It was much different than any other skateboarding game out there, a genre which saw trends go from arcadey to simulation as we moved from an era of Tony Hawk to Skate. When Roll7 released Olli Olli for the PlayStation Vita back in 2014 it felt like a shot in the dark. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. The game was reviewed using a Switch download code provided by Roll7. 8 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Instead, it amplifies the joy and generosity of a world built on an earnest love of skateboarding. That whimsy never loses its appeal or delight, even as I’m wall-riding myself into gaps or wiping out down sets of stairs. But OlliOlli World feels special because it lets me celebrate the sport in a way that suits me personally. Skateboarding is difficult, and so is this game. The visual aesthetic of OlliOlli World and its weird whimsy is just as much of a draw as the precision gameplay. But replays allow me to peek at tiny things I missed on my own runs, like aliens dancing in their underpants or ice cream cones lounging on the beach. In most of OlliOlli World, I’m rushing past Roll7’s weird little landscapes, focused more on hitting combinations and scoring big than checking out the sights. Or, in OlliOlli World’s case, to forget to high-five your friends waiting around the course. The community element of the culture also runs through the single-player narrative: Chiffon and her skate crew travel through these worlds together, and their camaraderie and friendship lend the journey that much more meaning.Īs with any skill-based game, it’s easy to get bogged down by the mechanics and forget to smell the roses. They let me test my skills against those of other players in a productive way - to amplify my own progress by watching them improve as well. OlliOlli World’s replay functionality and social elements capture that communal aspect wonderfully. Skate videos - once on VHS tapes and now on Instagram and YouTube - are such a core part of skateboarding and the evolution of the sport. (From there, you can compete for leaderboard spots and watch one another’s runs, too.) For the Portal, I can generate custom runs that I can share with friends. We’re not playing in the same arena, per se, but we are riding the same routes and comparing scores on a leaderboard. In the League, OlliOlli World pits me against a group of other players to achieve the highest score. Once a player’s reached Gnarvana - which unlocks, fittingly, at the end of the game - there are other options for multiplayer skateboarding competitions: the Gnarvana League and the Gnarvana Portal. I can watch replays for the top scorers, too. But I can also watch replays of their runs, to see how they’ve approached these different levels and what tricks landed them their scores. Within each level, I can see leaderboard stats for other players - including a few close to my skill level, deemed my rivals. OlliOlli World showcases that creativity in its fairly expansive multiplayer and social elements as well. Wall-riding over a billboard held by giant bees The world moves fast: In a matter of seconds you’re doing a stalefish grab over a friendly slime blob with a banana on its head, then wall-riding over a billboard held by giant bees. OlliOlli World’s wacky environments explode this fantasy to the nth degree: Stairs can be ridden down or soared over, leading into rails that wind like waterslides into ramps and halfpipes - all accessible with a flick of the thumbstick or trigger. The thing I love about skateboarding is how it lets me be creative with my body - to use the world around me in ways it wasn’t designed for. For me, it’s a nice concession from the controller-breaking gameplay of the first two games, but doesn’t eliminate the need for expert precision entirely. These range from things as straightforward as completing levels without using the checkpoint feature, to hurdles more wacky and challenging, like booping all the frogs along the course or completing a level in a single combo. But the scalability of scoring and challenges makes the game harder for players that want a more punishing experience. The general objective is to simply survive each level, using checkpoints or not, before moving on to the next.
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