Oddworld Inhabitants and Just Add Water’s New ‘n’ Tasty remake of Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, which debuted last year on PlayStation 4, will be available on PS3, Steam and Xbox One in the not so distant future.

Let’s start with the PC/Mac/Linux release, which has been confirmed for a Steam (and other digital storefronts that are still to be determined) launch date of February 25th. It’ll sell for $20, with a 10% discount to be offered on pre-orders. Additional pre-order info, system requirements, and other details will be announced at a later date.

Turning to PS3 and Xbox One, those platforms don’t have a specific launch date; however, they are currently planned to drop in early March. All versions will offer achievements/trophies, online leaderboards, and any updates that have been made to the original PS4 version since its release, such as an option for “old school” controls.

Don’t forget that Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty development for Vita and Wii U is still in progress, but due to certain “engineering challenges” getting the game up and running at optimal performance requires additional work and, as a result, more time.

Source: Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty Release Dates For Steam, PS3 & Xbox One [Oddworld]

Likely to get buried beneath the hype of all the big studios and AAA game reveals, British developer Just Add Water is poised for a strong under-the-radar E3 presence, serving up a two-course meal consisting of a retro-flavored special of the day, and a familiar dish spiced up with a new and tasty secret sauce.

Leading into the show, JAW has released the E3 trailers for PlayStation Vita vector shooter Gravity Crash Ultra as well as Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty, the HD remake of Abe’s Oddysee which will first be released on PlayStation platforms (PS3, PS4, Vita) before eventually coming to PC/Mac/Linux and Wii U.

Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty’s E3 trailer emphasizes the emotion of Abe’s story, complemented by the song “Born to Love You” by Aussie singer Elodie Adams (which will also play during the game’s end credits scroll).

Gravity Crash Ultra, scheduled for blast off in July, is a remake of sorts as well, building upon JAW’s debut original title Gravity Crash with these enhancements:

•60 FPS, native resolution gameplay
•New improved graphics renderer
•Particles “turned up to 11”, meaning bigger guns, bigger explosions
•Improved weapons VFX
•Improved landscape and lighting effects
•Better visual effects
•Improved radar
•New logo to reflect the new title
•New GUI graphics
•New “anti-grav” space ship
•Three ships used to give difficulty levels
•Mission notification system improved
•Better audio throughout the game
•Remixed soundtrack by CoLDSToRAGE
•New pickup voice-over
•Create & share levels with the PS3 version

Last I heard, Just Add Water’s update bringing PlayStation Move and stereoscopic 3D support to Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD was scheduled for late May. We’re now approaching the end of the first full week of June; obviously that original deadline was missed.

However, there is an update to report. JAW took to Twitter today to announce that the game update is in final QA testing with Sony and will be out “in the not too distant future.”

That’s not a whole lot to go on, I know, but it’s at least good to hear it should be available fairly soon. I’ve been anxiously waiting for Move support before buying the game myself, so I’m stoked for this to finally be coming out. Hopefully there aren’t any QA snags that slow the process down.

There’s a new trailer out today as well (watch it below), revealing another added update feature. According to the video, the forthcoming update will also introduce XMB and YouTube video capture.

JAW is going above and beyond with Stranger’s Wrath HD — and don’t forget the studio is also hard at work on a Vita version along with a Munch’s Oddysee HD update for both Sony platforms. Oddworld fans, rejoice!

If you wind up with any PSN Store gift cards for Christmas this year, be sure to save $15 for Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD, which Just Add Water confirms today will launch as a belated Christmas gift to PS3 gamers on Tuesday, December 27th.

Unfortunately, PlayStation Move support and stereoscopic 3D won’t be making it into the initial version as planned. However, both features as well as some other extra surprises will be patched in within a couple months of release.

Here’s an outline of the features and enhancements that will be yours to enjoy from day one:

Characters:

– All 84 character models have been updated with increased polygon counts and higher resolution textures.
– Wolvark Sloghandlers now release Slogs instead of Slegs.
– Professor Dimble now has glasses and an academic tome.
– New female voices have been recorded for two characters.
– Made Blisterz Booty unkillable.

Environments:

– All environments have been given higher resolution textures.
– Most vegetation has been updated with increased polygon counts and/or higher resolution textures.
– A lot of environment now reflects in water where it didn’t before.
– Many, many pipes and barrels were rounded.
– New Easter Eggs added to the game.
– Added Blisterz Booty’s broken crud gun to the floor by his bola’d body.
– Sekto’s Office has been changed to more closely resemble than seen in the FMV.

