. The Meeches were a species already rendered extinct by the start of the game, and you play as a rebelling Mudokon worker, Abe, to throw a wrench into their malicious businesses.
  • Stranger's Wrath, a spinoff taking place in a different part of Oddworld, features Sekto as the Big Bad Corrupt Corporate Executive of a different financial empire, factories and over-hunting of several species (including the Steef, Stranger's species) included.
• Electronic Eyes: The Sligs sport heads-up-display and pilot visors. Their inherently poor eyesight is a strategic point.
  • Their poor eyesight is arguably Truth in Television - Sligs have compound eyes, which have an inherently low resolution in comparison to lens eyes.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The Glukkons are very fond of Lady Margaret, as evidenced in Munch's Oddysee ("Momma's gonna be so proud of her Glukkon!"). In New 'n' Tasty, the Sligs even get some of this (in spite of the fact that Skillya is absolutely horrible to her offspring) - some of them yell "mommyyyyy!" when they hear Abe chanting.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Brewmaster from Exoddus. He retains the name in Soulstorm as well.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: An inverted case with the Slogs. Some of them are capable of detecting when a Slig is possessed and will attack it as viciously as they would attack Abe.
• Evil Matriarch: Maggie and Skillya, the Glukkon and Slig queens.
• Extremely Short Timespan: New 'n' Tasty and Soulstorm occur over the course of roughly two days.
• Eyeless Face: Many of the fauna of Oddworld is eyeless.
• Fantastic Racism: The critical event that sparked everything in the story was a crater the shape of a Mudokon hand appearing on one of Oddworld's moons; since the Mudokons believed themselves to be the chosen race, the Glukkons nearly wiped themselves out trying to compete, resulting in their industrial revolution and the enslaving of the Mudokons as retaliation.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Alf's Rehab and Tea.
• Fragile Speedster: The Mudokons; granted, they can outrun and out-sneak Sligs with ease, but they die fantastically easy (as they can commit suicide by slapping themselves on the forehead a few times).
• Gaia's Lament: All of the games take place in both barren environments decaying from over-harvesting and the sinister factories of the respective Big Bad(s).
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The fact that RuptureFarms, Necrum Mines, FeeCo Depot, Slig Barracks, Bonewerkz and Soulstorm Brewery are all vastly larger than the facilities in Munch's Oddysee may qualify. Also, all Glukkons sound the same in Exoddus, despite Dripik, Phleg and Aslik all having different voices in cutscenes.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Maggie and Skillya, the Glukkon and Slig queens, the former being The Man Behind the Man and the latter of which is the Slig race's collective Freudian Excuse. On the flipside, there's poor old Sam, the Mudokon Queen.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Glukkons are generally seen puffing on cigars or cigarettes - with the exception of General Dripik, who smokes a pipe with a cigar in it.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Lady Margaret, Queen and mother of the Glukkons. She has thus far never appeared directly, but is the superior of Molluck, Abe's Oddysee's Big Bad, who in turn is the deceased superior of the Big Bad Triumvirate of Abe's Exoddus; General Dripik, Vice President Aslik and Director Phleg, along with the Brewmaster (who seems to be lower ranking than the Triumvirate). Munch's Oddysee's' Big Bad Duumvirate, Humphrey and Irwin, are part of a separate species and likely a separate entity, but are motivated by the desire to capture Munch to give his lungs to her.
  • The Uggae Estate (which includes Margaret), which seems to be a government of sorts for the Glukkons and/or Magog Cartel, may also be this to Molluck and his underlings.
  • Apparently, Munch's Exoddus would reveal Lady Margaret's grandmother to have been this to her granddaughter.
  • Background material implies the Khanzumerz may be this to the Magog Cartel as a whole, and presumably at least some other Oddworld businesses. It is ambiguous if they are just normal customers or if the Glukkons work for them.
  • Soulstorm has Molluck mention the Magog Cartel's investors. Details regarding them are sparse (confined largely to the newspapers in the game's pre-menu title sequence and Molluck's own comments), but what's clear is that they think Molluck burned down RuptureFarms, and Molluck is understandably terrified of them catching up with him as a result of it.
• Hollywood Evolution: The Hand Wave given for the Glukkon's backstory implies generations spent indoors somehow caused them to not only devolve, but is what causes their eyes to glow.^note Since their eyes seemingly glow, this means their eyes either emit light or are reflective, making them either nonsensical or useless respectively.
• Humanoid Aliens: To varying degrees, Mudokons, Clakkerz, Grubbs, Outlaws and Wolvarks.
