Masters of their craft make what they do look easy.
A top-level race car driver goes through rigorous fitness training (so they can wrestle against a mechanical beast that can potentially kill them) and mental prep work (to the point they can remember and emulate every wheel turn and pedal press with their eyes close), only for us to see the cars smoothly breeze through corners like it’s no big deal.
An experienced cook at a mamak stall makes the masterful art of articulated flipping of doughs, working on is enough to become the flaky, soft, and tender flatbread that is roti canai, seems effortless.
But if you try and attempt either activity yourself thinking it’s a piece of cake, you will come to a rude awakening. There’s so much skill required to prepare a roti canai and drive around a circle really fast.
That’s the impression I got from the first few hours I spent playing OlliOlli World, Roll7’s upcoming new entry to their skateboarding platforming series, with this one being published by Private Division.
This game looks so relaxing and simple when you see the results of a master at work. But behind that flowing, flawless run is someone that has entered the Fujiwara Zone, flicking those analog sticks with intent, with precision and without missing a beat.
Thing is, this has been true to the first two OlliOlli games. Which is good! For hardcore fans, OlliOlli World is still an OlliOlli game despite the major change in aesthetics. Gameplay-wise, nothing has been compromised. The skill ceiling still feels as high as it was before.
From what I can tell that is, I’m no hardcore OIliOlli player, but can regularly reach the leaderboard scores, but still far adrift from the folks that are more experienced with the franchise, judging by their 800K+ scores. The skill gap between someone who can sloppily hold a combo for the whole entire level (which is already a huge feat) to a master skate wizard that knows everything about the game’s mechanics is big.
What OlliOlli World is doing better this time around, however, is lowering the skill floor down an be inviting to newcomers. The game very gently eases you in by taking its time to introduce its many skating mechanics.
But if you already know what you’re doing the game won’t stop you from pulling manuals, nailing perfect lands, and doing Power Pushes before it introduces them in a tutorial level. Even in the third district, of the five that you will be skating through in Radlandia, you still be getting tutorials.
For each level, you have three different optional score targets you can try and beat for a sick new cosmetic. And in the early districts, these are very, very easy to achieve. If you’re starting out with no prior OlliOlli experience, those score targets are attainable to hit.
The score targets do ramp up as the game progresses but don’t worry. It’s only ramping because the levels are getting more complex and thus, more opportunities to do sick flips and sublime grinds to plump up that score.
I played a bit of OlliOlli 2 way back when it was out in 2015. From what I remember, it was good, but man was it overwhelming. I felt like the game was putting a lot of pressure to reach lofty heights that I don’t think I could even reach.
Here in OlliOlli World, the game very much wants you to chill out and make progress first. And the only pressure I have was from myself saying I could’ve done better, because the next score to beat, or one of the three side objectives available on each level, is plausibly attainable, just out of reach a bit.
If you’re here to play the game just to enjoy the aesthetics and vibe it’s emanating, you’d still find it a joy. The controls are slick and tight no wonder the devs are calling this a skateboarding platforming game.
The simple action of jumping, done by pulling the stick down and releasing it in a quick, flicking motion, may seem descriptively complex. But once it becomes second nature as a button press, you are able to ollie (ollie) off a ramp, rail, or wall at the right time to reach the end of the levels, and man does it feel satisfying to nail and land those big airs.
It will take practice to pull off the more gnarlier stick twirls, from fighting game-style quarter-circles to full 360-degrees thumb spins. But if you’re not doing high-score runs you don’t need to, you can play this as a simple auto-runner game where all you need to do is traverse the level until the end. And there’s plenty of side objective that caters to pure platforming too.
And that’s the brilliance of OlliOlli World. From what I’ve played of the first three districts, it’s welcoming to newcomers, offers deceptively easy challenges (seems easy but actually hard as nails) that will entice you to at least give them a good go, and it’s rewarding to pull off sick tricks that will make you want to get better at the game.
Once you get into the zone, where you operate purely on instinct and feel rather than with your eyes and brain, it’s an entrancing, almost spiritual experience where you become one with the skateboard and you flow just as the camera glides across the screen.
It’s goosebumps-inducing. It’s amazing.
It also helps that the soundtrack is filled with absolute bangers. The change from 2D pixel art to a stylised cartoony 3D art style sure has caught headlines and eyeballs, but the music selection here deserves applause as well.
Most of the tunes fall in the chill-out/hip-hop/lo-fi/electronica genres, and they paired so well with the core gameplay of letting your thumbs flick the sticks on their own. These are chill beats to vibe and kickflip to.
And these aren’t brand-new OST, most of the songs are from already-available releases by lesser-known artists (some songs with official listings on YouTube barely reached 100 plays). Whoever is in charge of selecting the music has found some hidden gems that’ll surely take off after the game’s release.
The music is so important in OlliOlli World that the bumpers (L1/R1) are your universal buttons to change music tracks. It works everywhere, with very rare instances where the current song will be interrupted.
It feels like you have the music playing on Spotify in the background. The music keeps flowing, not caring if the level or mode has changed. It even won’t stop when you pause the game.
There are many other features that you can look forward to in OlliOlli World that looks pretty good from what I played so far.
The character customisation is on fleek (extra points for adding headscarves for the Muslim ladies out there), the new aesthetics is vibrant yet won’t distract you from the core gameplay (the traversal aspects will always be in higher contrast to any other background scenery). The writing, if you’re a fan of its tone, is done well.
And the asynchronous multiplayer modes have some legs for the competitive players looking for more things to do once the story’s wrapped up.
But my big takeaway from OlliOlli World is the gameplay has layers that can only be communicated with hands on the controller.
I worry that this game might get lost in the shuffle because the gameplay footage on its own doesn’t seem to be exciting enough. February 2022 has a stack ton of games- and there’s another indie game with a lot of attention on it coming out the same day as OlliOlli World.
This game could really use a demo. While seeing this game being played is pleasant, getting your hands on this and attempting a high-score run is where the game fully shines the brightest.
If you’re already dead set on getting this game, however, prepare to be ascended in one of the best skateboarding games you’ll ever play.
Gnarvana awaits those that wish to become master finger-flipping skateboaraders.
OlliOlli World releases on February 8 for the PS4, PS5, PC (Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.
Played on PC. Preview build provided by the publisher