Audio:

– All game audio (voice, sound effects and music) have been upgraded to 16-bit 44KHz from 8-bit 11KHz or less!
– Support for 5.1, Dolby Digitial and DTS.

Display:

– Everything now runs at 720p, 60 FPS, and in widescreen.
– All menus have been updated with a new design based on original unused concepts.
– New posters now occupy the inventory menu when no bounty is accepted.

Difficulty:

– All armour upgrades now actually increase Stranger’s health.
– Added difficulty levels to the game: Easy, Medium and Hard.

In Easy mode:
– Stranger has twice the health
– Enemies have half the health and stamina
– Enemies’ stamina recovers half as fast

In Normal Mode:
– Stranger’s health and armour for later in the game have been re-balanced.

In Hard mode:
– Stranger has a third less health.
– Enemies stamina recovers a third quicker.

Unlockables:

– 37 Trophies: 23 bronze, 8 silver, 5 gold, 1 platinum
– 37 pieces of unlockable concept art
– Five unlockable movies

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD Comes to PSN December 27th [PlayStation.Blog]

Just Add Water’s remastered PS3 version of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath gets its first-ever gameplay trailer today, and boy does the game look outstanding. EA really goofed not putting this one on multiple platforms years ago, and the Xbox 360’s backwards compatibility roster will forever have an enormous hole in it without this Xbox sleeper classic. At least PlayStation gamers are getting it now, with HD graphics and PlayStation Move support to boot!

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD will be out for PSN download this fall. Stranger will also be coming to PS Vita along with Oddworld mate Munch.

Developer Just Add Water has announced something very exciting on Twitter this evening. Oddworld games Munch’s Oddysee and Stranger’s Wrath are both in development for holiday season releases on Sony’s PS Vita portable gaming system. Even cooler, the games will support cloud saving for cross-platform play with their PS3 counterparts. How sweet is that?

That’s all J.A.W.’s Twitter message revealed for now, but rest assured I’ll report back once more is announced and images/trailers of the games in action surface!

As someone who never owned the original Xbox console and has relied on the Xbox 360’s limited backwards compatibility to catch up on some older games that I missed — like Panzer Dragoon Orta and Breakdown — one of the biggest personal disappointments of this generation has been the lack of an Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath backwards compatibility update. Once planned to come out on PS2 and Xbox, the EA-published, western-themed third- and first-person action-adventure/shooter ultimately released as an Xbox exclusive, and to this day it ranks at the very top of my “great games I’ve never played” list.

Resigned to the fact that I’d never get a chance to play the game, you can only imagine how excited I was when I woke up today to the news that Just Add Water, developer of the excellent PSN game Gravity Crash, is working closely with Oddworld Inhabitants to remake Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath for the PS3, in 720p HD no less, with added normal mapping and self-shadowing effects, re-mastered dialogue, full PlayStation Move support, and more “bonus material” that hasn’t even been announced yet. Seriously, people, this is un-fucking-believable news!

When it releases in time for Easter 2011 as a PSN download, the Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath PS3 remake will mark the return of the Oddworld franchise to a PlayStation console, where it hasn’t been since the PS1 series-starters Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus debuted in the late ’90s.

“Since word got out that we’ve been working with Oddworld Inhabitants there have been many rumours circulating about what we’re working on,” said Stewart Gilray, Managing Director of JAW. “Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is the first project in what we believe will be a long and fruitful relationship. Having the chance to update this great title and release it on PS3 is just a brilliant opportunity, not least for us, but for the fans too.”

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath is only the tip of the iceberg too. If you recall, earlier this summer Just Add Water and Oddworld Inhabitants announced a collaboration to develop “multiple projects, across multiple platforms” starring favorite characters from the Oddworld universe. The OddBox, a PC compilation of all four Oddworld Games — Abe’s Oddysee, Abe’s Exoddus, Munch’s Oddysee and Stranger’s Wrath — is also still in the works after missing its planned release for early this year and some speculation of possible cancellation. However, that project is not being handled by Just Add Water.

Do be a Stranger – Oddworld returns! [Just Add Water]

Arcade shooters have come a long way since the coin-op days, and I can’t think of two recent games that exemplify that fact more than Just Add Water’s Gravity Crash and the latest work of creative genius from Dylan Cuthbert’s Q-Games, PixelJunk Shooter. Both games came out on the PSN Store for PS3 over the holidays, both games strike an amazing balance of old and new concepts, both games fall from limbs of the same family tree yet are completely different from one another, and both games are friggin’ awesome to play! What more could you ask for?

