OlliOlli World
Welcome to Radlandia, where society and skating are one, and would-be skaters seek to become the next Skate Wizard and shred their way to Gnarvana! As the third entry in the franchise, OlliOlli World looks to take the addictive foundations of this skateboarding series to new heights and does so in thrilling fashion. From lush 3D landscapes, higher jumps, faster speeds, and a glossy chill-hop soundtrack, this trial and error gauntlet has never been more fun to play. Sprinkle in some much-needed accessibility and you’ve got an excellent evolution, a fitting final form that’s a must-play for all gamers.
Needless to say, the story in OlliOlli World is as over-the-top as its cartoon influences. Giant lakes of ice cream, friendly sentient trees, fortune-telling goldfish, all are par for the course in Radlandia. Developer Roll 7 kicks things off with an opening cinematic, the art style much akin to Adventure Time or Steven Universe, filled with skate puns and omnipotent voice-overs. This immediately separates World from its predecessors by doubling down on character and story. You’re no longer just a nameless, faceless skater smashing their face into the concrete over and over again. Now, you’re a hero in the making…smashing their face into the concrete over and over again.
Previous entries in this series have made no attempt at telling a story, save for setting the second game in a giant movie studio, Welcome to Olliwood. There was never a journey to go on, just different levels to shred. Which, for the record, worked really well. OlliOlli World feels deeper though because it uses its story as motivation for its art direction. The story may be an amalgam of skate jargon and cartoon fantasy, but it makes everything feel purposeful. Levels teeming with beach-going bananas or lounge-rafting bears don’t feel random. They feel like they’re all meant to be there as a part of Radlandia, and it’s a joy to observe. I spent much of my playthrough just cruising along enjoying all the background action in each zone. That said, the narrative never takes on any real stakes but that’s okay. Skating isn’t about the fate of the world. It’s about getting in touch with your steez, your inner gnar. Skate bigger and skate better, or skate just to skate. World does a tremendous job of letting players decide how they want to play, whether it be casually or…not.
The OlliOlli series has always been about stringing together massive skate combos to rack up the biggest score, and it’s no different in World. Swivel your left joy-stick to pop tricks, grind, and wallride. Add in some button inputs to manual, spin, grab and tweak grinds. On paper, it all sounds pretty simple and it is! OlliOlli World is a masterclass in accessibility and depth. Players of any experience can shred like a god, but take one look at the online leaderboards and you’ll see just how deep this game can go.
The leader boards are seamlessly oriented into the level design. At the outset of each course, players can scroll over to the leader board and see the scores for that particular level. That, and you can watch that score leader's playthrough to see exactly how they did it. Venture at your own peril though. Players at the top of these leaderboards have clearly mastered how to keep a combo going for an entire level, never once stopping just to cruise. Witnessing that level of skill can be intimidating. I know it was for me.
While I may not have yearned to conquer the leaderboards, I did consistently reference player videos when I was stuck. OlliOlli World may be kind to newcomers, but it's still a challenge. If players don't sparse their momentum correctly they'll wind up eating cement more often than not. Thankfully, in addition to watching how other players beat a level, any time you fail (which will happen a lot) you can restart at your last checkpoint with the simple press of a button. Roll 7 knew they had to make things a bit more forgiving this time around, and they absolutely nailed it.
Checkpoints did not exist in the first two OlliOlli games. Think about that as you attempt some of the game’s more challenging levels. It is maddening enough just to redo one section. Imagine making it to the very end of a run, pelting yourself face-first into a rockface, and having to do the entire thing all over again. World does not wish to frustrate the way its predecessors did. Now, players can pass checkpoints, fail, and try again without losing their progress. You can also initiate a restart with a single button press, or hold down that same button, and go back to the very beginning to get that perfect run start to finish. This is how you make your game more casual without diminishing the challenge others still seek.
Getting that challenge just right is an art in and of itself. There’s a big difference between a hard game and a game that’s hard to play. You want players to feel as if they could have accomplished a certain feat even though it was difficult and they failed. What you don’t want is players feeling like the game is what’s stopping them from winning. OlliOlli World is, for the most part, the former. The game offers a superb amount of control, and when things go wrong it’s typically the player's fault. However, there were certain challenges that felt more like the latter.
OlliOlli lets players kickoff from the ground in order to gain momentum. Plus, players can catch perfect grinds and take off right at the end of a rail in order to maximize the height and distance of their jumps. The game does a suitable job of teaching players its mechanics. However, all this, combined with watching playthroughs on the leaderboard, could not save me from being unable to clear certain obstacles. There was the occasional jump, a giant gap that needed a lot of speed and a lot of air to overcome, that felt impossible. I felt as if I had done everything the game had asked me to do, used every resource available to me and none of it worked. Attempt after attempt would go by until I just got lucky and somehow made it across.
Thankfully, these nightmarish instances were few and far between, but I made sure to steer clear of those levels once I was done (looking at you Rooty Route.) This is a shame because OlliOlli World offers a ton of replayability. The addictive nature of getting that perfect combo and mastering every little tweak and trick is endlessly entertaining. Even if players aren’t going back to conquer the high scores, it’s still so much fun to just hit the course and blast through it one more time. Hopefully, these arduous anomalies don’t prevent players from seeing the full game through.
Grievances aside, OlliOlli World is the best game in the series to date. The tricks and courses are deeper and more accessible than ever. It offers a bright bubbling story, which despite its shallow nature still informs the art design to great effect. Radlandia is certainly a place players won’t soon forget, as I’m sure they’ll still be shredding its spectacular vistas for days to come.
VERDICT: Must Play
