OlliOlli, recently ported from the Vita to PS3, PS4, and PC, is a skateboarding game that almost plays an amalgamation of everything you loveOlliOlli, recently ported from the Vita to PS3, PS4, and PC, is a skateboarding game that almost plays an amalgamation of everything you love from skateboarding games. It strips away a lot of the fluff that's been almost inherent to the genre for years now, and what we're left with is an extremely polished, extremely fast-paced, twitch based classic.
This is a 2D skateboarding game, and as such, the goal is to make it from one end of a level to another, in classic sidescroller tradition. However, OlliOlli is more akin to the "runner" genre (Pepsi Man, Temple Run) than traditional platforming games.
Thankfully, trying to reach your way from one end of a level to another is an absolute blast. You can perform a variety of different tricks that incorporate different directions on the left analog stick, you can spi using the shoulder buttons, and you can push using the X button. This is all the control that's here, but with the way they're implemented, OlliOlli rarely feels as if it's lacking features.
Aside from pushing yourself to accelerate with the X button, it's also used for landing. Yes, landing. Think PS1's Thrasher: Skate and Destroy's hard mode, just applied to a 2D plane, with much more intuitive control. This landing mechanic adds a fair amount of depth to the experience, considering that landing your tricks smoothly is purely based on timing and skill, much like everything else in OlliOlli. Your twitch reactions have to be at their A-game, here, and OlliOlli makes no apologies for it. This is an incredibly challenging game, but for all the right reasons. If you mess up, it always feels like it was your fault, and that really helps OlliOlli to be an incredibly compelling gaming experience.
Aside from just making it to the end of the levels, you're also given goals to accomplish, such as going for high scores, limiting your trick set, doing particular things for X amount of meters, or collecting items. These goals are optional, considering you can continue to unlock levels without doing any of them, but these goals are what will keep you coming back to OlliOlli. They're usually challenging, interesting, and they don't repeat themselves too often, which is welcome, considering the majority of time you spend with OlliOlli will be focusing on these goals. Once you complete every goal for a level, you'll unlock the "Pro" goals, which is basically the hard mode of the game. Complete all of the Pro levels, and you'll unlock Rad mode, which relies on the player performing only perfect tricks and landings through insanely challenging levels.
The visual style opts for lush pixel art. Everything here looks impressive. From the detailed backgrounds, and foregrounds, to brilliant use of color, let alone the huge amount of animations tied to your character sprite. OlliOlli is an absolutely gorgeous game, but that isn't to say it doesn't have its faults.
There are a total of 5 different areas, with 5 basic levels found in each. This means you'll see 5 backgrounds through the whole game, and initially, they can become a bit repetitive to keep looking at. This becomes especially apparent when you reach the snow levels, as staring at a white screen can become a little tiring, but given how impressive the game looks as a whole, it's forgivable that you may spend too much time in one area, or that you won't see too much variety.
The audio is spectacular. The sound of skateboarding compliments the pixel art visuals. It doesn't sound wholly realistic, or wholly synthetic. It's a nice balance, and the fact that I never questioned any sound design choices throughout my time with the game is a testament to how well most of it really is designed. The soundtrack is also outstanding, opting for Trance music, light dubstep, hip-hop style beats, and the like. While the soundtrack certainly isn't extensive (maybe 6 or 7 songs in total), it's easy to grow an affinity for each one. They're all usually catchy, and they all compliment the visuals perfectly.
OlliOlli is an outstanding game. It takes traditional goal based gameplay from the Tony Hawk series, its interesting control mechanics from Skate and Thrasher, and everything in its design just melds perfectly together. While there may not be much variety in its visuals, its tight, fast-paced, reactionary gameplay more than makes up for it. If you're a fan of skateboarding, or well designed, fast paced sidescrollers in general, OlliOlli is hard to go wrong with. It's slick, polished, frantic, and most importantly, fun.… Expand
