We haven’t had a new OlliOlli game for 7 years, but thankfully that drought is finally over. OlliOlli World is the third installment in the skateboarding platforming series, and is easily the best so far. Roll7 has revived the series with a new look, a new publisher, but have left the gameplay largely untouched. This is one of the finest skateboarding games out there with incredible depth and detail. OlliOlli World is simply sublime, carefully balancing accessibility and challenge in one magnificent game that’s not to be missed.
OlliOlli World introduces us to Radlandia, a skatopia for all who inhabit it. The story revolves around you as a newcomer, not only making a name for yourself, but working towards skatopia and reaching gnarvana by becoming the next Skate Wizard. The structure of the game is playing through a mostly linear series of levels with increasing complexity as the game unveils new mechanics to you. Each level has a lot going on, there’s goals of simply finishing the level, and doing so without using a checkpoint. Some levels have side quests that will have you following a different path. There are local heroes to high five, and their scores to beat for competition. A guy named Mike will issue level-specific challenges like only performing a single grind, or popping all of an animal-themed balloon, or wallriding all walls. These are the drivers that will have you coming back to reach full completion on every level, or coming back to beat a score.
The soundtrack is full of amazing artists that range from lo-fi beats to house, and even chillhop. It’s ambient, noninvasive music that seamlessly and effortlessly blends into the game. It’s just a continuous aural onslaught of good vibes that will keep you skating for hours on end. OlliOlli World will be remembered for a lot of things, but its soundtrack is certainly one you won’t forget. It’s such a perfecting pairing to the gameplay on-screen.
No matter how good or bad you do, the characters that you hear from at the beginning and end of levels will speak as if you did the raddest shit ever. It takes time for your skills to improve, replaying levels to perfect them is one way to do that. If you’re finding yourself not being challenged enough, there are multiple paths within a level, and by exploring them you’ll find secrets and new things to try. Often times these new paths are identified as the “Gnarly Route”, which is essentially hard mode for that section of the level. In replaying levels, you’ll be given a rival with a their score to beat, adding another level of competition. You can also check yourself to the game’s multiple leaderboards. In every loading screen, there will be a snapshot of friend or strangers doing one of their best tricks. This is a very personal way to tie you with your friends without direct multiplayer, and it’s so clever with these kinds of inclusions.
OlliOlli World has all of the tricks you’d expect from a skateboarding game and has appear in prior OlliOlli games. It even uses every part of the controller for all them. All basic tricks are with the left joystick, grabs are on the right joystick, ollies are on the A button, and initiating a grind or a wallride is down or up on the joystick, respectively. As you’d expect, maintaining a combo and chaining your tricks together are essential for achieving a high score. Over time, the game will demand quick reflexes like it is Super Meat Boy, but give you all the tools to react and achieve the high scores you seek. While this is a skateboarding game too, remembering that this is an action-platformer I think helps create the proper mindset.
Customization is a huge part of the game, and something I found to be very welcome addition. You’ll create a character where you can choose the face, features, body style, and some initial sets of clothing. Throughout the course of the game you’ll unlock individual items to whole outfits based on specific challenges. It’s a really great system that will have you doing things you otherwise wouldn’t just to get an ice cream hat or to have an entire alien outfit to wear.
Across the five areas of the game, you’ll find around a dozen levels to play where each one feels different from the last. The park, forest, desert, industrial, and city zones are visually and identity unique. The game also slowly doles out systems and mechanics for the player to perform tricks. For instance, in the third zone, they finally teach you about grabs or in the fourth zone when they teach you about manuals. This is done because the game trusts you’re ready for this next level of tricks to add to your repertoire. When you get these new skills, you instantly feel the desire to back to previous areas to increase your scores with your newfound capabilities.
When you complete the core series of levels, either as little or as much as you like, you’ll unlock endgame replayability modes. The first of which is the Gnarvana League, which are seasonal events that let you retry to get higher scores and compare yourself against the rest of the world as you all play the same level. Then there’s the Gnarvana Portal, something I think will be incredibly popular. It lets you randomly create a session based on length, location, and difficulty. You can then share these sessions with friends, mark your favorites, and play random sessions found on the internet. This feature will ensure the game’s replayability goes far beyond what you find in the campaign levels.
There’s a mastery system that slowly unlocks in full as you beat each of the boss levels and complete the game’s story. The mastery system is not only a checklist of your talents and skills, but it’s yet another reward system for unlocking more cosmetics for use on your custom character that appears everywhere in your game, and makes appearances as others. Roll7 went above and beyond with the challenges and rewards, and I felt compelled to engage with every single part of them.
Roll7 has mastered the essence of skateboarding, captured the chillaxing mood of what it is to be a skater, and achieved an impeccable control scheme. This is a game brimming with personality that the series didn’t quite have before, and now it just exudes it with the utmost confidence. Whether you’re looking to achieve gnarvana, nirvana, or nerdvana, there’s something for everyone here. OlliOlli World is pure perfection with flawless execution.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