Of the two, Gravity Crash is the one that most flatteringly pays homage to the fathers of the genre. Within this unassuming $10 shooter you can find conceptual fragments of classic arcade games like Asteroids, Lunar Lander, and Defender fused with the newfangled visual flair of Geometry Wars with its vibrant, neon-soaked HD vector graphics, retro-modern synth music and bleepy-bloopy sound effects.

Gravity Crash has you exploring over 30 planetary maps to collect gems and hidden artifacts, blast enemy ships and turrets, destroy enemy ground installations, and rescue downed ally crewmen until you’ve gathered and/or destroyed the main objective targets and a black hole appears to take you to the next level. While completing these objectives, you must simultaneously fight against each planet’s gravitational pull, learning how to efficiently pulse your ship’s thrusters to navigate tight, rigid corridors without slamming into walls or running out of fuel.

Contending with this dual threat leads to many tense moments as you kick your thrusters into full blast just in the nick of time to avoid crashing or evade an incoming missile, and even though the game pretty much shows its hand within the first few levels, it never ceases to entertain.

Depending on your preference of buttons vs. analog stick for shooting, multiple control schemes are available to choose from. However, like any arcade shooter the twin-stick method of steering with the left stick and aiming/shooting with the right stick offers the best combination of precision and fluidity.

For a PSN game, Gravity Crash is also stuffed with content, including the aforementioned 30+ single-player campaign levels, split-screen multiplayer modes for up to four players (online play is not supported unfortunately, though there are leaderboards if you want to compare scores), an unlockable bonus mini-game, and a neat level creator tool – the same level creator Just Add Water used to make the campaign stages — enabling players to build and share their own maps with others. That’s a butt-load of modes to play with for a downloadable game!

PixelJunk Shooter, on the other hand, is really more of a physics- and environment-based puzzle game in the guise of a twin-stick shooter. A thinking man’s arcade shooter, if you will.

The human race has turned to colonizing the planet Apoxus Prime for resources, but in doing so have awakened a mysterious extraterrestrial civilization deep beneath the planet’s surface. Guiding your subterranean exploration vehicle through the planet’s 15 cavernous stages – by yourself or with a friend in offline-only co-op — it is your duty to rescue as many trapped miners and scientists as you can, and then escape before it is too late.

The controls are handled similarly to a twin-stick shooter – steer with the left stick and aim with the right stick – and you do come across various critters that need dispatching (including a few massive bosses). However, in PixelJunk Shooter the pacing is a little more methodical compared to what is typically expected of the genre, and your real enemies here are the environments and the elements they contain.

At the heart of PixelJunk Shooter is a dynamic fluid / physics system. As you explore the dark depths of Apoxus Prime on your rescue mission, you’ll come across loose dirt barriers, walls of ice, plumes of deadly gas, and pools of lava, water and a strange black, magnetic goo, and the trick to achieving success is figuring out how to manipulate these different elements to dig out survivors without getting them killed and make it through each map without getting yourself killed. Easier said than done!

PixelJunk Shooter’s greatest achievement is the sense of fear and discovery it manages to stir up inside you as you play. Opposed to far too many games these days that hold your hand through every single gameplay mechanic, this game purposefully avoids teaching you anything about how elements react with one another and what your ship is capable of – it’s up to you to cautiously experiment with each new substance and ship power-up suit you come across in order to ascertain how to best manipulate the surrounding environment to your advantage.

PixelJunk Shooter may be short in length, but in this game’s 15 brief levels I’ve experienced more of those special “Aha!” moments that used to define classic games than in many recent full-length, full-price productions. The level designs truly are that inventive, and the game’s flash-style, pastel graphics and dynamic, moody soundtrack only enhance this gameplay creativity with a healthy dose of quirky charm.

Simply put, Gravity Crash and PixelJunk Shooter are two of the brightest stars yet to be released on the PSN Store, and at only $9.99 apiece – Gravity Crash has actually been on sale for $4.99 over the past week and if you hurry you may still be able to grab it at that price before the sale ends today – they are must-haves for your PS3’s digital download library. PSP gamers also need to be on the lookout. Just Add Water is working on a full PSP port of Gravity Crash, and while a similar PixelJunk Shooter port has yet to be announced (make it happen Q-Games!), the game does support remote play, so if you own both systems you can enjoy it on the big screen at home or take it with you on the road.

Gravity Crash:

PixelJunk Shooter: