Geekscape Games Reviews: ‘OlliOlli’

Remember when the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series was good?

The days (and days) that I spent with the early THPS games are some of the fondest gaming memories that I have. A batch of my closest friends and I would rush home from school each (and every) day to throw on the Playstation, turn the volume way up (until we were yelled at by the owner of whatever home we happened to be at that day), and see who could attain the best combo, or the longest H-O-R-S-E streak in the latest THPS game. If you played, you must remember the amazing soundtracks that these games had too, like this classic:

Sadly, the Tony Hawks Pro Skater series faltered after numerous acclaimed titles (and hasn’t had a game worth playing in years), and as great as EA’s Skate series is, it’s never filled the void left by Neversoft and Activision.

Today, UK developer Roll7 released OlliOlli exclusively on the Playstation Vita, and today, I felt like a kid all over again. Take a look at the game’s trailer below, and read on for my thoughts on the title.

As you saw in the video above, OlliOlli is a tried-and-true arcade style skating game, just like the old Tony Hawk titles, but also a whole lot different. Instead of pushing, grinding, and manualing through a 3D map, the game plays like an extremely fast-paced 2D platformer. You’re simply skating left to right, from A to B, while trying to earn as many points (by pulling-off and combining over 120 tricks and grinds), and attempting to complete as many objectives as you can in a single run. If you complete all of the objectives in a stage, you’ll unlock the far more difficult ‘Pro’ challenges for that level, which will likely have you swearing at your Vita, while having a blast doing it.

The game is extremely simple to learn (via a simple, easy-to-understand tutorial), but it’ll take eons to master, and just like the early Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater titles, I love every second of it. OlliOlli‘s controls are fairly basic, with the X button pushing you up to speed, while tricks and grinds are handled with the left analog stick (much like EA’s Skate series), and the L/R triggers spin your character around. The game also utilizes an interesting landing mechanic; as you approach the ground, you’ll press the X button to determine how successfully you land: too far away from the pavement will result in a ‘Sketchy’ rating, which substantially lowers your score, while a ‘Perfect’ rating will net you thousands and thousands of extra points. You definitely want to make sure you don’t fall though, or you’ll have to press the much-appreciated, always present restart button in the top left corner of the screen. Almost perfecting that ‘Hard’ or ‘Rad’ run when you eat the dirt may reduce you to tears, but each level is fairly short, so as angry as I was for screwing up, I was always happy to replay (the game also loads instantaneously, so that’s a big plus for repeating levels).

OlliOlli spans 50 levels through five environments, with half of the stages in the ‘Amateur’ difficulty level, and half ‘Pro’ (unlocked once you beat each Amateur challenge in a stage). Afterwards, the game feels nearly infinitely replayable, as ‘Spot’ mode has you attempting the highest score in a single combo for each level (I’m very competitive against myself), and a ‘Daily Grind’ mode that puts you agains every player in the entire world. This mode is awesome; you’ll be competing on a new level every day, and after taking as many practice runs as you want, you get one shot at the gold. Bail or fail, and you’re done until the next day. I cannot wait to attempt to top the charts for at least one day, and if my OlliOlli skills are half as awesome as my THPS ability, I’m sure as hell that I can do it (and I’ll try, try, try until I do).

The only real downside to OlliOlli (which I’m sure can be fixed with an update) is that the game keeps crashing on me. I can be in-menu or mid-grind, and all of a sudden an error will pop up and my Vita will return to its home screen. It’s frustrating, and I can’t wait until it’s fixed, as it’s really the only thing keeping OlliOlli from perfection.

Packed with content, and featuring kick-ass 2D visuals and excellent sound, OlliOlli is the most addicting game I’ve had the pleasure of playing on the Playstation Vita, and I can’t wait to stop writing this and get right back to it. The title brings me back to the glory days of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, while being completely original on its own, and it’s really an incredible breath of fresh air in the all-but-dead skating genre. OlliOlli is now available on PSN for a cool $12.99 ($10.39 for Plus members), and it’s worth. every. penny.

OlliOlli scores a sick 4.5/5.