

The trick system tied to analogue flicks is still fully intact, while maintaining combos between manuals, grinds, wall rides, and aerial tricks is still a delightfully challenging test of your dexterity and reactions. It means that while a good landing is still necessary for racking up high scores, it can be ignored if you want to breeze through and simply enjoy the momentum.Įven though it’s more forgiving, OlliOlli World is no pushover.

It still works largely the same as before where you tap a button just before you hit the ground to achieve a ‘perfect’ landing, but you’re no longer harshly punished for failing to do so. There’s subtle changes which make this entry more welcoming, most notablly in the landing mechanic.
ENJOYABLE OLLIOLLI MAPPING MANUALS
Thankfully, these are rolled out at an excellent pace across the campaign, allowing just enough breathing room so you’re always ready to learn a new mechanic – like spins, grabs or manuals – as they’re presented. OlliOlli World is accessible on the surface, yet fiendishly layered and challenging when the breadth of its systems are unpacked. While you only need to reach the end of a level to progress, repeat runs are incentivised through high score challenges and obscure objectives, like performing tricks in specific locations, finishing without using checkpoints or, for example, completing a run while avoiding scattered bananas.Įven if you’re not interested in unlocking cosmetics, the satisfying mechanics make repeat runs consistently fun. This time around there’s an overworld map akin to Super Mario World, complete with secret side quests which are locked behind specific criteria like high-fiving a character. Similar to the previous titles, OlliOlli World is split into five areas in a mostly linear sequence of levels. The dopey, charming character models make unlocking cosmetics desirable too, tapping into the personal expression at the heart of skateboarding. Before you learn the basics, you’re thrown into a surprisingly comprehensive character creation screen, where additional hats, shirts, glasses, tattoos, and skateboard cosmetics unlock as you beat challenges in the main campaign. Presentation is where OlliOlli World makes the biggest changes from its predecessors. It’s a huge visual improvement which benefits the gameplay too, with the bold splashes of colour signposting grind rails and platforms in a way that’s needed to match the game’s rapid pace. The simplistic, grounded visuals of prior titles have been overhauled with a vibrant 3D cel-shaded aesthetic bursting with Nickelodeon-esque personality. Seven years since the release of OlliOlli2, third entry OlliOlli World represents a leap towards wider appreciation.
ENJOYABLE OLLIOLLI MAPPING PRO
Between the aging titans of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Skate, the 2D side-scroller from UK developer Roll7 is perhaps the most inventive addition to the genre over the past decade – streamlining the action into a fast, rhythm platformer with deceptive complexity. OlliOlli has always felt overlooked in its contributions to the modern skateboarding resurgence. The indie cousin of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater rises to the big leagues with a revamped personality and radical visuals. OlliOlli World is out this winter on Steam (opens in new tab).OlliOlli World – bigger and better (pic: Private Division) But underneath all the chill vibes it's still the same OlliOlli, a game where you fail and try again and fail and try again until you either master it or your thumbs give up in protest, detach themselves from your hands, put on tiny hats and grab their briefcases, walk out the door and go to live in the woods where they'll befriend a bird or maybe fox-but definitely not a talking frog. I keep Chiffon the Skate Wizard busy with the respawns, though the bonus levels don't have checkpoints to respawn at and after I've sat through the talking frog or fish introducing them a few times, I give up on the bonus levels.Īll the fanciful fantasy stylings make OlliOlli World seem friendly and welcoming, like a children's book (one level challenges me to "knock a frog off a bee"), and the excellent soundtrack of woozy beats and digital wash are an invitation to Headnod City. As Roll7 co-founder Simon Bennett said in the Future Games Show, "you're gonna slam a bunch before you succeed." Even without that, it's still not an easy game, though.
ENJOYABLE OLLIOLLI MAPPING SERIES
Back in the first OlliOlli you had to press A with precise timing to land each trick, in addition to all that thumbstick manipulation-a fiddly mechanic I'm glad the series ditched.