• Karma Meter: Oddysee, Exoddus, New and Tasty and Soulstorm work on a quarma system, with how many Mudokons you save or kill determining what ending you get.
• Killer Rabbit: The Fuzzles; they're small, fuzzy, and absolutely adorable, but man, will they mess you up if you cross 'em.
• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Granted, possession is cool, but Stranger and the Sligs make a good case for this trope.
• Lighter and Softer: Zig-Zagged. Abe's Oddysee is a generally dark game with some occasional moments of comic relief. Abe's Exoddus is noticeably filled with more comic relief, though still maintaining a dark atmosphere. Munch's Oddysee is much more silly and comedic than the previous two games, but it also probably has the darkest and most nightmarish bad ending. Stranger's Wrath returns to total darkness and seriousness in a Wild West-inspired setting. New n' Tasty is more lighthearted compared to Abe's Oddysee, while Soulstorm is darker than Abe's Exoddus.
• Last of His Kind: Many of the "good" species find themselves in their predicament, pushed to extinction by the Glukkon's industrial parks, and then you have to just barely save them. This is especially true with Munch and the Stranger.
• Magical Native American: The Mudokons are a Fantasy Counterpart Culture race of these.
• Malevolent Architecture: Of course RuptureFarms and Soulstorm Brewery have No OSHA Compliance.
• The Man Behind the Man: Inverted, via Dragon Their Feet: Molluck, the Big Bad of Oddysee is revealed to have been the superior of all of Exoddus' Big Bads. Played straight with Queen Margaret and Molluck, and another possible example comes with the Khanzumerz, a nebulous group who are the purchasers of Magog products.
  • The reboot timeline plays it straight with the Magog Cartel's investors, whose displeasure about RuptureFarms being torched at the end of New 'n' Tasty has sent Molluck scrambling to find Abe and clear his own name of any wrongdoing before they get ahold of him.
• The Many Deaths of You: Seriously, the number of (often humorous) ways Abe or a Slig/Glukkon could get killed in the first two games would fill a book: being shot, ground up, crushed, mauled, blown up, falling into a bottomless pit or too far to land safely, just to name a few!
• Meaningful Name: Abe. Could reference the biblical Abraham or Abraham Lincoln (who freed the slaves). The Magog Cartel is also a biblical reference.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The basis of Abe's Oddysee; Abe only escapes slavery and overthrows RuptureFarms because he didn't want to be made into snacks; before he overhears the Glukkon meeting, he's perfectly content to be working for the Glukkons.
  • In the Good Ending of Soulstorm Molluck's Slig Chauffeur is able to bribe Morger and Aslik's Sligs to turn on their bosses because the Glukkons have been withholding pay and bonuses.
  • Also the plot basis of the cancelled SligStorm, where the player would control an imperfect Slig trying to escape being killed at infancy.
• Mooks, but no Bosses: The first three games. Since Abe is a One-Hit-Point Wonder in the first two, has no weapons apart from occasional stones or grenades and isn't exactly an expert fighter, that's fortunate.
• Multiple Endings: Each game has Good, Bad, Angelic, and Black endings. You get the Good Ending by saving about half of whatever you're meant to save, the Angelic by saving all of them, the Black if you not only don't save but actually kill most of them, and the Bad otherwise. In the original version of the first game, getting the Angelic ending unlocks a cutscene menu, while getting the Black ending gives you a replay with infinite grenades. In Abe's Exoddus, the Angelic ending gives you a view of some concept art, and the Black ending gives you a replay immune to all damage (apart from falling). In Munch's Oddysee, Getting Angelic or Black rewards the player with additional editions of the Daily Deception showing the aftermath of either ending.
• Nintendo Hard:
  • You have infinite lives, and you will need them.
  • Many of the secret areas are particularly cruel.
  • It's been pushed up to 11 for New 'n' Tasty. If you want to get the Platinum, you have to save all the Mudokons as usual... but it has to be done in three hours or less. Good Luck!
  • Even more so in Soulstorm, where getting Platinum requires things like not dying once in a level, sparing as many Sligs as possible and collecting all badges in a level.
• No Final Boss for You: Both Munch's Oddysee and Oddworld Soulstorm will deny you access to last two levels if you have bad Quarma at that point, because Fuzzles blow your cover in the former and the facility where two last levels take place kinda blows up in the latter. Downplayed in Exoddus which doesn't give you an access to an extra room with 4 more mudokons to save.
• Non-Standard Game Over: The bad endings of the Abe/Munch games, in which the protagonists die horribly and a developer message taunts you, before sending you back to the mid-point to play the game exactly right or entirely again.
  Smooth move, knucklehead. You fight all the way to the end of RutureFarms, then get punked because you didn't rescue enough mudokons.
  • The ending of Oddysee has a gameplay equivalent by dropping you right into the boardroom; failing to use Shrykull but shutting off the gas gets you shot and captured, but using Shrykull leaves you in an empty boardroom with the timer still ticking, forcing you to either suffocate when the gas timer reaches zero or to shut off the gas and get captured anyway.
• No OSHA Compliance: Working at Chernobyl in high-heeled shoes during the 19th century would be safer than working at the facilities in Oddworld, and that is before Molluck and his fellow Glukkons decided to try and use their own Mudokon slaves as a meat source.
  ONLY 1236 WORK RELATED ACCIDENTS THIS MONTH. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
• One-Gender Race: Vykkers, as hermaphrodites. As we haven't seen the queens yet, other races also give this impression. In Soulstorm you finally do meet a mudokon woman though - The Keeper.
• Only One Name: Most of the characters. Some may be on First-Name Basis, but Abe, Alf and other former slaves appear to just have one name.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Since Exoddus onwards has multiple characters, some nicknames were added; Abe notably gets referred to as "that Abe guy" or "stitch-lips", and villains are given titles like "Director Phleg" rather than surnames.
  • No Name Given: "Big Face" and "The Weirdos", both of whom are only named by their appearance in cutscenes.
• Overly-Long Tongue: The Fleech was given one by accident while being designed to be "the perfect Glukkon pet". It's stated to be six feet long, and able to stretch across both of the creature's mouths.
• Pimp Duds: The Glockstars.
• Planet of Hats: Glukkons, a whole race of money grubbing jerks; Vykkers, a race of sadistic surgeons; Clakkerz, a race of lazy, intolerant hillbillies...
• Planetary Romance: The different races and creatures of the planet of Oddworld.
• Power-Up Mount: Elum, which is a cross between a horse, a snail, and a cow.
• Proud Industrious Race: Industrial species as a whole can be considered a local equivalent of this. Although there are a lot of differences between them, for instance, only some of them are at the head of the process, while others perform more secondary functions, such as security, it is precisely a result of their joint activities that numerous factories producing various goods have emerged and continue to operate.
• Punch-Clock Villain:
  • The Sligs and to a lesser extent the Interns, who all pretty much serve the Glukkons for the various job perks and the pay... and being a jerk is quite literally part of the job. In fact, Alf's Rehab and Tea at one point had the aforementioned Mudokon mention a Slig getting beaten to death with his own arms for not being a complete jerk to the Mudokons and an Intern being suspended from work for petting a Fuzzle.
  • Arguably most of the antagonists in the series. Even the Glukkons exploit the natural world merely in an effort to make a profit, rather than to be intentionally malicious; they're deliberately cruel to the Mukodons due to their previous supremacist views and the resulting war. The notable exception is the Vykkers, who do their jobs in the present because they enjoy inflicting pain on others; even then, Vykkers developed that sadism while pursuing their desperate research into Longevity Treatment.
• Punny Name: Vice-President Aslik.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Ubiquitous and anvilicious thought the series (to an extent that would make Karl Marx blush.)
• Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: While Oddysee was fairly dark with a little humour as a treat, Exoddus reduced some of the brooding with inclusion of more dialog as opposed to Oddysee's poetry narration. Munch's Oddysee is the most overtly silly, with the most jokes and far less of the oppressive atmosphere. Stranger's Wrath is in between Oddysee and Exoddus in terms of tone, and New 'n' Tasty is on par with Exoddus, with the original's narration mixed with more physical comedy. Soulstorm breaks the trend, with arguably the most serious story of the series and very few jokes.
• Rule of Symbolism: The entirety of the series is an anvilicious Green Aesop as far as plot basis is concerned; they all have the player controlling a Gaia's Avenger who eventually helps the cosmic and/or endangered natives fight back against sinister corporations.
• Scenery Porn: The first two games have beautifully rendered backgrounds, especially for a PlayStation game.
  • New 'n' Tasty and Soulstorm continue the trend, with the 2.5D gameplay over beautiful vistas.
• Scenery Gorn: The death factories that make up the Magog facilities are dirty, gritty, and highly dystopian. They are all very lovingly rendered.
• Science Fantasy: Elements of both sci-fi and traditional fantasy are found in the game.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Elum.
  • Also, Nolybab, a city where the Glukkon queen Lady Margaret resides. It's also the home (or prison) of the Mudokon queen in the reboots.
• Sequel Escalation: Abe's Oddyssee has 99 Mudokons to rescue. Abe's Exoddus has 300.
  • New 'n Tasty offers 300 Mudokons to rescue too (299 + Alf), making it Remake Escalation too.
  • Soulstorm is both with more than 1300 Mudokons to rescue!
  • Zig-Zagged with Paramites and Scrabs in ''Munch's Oddysee'. On one hand, they'll almost always attack in absolutely massive groups and are still relentless when doing so. On the other hand, neither character is a One-Hit-Point Wonder like in the last few games, so a single hit from them is far less deadly.
• Sissy Villain: Many of the Vykkers.
• Starfish Aliens: The sentient races usually have a mix of weird anatomy and unorthodox reproductive strategies.
• The Starscream: Vice President Aslik is implied to be this.
• Stepford Smiler: The Greeters are an unintentional example in-universe- they were originally Exactly What It Says on the Tin for the Magog Cartel, until they started zapping visitors. The Cartel converted them into security guards, keeping their smiles.
• Stuff Blowing Up:
  • From storytelling perspective, the facilities you escape blow up surprisingly often. It even gets a lampshade in Munch's Oddysee:
  Abe: You know, most of the time, when I leave a mean place like that, it blows up.
  • From the gameplay perspective, it also happens often given the various bombs are the most frequent obstacles you encounter. You can also arm yourself with grenades or possess a Flying Sligs with grenade launchers. In Soulstorm even soft drinks violently explode when thrown and when mixed with Blastos their explosion is strong enough to breach a metal floor. You can also assemble stun mines.
• Toilet Humor: The series as a whole loves fart jokes. In every game where Abe is playable, there's a button you can push to make him fart at will. Curiously, farts are a key part of Mudokon communication.
  • Fleeches are flushed down the toilet once they become to big to be kept as pets.
  • Vice President Aslik appears to be in a toilet when you finally confront him.
  • A product of the Vykkers Conglomerate is the amusingly-named Butt-Flo laxative.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Just about everyone from the first two games in Munch's Oddysee. Abe is much better at possession (mainly due to Spooce), nobody dies in one hit, Native Mudokons are highly efficient at defending themselves, and Sligs now can come in the form of steroid-pumped "Big Bro" sligs.
  • The same applies Soulstorm when compared to New 'n' Tasty. Abe got Double Jump and is able to use and craft various items as well as being able to sneak-jump and sneak-crouch, Mudokons can now jump and climb ledges, Sligs finally learned to aim above or below their floor and can now man stronger weapons such as shotguns and rocket-launchers, the list goes on...|
  • In the final mission of Munch's Oddysee, the Mudokon scrubs, normally defenseless and easily killed off, are upgraded to the powerful and combat-ready Mudarchers by the Shaman, as a special gesture from him. These are crucial to killing the Vykkers in the area.
• Trial-and-Error Gameplay: After getting accustomed to the game, expect several traps that give no warning whatsoever. For example, Oddysee's Scrabania has levers that drop a boulder onto a marked spot; cue one random lever that crushes you to death and sends you back several minutes for no reason beyond "Screw you".
• Truly Single Parent: Vykkers do this naturally.
• Vapor Ware: Hand of Odd, what was intended to be a multiplayer strategy game.
• Vengeful Vending Machine: Greeters are the result of an experiment in creating self-promoting vending machines, which was deemed a failure because they kept electrocuting their customers. The Magog Cartel decided to exploit their psychotic tendencies and had them redesigned as security guards for their factories.
• Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: Vykkers have a grand total of seven limbs. Inverted with Sligs, whose vestigial back legs appear to have fused into stumpy tail.
• Variable Mix: Really sets the mood, especially during possession.
• Vocal Evolution: Abe's voice is much lower in Abe's Exoddus than it was in Abe's Oddysee, to symbolize how Abe has grown as a character following the first game. Lorne Lanning later realized that Abe's soft voice from the first game was essential to his essence and charm, and in Munch's Oddysee, his tone is a mixture of the two, but closer to his voice from the first game.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The bad endings involve copious amounts of this.
  • In Munch's Oddysee, the Shaman (the Mission Control of the game that gives you an overview of your objectives in each stage) will sling guilt at you and will generally be less friendly during some of his objective explanations if you have negative Quarma from leaving/killing Mudokons/Fuzzles. This starts as soon as you obtain Munch and leads all the way to the end of The Loading Dock, where he tells you that your bad Quarma has finally caught up with you and leaves. Sure enough, the Bad Ending follows.
• Xenofiction: There's not a human in sight in Oddworld.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: BoneWerkz in Abe's Exoddus and the Splinterz facility in Munch's Oddysee.

Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus

• 100% Completion: Rescuing all the Mudokons.
• Almighty Janitor: Abe; Savior of the Mudokons, Avatar of the Shrykull, Janitor of RuptureFarms, Butt-Monkey of the Mudokon people.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The Brewmaster has employee regulations to prevent the collapse of SoulStorm Breweries, which forbid "tampering with the main boiler", "following mudokon terrorists", "entering shrykull portals" and "criticizing the full, rich flavor of SoulStorm™ brew"
• Artistic License – Biology: In the first two games, getting gored by a saw/drill (or shot excessively by a slig) will cause the character to shatter like a clay model and leave behind no viscera, blood or organs. Granted, ratings and graphical limitations exist, but the fact they are games based around industrial animal processing makes their absence questionable.
• Attract Mode: The original game includes several short demos that tell you the basics of the gameplay while simultaneously showing off just how many different ways Abe can die.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Failing to console a Mudokon who has witnessed two deaths will result in him losing hope and trying to kill himself.
• Big Bad: Molluck, the owner of RuptureFarms in the first game. Ironically it's his trying to turn the Mudokons into food that kicks off everything.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: General Dripik, Vice President Aslik, Director Phleg, and the Brewmaster in Exoddus, each who own a factory that Abe has to get through to continue his quest.
• Big Red Button: At the end of Exoddus in Soulstorm Brewery's boiler: "ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NEVER EVER TURN THIS WHEEL!" Guess what your mission is. Similarly in Abe's Oddysee, a literal big red (hand-shaped) button with a "DO NOT PUSH" sign. Story-wise you're supposed to press it but if you don't you just miss a cut-scene.
• Breakingthe Fourth Wall: Happens in Exoddus after Abe meets his first blind Mudokon and accidentally leads to his death. He then turns to the camera and pleads with the player to help him save the others. Later, after a Slig is chewed out by his Glukkon boss, the Slig turns to the camera and bluntly states "Man, he is PISSED".
• Call-Back: In Exoddus, FeeCo Depot has a terminal for RuptureFarms, but by the time of Abe's visit, it has been decommissioned.
• Colour-Coded Emotions: In Abe's Exoddus, Mudokons change color based on how they feel. Red ones are angry, blue ones are depressed, green ones are sick, and yellow ones are "wired".
• Defensive Feint Trap: The Paramites, when alone, will not attack Abe and will instead slowly back away from him as he approaches. That is, until it hits a corner where it cannot move back anymore, where the Paramite will lunge straight at Abe and attack him. While this seems like a submissive behavior, it's actually meant to try to lure potential predators straight into a nest of them, which is supported by the fact that when more than 1 is on screen, they drop this behavior, and just charge at Abe right away.
• Deadly Euphemism: New N' Tasty is never a good sign in a slaughterhouse without morals.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A sign for the then under-construction Vykker's Labs appears in Abe's Exoddus.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In Abe's Oddysee, you can only have command over one Mudokon at a time (which notably makes several puzzles much harder than they need to be), most of the cutscene dialogue is in rhyme and very few characters outside of Abe have speaking roles (and those that do are usually muffled and indistinct), Abe's voice sounds completely different than in later games, the Sligs have a different visual design, and you can't possess Scrabs and Paramites^note Though this lends to a bit of Fridge Brilliance, as it makes it likely that that ability is actually a side effect of the Shrykull), among other things.
  • Interestingly, the remake for that game, New n Tasty, has both the old and the new visual design for the sligs, often visible on screen together. The game keeps the other early-installment weirdness intact.
• Eternal Engine: The majority of Abe's Oddysee is spent in a massive meat-plant.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Justified, given that Abe is a wanted fugitive and, in the case of the guardian wildlife, is trespassing on sacred ground.
• Eye Scream: In order to maximize productivity, Mudokons may be subject to lips being stitched shut to prevent talking and eyes sewn shut to keep miners compliant.
• Face Death with Despair: In Oddysee's ending, when Abe's suspended over a meat grinder he thrashes about and begs Molluck to spare him.
• Fartillery: After drinking brew, Abe can fart explosively, and even possess his farts.
• First-Episode Twist: Oddysee has the reveal that Mudokon slaves are next on the menu at RuptureFarms, Exoddus has the twist that SoulStorm Brew is made from Mudokon bones.
• Flip-Screen Scrolling: In Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus.
• Funny Background Event: When each of the Glukkon Soulstorm Executives calls in to have the security deactivated, you can see them each begin their Death-By-Abe Throes the instant the Slig technician looks away to carry out the request.
• Gaiden Game: Abe's Exoddus was designated as outside the quintology. Essentially it's the second half of Oddysee that was big enough to be its own game.
• General Failure: It's a wonder how General Dripik got his position, considering he cannot remember his own name. Either that, or he has stage fright.
  • Dripik's standing was actually answered in a past edition of Dear Alf; His role as a General is pretty much a blatant lie, since all those medals that are on his outfit? It's because of how much money he's got. He's as much of a "General" as the Magog Cartel is an honest and trustworthy organization.
• Genre Blindness: In Exoddus, Abe is finally imbibed with the power of invisibility. Cue the Glukkons coming up with locking their places up so tight that Abe "would have to be invisible to break in."
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: The laughing gas in Exoddus, which makes even depressed Mudokons so overjoyed only a smack to the head will fix them.
• God Mode: Your reward in Exodus for getting the Black Ending.
• Guide Dang It!: Saving all the Mudokons is hard enough as it is... so of course there are secret screens hiding even more. And in both Oddysee and Exoddus, one of them is on the first screen of the game.
  • Hell, in one instance there is even a secret area hidden inside another secret area.
  • In Abe's Exoddus, screens with access to secret screens have brew bottles lying around, making it slightly easier. Oddysee is not so consistent (although you can often hear snoring Sligs, and sometimes see falling debris).
  • Novice players beware - in Abe's Oddysee you are never told in-game that you should rescue your co-workers, or precisely how (although they do explain some of it in the manual). In fact, the first time a sign instructs you how to save anyone, you've already passed ten of the 99 mudokons you can save.
• Happiness in Slavery: Abe, who was perfectly happy being a slave until he found out about "Mudokon Pops".
• Human Resources: The game begins in Abe's Oddysee when Abe finds out the Glukkons are planning to launch "Mudokon Pops", and in Abe's Exoddus he discovers that Soulstorm Brew contains the bones and tears of Mudokon workers.
  Abe: First our meat, then our bones, now our tears?!
• Homage: This game is highly influenced by Orwell's ideas of dystopia and the game itself contain several homages to his works, e.g. quotes from Nineteen Eighty-Four appear in Abe's Exoddus' scroll signs.
  Abe: I saw what their next product was going to be: IT WAS US!
• Immediate Sequel: Exoddus picks up immediately after the good ending to Oddysee. Abe gets knocked off the platform and falls unconscious, where the spirits of the Three Weirdos come to him in his dream and plead for his help to save other Mudokons enslaved in other factories as well as stop the Glukkons from further desecrating their burial grounds.
• Industrialized Evil: The RuptureFarms are all about slaughtering sapient beings for meat on an industrial scale.
• Iron Butt-Monkey: Abe (in cutscenes, at least).
• Kent Brockman News: The "Magog on the March" flash news you can watch in Exoddus. Of course, Hilarity Ensues.
• Laughing Gas: Abe's Exoddus'': Laughing gas shows up as a hazard in several areas. It doesn't affect Abe, but any of his followers who breathe it in will begin running around and giggling uncontrollably, refuse to follow Abe's instructions and potentially draw the attention of Sligs or other enemies. Abe must slap them in the face to get them back to normal.
• Law Enforcement, Inc.: SligBarracks.
• Ludicrous Gibs: In the first two games, releasing control after possessing something made it explode violently, and that's excluding many other gruesome kinds of death.
• May Contain Evil: Exoddus has the Glukkons offering free SoulStorm Brew samples; it then turns out the brew is so highly addictive that Mudokons will drink it to the point of hangover and dependence, forcing them into slavery to meet their addiction. Abe is the only character who can handle it without these issues, and even he suffers the side effect of explosive farts.
• Mind Control: Chanting allows you to possess Sligs. In Exoddus, you gain the ability to possess Glukkons, Scrabs, Paramites, and exploding farts as well.
• Mook Horror Show: The last cutscene before the ending of Abe's Exoddus has the junior executive Glukkons of the Brewery freaking out because Abe, the guy who destroyed RuptureFarms and killed the top Glukkons of the company is now loose inside the Brewery.
• Multiple Endings: The first game ends with Abe captured by Mullok and hanging over a grinder. and, depending on how many Mudokons you saved, results if he's rescued or not.
  • Bad: Since Abe left so many of his kind for dead, no one comes to his aid and he's dropped to his death while Mullock and his Slig laugh at his demise.
  • Good: Save enough and the Mudokons repay Abe's efforts by using their magic to summon lighting that strikes the building, hitting Mullock and his Slig and knocking them out. An elder Mudokon then comes in and transports Abe to safety where his fellow Mudokons cheer for him.
    • Exoddus
  • Bad: Don't save enough, Abe's fellow Mudokons knock him out and leave him stuck on a tear extractor where the Brewmaster kills him.
  • Good: Save enough and the factories are destroyed and he's once more praised as a hero, with him vowing to free more of his kind. What's more, one of his friends opens a rehab clinic to help those addicted to the brew.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It's implied that the Glukkons only started to excavate Necrum after Abe shut down RuptureFarms, depriving the Glukkons of an easy source of bones.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder:
  • Just about anything slightly dangerous will kill Abe. Somewhat justified though, since being shot by trigger-happy guards, blown up by a bomb, carved by a buzzsaw, attacked by various ferocious creatures, crushed by a giant carcass, or falling from a 20 meters high ledge would likely kill anyone not Made of Iron. And this is actually averted with Fleeches, that only kill you after their tongues hit you ten times or so, as well as the bees in the first game.
  • Perhaps Mudokons are very weak physically in general. Some of them can kill themselves by slapping their foreheads a few times. Some are more resilient (won't die by the bees that can kill Abe) but perhaps they're stronger due to meditation.
  • Subverted in a way with Sligs - they have such bad aim that it always takes them three shots to hit and kill Abe, so that basically translates to three hit points per Slig encounter.
• One-Winged Angel: A heroic version in Oddysee when you can turn into Shrykull, a Scrab/Paramite/Mudokon hybrid that shoots Lightning!
• Our Slogan Is Terrible:
  • In the first two games, if you stop and read the LCD signs you will often see rather curious ads, generally joking on the ridiculous price of Glukkon products.
    Scrab cakes: Mmmm mmmm! They'll cost you an arm and a leg!
  • A real ad for the second game ended with the tagline "Fart posession. No other game has it and frankly, we're not sure any other game would want it!"
• Power Tattoo: Abe's hand tattoos from Big Face allow him to use the Shrykull power, while his chest tattoo from the Weirdos allows him to heal Mudokons sick from brew.
• Press X to Die: In Abe's Exoddus. FeeCo Depot has an info station in the very first room where a Slig (Enemy Guard) hosts an infomercial for the player. At the end, he refers to a lever right next to the player should they have any questions. If the player pulls the lever, a boulder drops and kills the player instantly. Thankfully, this is done right at the start of Fee Co Depot so as not to undo progress. And considering the game so far, it should be obvious to players.
• Property of Love: Flavor D in Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus; the Mudokon race is kept complacent by the higher-ups with the products they create, such as Abe discussing RuptureFarms products in Oddysee, and SoulStorm workers typically being addicted to brew in Exoddus.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: One of the ways you are required to dispose of enemies. This can vary from simply making them spontaneously explode, to making be eaten by carnivorous wild-life, shot by their co-workers/underlings, run off a cliff or into a saw/drill.
• Putting on the Reich: General Dripik's outfit bears a strong resemblance to an Allgemeine SS uniform.
• The Reveal: Minor example in Abe's Exoddus, where Mudokon tears are revealed late in the game to be the other secret ingredient of Soulstorm Brew.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Most of the voice-over narrative in Abe's Oddysee is done in rhyme.
• Sapient Eat Sapient: The Glukkon-designed Mudokon Pop, which is made of Mudokon meat. The Soulstorm brew may also count, since it's made out of Mudokon bones and tears.
• Scary Stinging Swarm: The bees that chase Abe in the first game. They will kill you if you stand still. The only way to get rid of them is to run past another Mudokon or Elum and pass the swarm off onto them - strangely enough, they won't be killed by them.
• Schmuck Bait: Quite a few in the first two games. There is even one in the manual of Exoddus, but in all honesty, if you trust a manual that tells you to kill all Mudokons for a reward, you're pretty gullible to say the least. Subverted with that last one, as you DO get a reward for killing as many Mudokons (and Fuzzles in Munch's Oddysee) as possible in the first 3 games, in the form of infinite grenades, invincibility and an extra newspaper after the Bad Ending respectively. New 'n' Tasty doesn't give you anything for killing all the Mudokons you possibly can, though.
  Oddysee - (RING FOR SERVICE)^note While using the lever is necessary to continue, there really isn't an excuse for being surprised considering all the employees are trigger happy psychopaths
  Exoddus - "If you have any further questions, please feel free to pull the lever to your right."
  Exoddus - Only a fool or a murderer would pull this lever.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The "Magog On The March"'s Slig News Anchor, when management's attempts at damage control over how much chaos Abe is causing become too ludicrous for even him to take seriously, downs his mic and storms off set.
