Last week, I noticed that my hand hurt. I don’t think much of it, mainly because I’m not sure why it hurts. On Monday, playing OlliOlli World, I found my excuse. I’m not sure there’s a better way to showcase World than that; it pushed my hands to their limit.
Compared to the previous two OlliOlli games, which can be extremely difficult, World is simultaneously an accessible 2D skateboarding game with an impossibly high skill stat. Right from the start, the game does a great job of quickly teaching you the basics of its tip system (mostly tied to swiping and rotating the thumb left and right) and then get out of your way, taking you down the levels, giving the target and letting you you skate. Within minutes, I was making combos that grew bigger and bigger, and more importantly, had a good time doing it. While I never really got to know the first OlliOlli, in The World I felt compelled to keep learning its systems because the game didn’t preload with frustration. Players of all skill levels should be able to find something interesting here.
As the game goes on, that rigorous test reveals itself – in the best and worst ways. As the levels get more and more complicated, as you might expect, so does your bag of tricks. There’s an undeniable thrill of beating a level in a long combo – using crushing, grasping, flipping and manual maneuvers on various vertical and secret lanes.
Doing so means playing OlliOlli World very quickly. Maintaining a long combo in later levels means constantly coming up with new tricks and getting ready for what’s next. It’s fun and exhilarating to barely feel in control of what my hands are doing, but impressed with myself for doing it – even as the complexity of the controller input starts to wear off. worn on my hand.
This is amplified by the superb level design from both a layout and aesthetic point of view. While the game’s multicolored, matte paintwork can make itself a little blushing at first as simple and minimal, there are levels in the World that are horribly sized. The camera will sometimes pull out, leaving your player with a small dot on the screen as it shows the jumble of tracks and ramps around you. The different discoverable paths of each level also mean that you can replay them to discover new experiences and matching opportunities. Usually, I immediately revisit a level to see how the other routes stack up and what challenges can I find there. The fact that the entire game looks like a vivid watercolor adds to the overall appeal of World – the characters are goofy and the design on the head is so much fun to catch as I speed up. .
But a major sticking point with World is when it pauses that pace. On some levels I’ll find myself stuck on a particular ramp or jump, trying over and over to find the single visible pixel I need to kick myself off to do the clear. next. On the one hand, this is supposed to be part of the challenge. On the other hand, repeating these sections ad nauseam when I was constantly trying to find the exact spot where the game required me to jump broke the overall flow of the levels. Luckily, this isn’t an issue with every stage, but I find myself increasingly stuck in specific pain points, especially as I get towards the late game.
All in all, I really enjoyed my time with OlliOlli World. It’s a gorgeous and goofy game that supports new players well while giving veterans plenty of challenges. Over there’even a silly kitchenry is associated with finding the mythical skating gods of “Gnarvana” in the world of “Radlandia.” It’s silly enough in a lovely way and completely skippable if you’re not interested – which I haven’t done in an hour or so. Although there are some headaches in the fight, I welcome all of OlliOlli World’s challenges, even if they harm my own hands.
