Once upon a time skating games were all about button pressing and just a little timing. Then it all became about intuitive controls and feeling more connected with your avatar rather than just controlling a rolling combo machine. Well OlliOlli takes us back to a simpler time, or so it seems. And it does it with style.
After a warning that the game was made to be played with a pad, a little odd if playing on a PC, you get to have a go and learn the basics. Although this warning is worth heeding because if you do use a keyboard (as I did for a while) you will essentially be mimicking a thumbstick using the WASD keys. As you can imagine that doesn’t really transfer very well.
After performing you’re trick of choice you will need to press either ‘A’, ‘X’ or the down arrow to land properly. The closer to the ground you are when you press land the higher the combo will be for the trick(s) you just performed. Miss it and your 2D friend will be put off balance and you will score next to nothing.
You don’t fall off with a ‘sloppy’ landing but it’s often difficult to recover from a bad landing as it takes you a huge amount of time to get back on your board correctly. Before you know it there’s a small drop that, due to your unbalanced state, leads to a face grind. Or it will become apparent that you no longer have the space to perform the next jump. Landing correctly is important and one wrong landing could end your run early. Get used to failure.
There’s a satisfying simplicity to OlliOlli that relies more on timing than remembering overly complicated button combos. The other trick to mastering a level comes from remembering the area’s layout. It’s a lot like a much less punishing Impossible Game. Except my score actually improved after each failure. Learning a level also means you’ll be doing less sloppy landings and getting that score up while making sure you don’t end up leaving your skin all over the concrete.
The levels are well designed and intricate. There’s always loads to see and grind on or jump over and loads of opportunities to horrendously smash your body all over the place. The pace is quick enough to create a challenge but I never started feeling like I was going to have a seizure at any point, again I’m looking at you Impossible Game. The areas are simple and the only real detail is on the objects you’re interested in, which doesn’t lead to impressive graphics but does allow you to play the game.
But that’s not to say that OlliOlli is limited or easy. Soon I was looking to to increase my score and go for some of the higher score objectives within a level. Once you’ve learned a level and feel comfortable completing it successfully there’s still a load of goals to achieve that mainly come from scoring higher. And inevitably to do so you’ll have to get complicated. I hope your pad gymnastics are up to scratch.
You’ll want to be performing more complicated jumps and flips that can all be find in the games move list called the ‘Tricktionary’. They’re not too complicated on their own but quickly rushing through one of the levels, remembering complicated jumps, avoiding hazards, making the most of each grind and landing them all perfectly isn’t easy. And then, in similar style to Skate, you’ll want to be spinning at all times if you really want to get that high score. At this point, and a little before if I’m honest, I struggle. But the point is the potential to improve is there supported by appropriate objectives if you want to push yourself.
OlliOlli is relatively simple to complete, challenging to improve and practically impossible to perfect (at least for me). And all the time the scoring system rewards you for pushing your limits all be it only with another objective complete. There’s a simple control system that can be used to perform complicated tricks that shares a surprising amount of ground with games like Tony Hawks and Skate. The 2D style isn’t exactly blockbuster stuff but it looks fine and complements the gameplay well. OlliOlli is well worth your time even if it’s only as a ‘time waster’. It’s so easy to just throw it on and enjoy a few levels for 20 minutes. Or you can be sure there’s plenty to do for longer sessions. OllieOllie is just good simple fun.