• Shock and Awe: Abe eventually learns how to transform into a Shrykull, which will then zap all on-screen enemies and hazards, disintegrating them and blowing them up respectively.
• Shoot the Dog: Literally. An advised tactic when controlling Sligs is to shoot their Slog pets so they can't cause you problems.
• Sickening "Crunch!": Expect hearing this sound very frequently with most deaths (bar those resulting from explosions).
• Squad Controls: A staple of the Abe games.
• Squishy Wizard: Abe, and by extension the other mudokons.
• Timed Mission: At the ends of Oddysee and Exoddus, you must escape from RuptureFarms and Soulstorm Brewery before you and your fellow Muddokons are gassed.
• Temple of Doom: The Paramonia and Scrabania temples are dedicated to animals held sacred to Mudokuns, and are meant as tests of mind and body, respectively. You'll still die if you hesitate for even a second, though.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Played for laughs in the Good Ending of Abe's Oddysee, in which the attack on Molluck strips him of his outfit (Glukkons' outfits usually make them look like tall, physically imposing Bad Bosses), revealing that his species actually has shriveled, unusable legs and exceptionally long arms, due to their lack of physical activity since becoming Corrupt Corporate Executives who never go outside (because of this limb problem they "walk" hilariously from Exoddus onwards).
• Trees into Toothpicks: Splinterz Manufacturing, a logging and toothpick-manufacturing venture that's part of the Magog Cartel.
• The Unfought: Mullock and Brewmaster are never directly confronted in game. Whether they are defeated or not occurs solely in the ending cutscenes determined by how many mudokons you managed (or failed) to rescue in total.
• Unwinnable by Design: Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus both qualify as Nasty; failing to save at least 50% of all Mudokons makes the good ending impossible to obtain, forcing the player to reload or restart entirely for the good ending.
  • The developers have technically countered this through making the bad ending more of a Non-Standard Game Over; the game taunts your incompetence, and leaves you at the half-way point in the game, giving you the choice of saving every mudokon between then and the end without fail (READ: 50 in the first (in New 'n' Tasty, 200 more Mudokons were added, meaning that you need to save 150 Mudokons in a row for the good ending at this point), 150 in the second, most of which are well hidden) or starting entirely again.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Trying to rescue all 399 Mudokons (99 in the first, 300 in the second)
  • Leading the blind Mudokons into bird portals, and preventing them from hurting themselves on the way.
  • Cheering up depressed or angry Mudokons.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Finding new and interesting ways to kill Abe and co.
  • This game is notable for it! Try possessing a Slig and killing one of the Mudokons. If there were other Mudokons nearby, they will start hitting themselves in a suicide attempt. Unless you go back to Abe and apologize to them, they will succeed in killing themselves.
  • In the first two games, if you slap a Mudokon, he'll slap you back. Place two Mudokons next to each other, stand on the same space as one of them and slap the other. Then duck and roll away. The two Mudokons will exchange slaps until one of them dies.
  • As an extension to the above, in Exoddus you can set up full-scale brawls in areas with many Mudokons clumped in a group. When one of them dies, the rest will all become depressed. Slapping one of them will then lead to all of them committing suicide. In one area close to the end of the game, this is even used as a legit puzzle mechanic.
  • Letting blind Mudokons walk into walls, or if you're particularly cruel, into a bone-saw.
  • Possessing enemies and making them commit suicide in various horrible ways. They may deserve it, but still...
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Did you enjoy killing or ignoring all those Mudokons? Enjoy the "bad ending"...
  • Inverted with the Black Ending. If you kill enough Mudokons you are rewarded with infinite grenades in the first game, and bulletproof skin in the second.
• Villainous Breakdown: Director Phleg, after Abe has destroyed pretty much everyone else:
  Phleg: There ain't no bones anywhere! No bones, no brew! I am totally screwed! My career is over! (sobbing) AND IT'S ALL THAT BLUE BASTARD'S FAULT!
• Weak, but Skilled: Sure, Abe's not a physical powerhouse, but he's still the biggest threat to the Glukkon industrial monopoly and is slowly liberating the Mudokon species.
• Wham Line: A minor example; first time players following the LED tutorials (which recommend running straight for the exit) will be shocked to be met with a sign stating those they failed to save will be executed should you fail to backtrack for them all.
• X Days Since: Inverted in the first game: One of the scrolling information bars in RuptureFarms, a meatpacking plant, reads "Only 1,234 work related injuries this month! Keep up the good work!"
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Abe is labelled a terrorist by the Industrialists. And considering some of the stuff he's done, it's kinda understandable.