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Review: OlliOlli

For a small independent title, there’s been a lot of noise about OlliOlli. A skateboarding game with a bent towards score chasing and trick combos, it has a lot to thank the Tony Hawk series for. That series sadly grew stale over the years, adding an unnecessary story and generally getting too big for its own worth. Eventually, what had originally rekindled an interest in skateboarding became an exercise in hyperbole made real; later titles in the series were incredibly unrealistic and impossibly grandiose.

OlliOlli still contains some of that — I’d like to see a pro skater pull off some of these combos — but it strips away a lot of what got in the way of the fun. Playing out horizontally in a 2D environment, OlliOlli makes skateboarding a kind of platform game. One jump = one trick; landing itself requires a kind of skill (timed button press), and there’s no way to change up your grind without jumping. In all of these ways, the game becomes more realistic – to a degree. It’s clearly still a game, but — like skateboarding — it’s DIFFICULT.

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Although it maintains a modern feel, part of what makes OlliOlli good is the fact that it is JUST a game. In a way, it feels like so many 8- and 16-bit games before it; there’s no real story to become involved in, there’s a set number of levels, and “completing” the game is as simple as finishing them all. However, it’s more than that – there are challenges within each Amateur level (of which there are 25), and achieving them all will open up a Pro level, each with their own more complex challenges. There’s a combo scoreboard, and a level scoreboard, as well as several other modes to fill out the list – a completionist will have many hours ahead of them if they want to get through everything that’s on offer. Rad mode, for example, only allows for perfect landings and grinds, virtually making the game… IMPOSSIBLE.

Graphically, the main character and the various obstacles have an 8- or 16-bit feel to them, yet the animations are quite detailed. The beauty is in the backdrops, some of which are gorgeous and somewhat distracting as a result. Navigation and overall presentation is well designed as well, with a look and feel that is maintained throughout the game, but I felt that the square edges of the touchscreen buttons didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the aesthetic. The music in the game is of a high quality, switching up the Tony Hawk reliance on metal, punk and rock to a varied mix of instrumental beats. It all suited the game perfectly.

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My issues with the game stem primarily from its controls. There are only a few buttons to get your fingers around, but there is a reliance on the thumbstick for several different maneuvers. The issue here is that the thumbstick on the Vita is not made for twitch responsiveness or long-term manipulation, both of which are core tenets of the OlliOlli mechanics. The game moves along at a good click, too, meaning that you really need to be on top of all of this — often switching from jump trick, to grind, to another jump, to another grind — all within seconds. Linking all of this together can indeed be as satisfying as has been suggested elsewhere, provided you remember to hit the ‘X’ button at the right time before you finally land, or you miss out on all of those juicy points… and the multiplier.

It all felt a little unfair as a result. Every time I made a mistake, I knew it was because I had made an error — I’d either forgotten to press a button, or mistimed it, or misjudged the distance, or thumb slipped off that tiny thumbstick — but the game is unforgiving. Split-second timing is not my thing (perhaps it’s because I’m so damned old now). Towards the end, I found myself reloading a level again and again, making the same mistakes over and over – was I really this bad? Was I impatient? Or is this level just engineered to be this painful? Seriously, I reloaded one level at LEAST 100 times, just to get to the end, and all the while ignoring the challenges. Did I improve as a result? Of course, but did I enjoy it? Not really – until that glorious 101st time, when I finally made it through.

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I guess the question that was in the back of my mind the whole time was – if I wasn’t reviewing this game, would I have restarted, or would I have thrown my Vita and never picked it up again? It’s hard to say – the impulse to replay was strong, and the reward for pulling off an impressive combo was ego-boosting, but some of the levels were CRUSHING.

Overall, there’s a lot to like about OlliOlli; it never tries to be anything more than a fun high-score chaser that just happens to also be a skating game, and that’s something I can appreciate. That, and it was lovingly crafted. But I found myself with a frustrated grimace on my face just as often as I had a smile, and now that I’ve finished the core levels, I’m not sure I’ll pick it up again. All of that said, though – it’s hard not to recommend. For the price, and for the amount of enjoyment I got out of it (beyond the frustration), it was well worth it.

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About the author

Greg Newbegin

Proud father of two, and a lover of games. Retro collector, writer, and fan of all things Japanese. I love all gaming machines equally.