As one of the last major releases for the original Xbox, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is also one of the most memorable games on the system, taking the series to new places with a cross between third-person platforming and first-person shooting. With its unique weapons system, open-ended mission design and fascinating story, it’s a game that always felt special and still holds up today – and it’s recently received an impressive Switch conversion.
The original Xbox release was something of a technical achievement, managing to push the hardware further than many other contemporary releases – but some might say that it was the right game at the time, failing to break even. Its lack of commercial success ensured that the series went silent until the arrival of the 2015 PlayStation 3 HD remaster helmed by UK-based studio, Just Add Water.
It’s in this rendition of the game where most of the major changes were made – changes that persist across many of the subsequent releases of the game, including the new Switch conversion. Character and enemy models were overhauled with hugely boosted polygon counts, detailed new textures were added to the mix, cutscenes refined, foliage improved and crucially, the performance was bumped up to 60 frames per second. It wasn’t entirely flawless, but it was an amazing conversion of a landmark game and its great to see its DNA persist into new releases years later. JAW’s updates eventually made their way to PC as well, while PS Vita also received a solid conversion of the game, albeit one limited to 30fps.
The Switch version runs on the most modern console hardware the game has been hosted on to date, offering the chance for the best overall package. It’s certainly an excellent game, but again, it’s not quite perfect. Looking back, the original Xbox version operated at 480p, the PlayStation 3 remaster delivered 720p while PS Vita offered up display-native 544p (albeit with a performance reduction back to the original 30fps). With Switch, docked mode delivers a full 1080p output – which is a nice improvement over previous console versions – while handheld mode offers the same 720p as PS3, also making it a pixel-perfect match for the screen. Just like PS3, 60 frames per second is the target.