As I write this my eyes are burning and bloodshot, my knuckles ache and creak, and my fingers are cramped and sore. No, I’ve not been in some kind of brawl – I’ve been playing OlliOlli World, and for as much pain as it gives me, I can’t put it down. In a month stacked with massive releases, OlliOlli World has flipkicked up to my most anticipated in just a matter of hours.
I’m a big fan of skating games. From Tony Hawk’s all the way to Disney’s Extreme Skateboarding, I’ve played pretty much every skating game that’s been released in the past few decades. That is, except for the OlliOlli series. After giving the demo a brief try and immediately falling flat on my arse, I decided it wasn’t for me and wrote the games off. But when OlliOlli World rolled in, I was keen to give it another go and see what the fuss had been all about.
OlliOlli World has you skating through Radlandia to try and attain skateboarding mastery and become a skating wizard. Story isn’t key to the experience by any means, but each level has some charming dialogue beforehand from your character’s skating crew and whatever skaters reside in the area. The dialogue and story are a nice touch and makes it feel like a road trip, rather than just moving through levels.
One aspect of OlliOlli World that instantly grabbed my attention is its look and sound. Rather than the realism-inspired pixelated look of its previous two games, OlliOlli World looked at the aesthetics of Adventure Time and said, “Yeah, let’s do that.” From bees with faces in the game’s second area, to your own skater looking like a hipster Finn Mertens, it’s an undeniable comparison, and a very good one at that. OlliOlli World looks and sounds beautiful, with an accompanying lo-fi beats soundtrack that you might as well be studying/relaxing to. The chill vibes are incredibly strong throughout OlliOlli World.
Speaking of your own Finn-looking skater, another area where OlliOlli World impresses is its character creator. Custom characters aren’t new to skating games, but this is one of the strongest I’ve ever seen that actually let me make a character that looked like me. Well, me if I could skate instead of writing about simulated skate games. There are a ton of outfits, tattoos, hair colours, and animation options, and it’s one of my favourite parts of the game.
I was already in love with OlliOlli World’s look and vibe, but its gameplay is really what hooked me. In your quest to become a skate wizard, you glide through auto-scrolling levels, while platforming and doing tricks by wiggling the analogue stick in different directions. You can also perform grabs, slam the board, turn around, wall-ride, and grind, and they all add towards a combo meter.
Despite looking like a skating game, OlliOlli World reminded me more of a rhythm platformer than anything else. When you first start out, you’ll be lucky to chain a kickflip into a grab, but by the end of my preview I was pulling off legendary tricks, flipping during a grind, and hitting perfect timings on everything. Combine that with the lo-fi music and you’ve basically got one of the best rhythm platformers out there.
Scoring big points isn’t the only thing you’ll be doing, however. Each level also has three different challenges tied to it, such as going a specific route or finding a certain amount of collectibles. These are great fun and don’t need to be done in one run, meaning you can do a high-score run, and then go back to complete all of the challenges. For a game that’s undeniably difficult, it’s nice that it lets completionists tackle things at their own pace.
It’s sometimes hard to describe how a game makes you feel, but OlliOlli World is as close to pure serotonin as it gets. Hitting tricks and scratching off challenges as you platform through such a beautiful world is one of the most chill a game has made me feel in a long time. The trick system is simplistic enough that pulling off legendary tricks is really just a matter of a specific analogue wiggle, but learning to chain them together and create massive combos is where the magic kicks in. Maybe there's some credit to this "skating wizard" thing.
As welcoming as OlliOlli World looks, it’s tough as nails. Although the first area of the game saw me completing the levels in one run with all challenges complete, by the time the second area had introduced wall-riding, I realised I’d gotten cocky and could only just about get through the level with a few challenges done. OlliOlli World is not for the faint of heart, and I’ve still got two of the later worlds to try out. Gulp.
My only concern – besides for my time because my god, I was replaying every mission at least five times, please OlliOlli World I have a family – is that it’s perhaps a bit too painful. My intro wasn’t just flavour text, I really was struggling to play past a few hours without eye strain and bruised hands. OlliOlli World flies by at a rapid pace, so keeping your eye on it at all times is a necessity, which is tough when you're also trying to legendary trick with the left stick into a wall-ride, before doing a grab in mid-air and pulling off a grab at the last second. Hope you know how to claw grip.
But then again, if the biggest issue with OlliOlli World is that I play it so much that it hurts, then that’s a very good sign. February is going to be absolutely packed with games, but if there’s a hidden gem to keep an eye out for it’s OlliOlli World. Just keep some ibuprofen handy.
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