Weekend Warrior: OlliOlli World – Great fun for all ages

In an April post, we took a quick look at OlliOlli World. It’s a neat little game with plenty of fun and action for all ages offering simple controls, that are challenging to master, with plenty of adventures in the expansive levels.

The game itself is a simple platform game that shines through its simplicity, energy and colour. The preview we had access to had some fun characters to interact with but lacked the ability to customise — in the demo version — your own character.

The squad you join at the start of the game is a diverse group, each adding a small element to the gameplay experience.

• Chiffon is a psychic who acts as a checkpoint as you work your way through levels
• Gnarly Mike sets you challenges that increase your score
• Dad owns the skate shop where you get cosmetics for your character (not available in the demo we played)
• Suzie is a film-maker who tracks your progress grabbing “rad” shots along the way

The developer of OlliOlli World, Roll7 isn’t a newcomer, with previous games including OlliOlli and OlliOlli 2: Are you starting to sense a theme here? Out of interest, I went looking at the previous games and found OlliOlli World to be a combination of them with huge expansion on the available levels and challenges.

You’ll face new challenges early to work on your timing, control management and readiness for the tricks you’ll need to survive Radlandia. As your skills progress and you pass levels, you’ll be ready for new regions. Each region bringing with it a slightly different visual style and aesthetic as a background to your adventures.

Simple to learn, tricky to master

We’ve mentioned the controls already, but it’s worth revisiting them briefly. The primary actions you’ll need to take is to move and perform tricks. Pushing is simple, just tap A as you go. But that is where it starts getting more tricky. To “charge up” a trick, you’ll use the left analog stick and hold it until you’re ready to do the trick where timing is everything. Performing your trick too early can lead to a crash, as can doing so too late. You can outright miss your target and ultimately need to repeat the level.

There are definite challenges to this, achievable by almost anyone. I’m assured by a couple of people I know who do skate, that these controls are actually quite natural to their world which goes a long way to show how much time the game designers put into the controls.

The gameplay is complemented by a fun, electronica style soundtrack that suits the levels well. It helped the gameplay become immersive and lifted the level of excitement when you pull off a well timed trick.

The barrier to entry

The barrier to entry, ie. minimum PC specs is really quite low in the current era. In fact, out of curiosity, I ran it on my 2017 Macbook Pro without huge hassles aside from the fan screaming at me for a while. In theory, many mid-range laptops will be able to play OlliOlli World with the listed — albeit not final — minimum spec being:

• CPU: Intel Core i34160 / AMD FX4300
• GPU: GeForce GTX 480 / Radeon HD 7850
• RAM: 3072 MB
• Disc space: Around 4 GB free
• OS: Windows 7/8/8.1/10

There are a number of reasons I found this game so endearing including the fact — with a focus on younger gamers — that the primary focus is improving your previous scores instead of outright competing with others. I enjoyed playing it without company but also enjoyed (as did she) sitting with my 8 year old daughter to play together.

The Steam listing shows promise for future gaming too, suggesting there will be a level editor available noting:

Challenge the world in Leagues or dare a friend to beat your best tricks on one of millions of sharable levels. Experience the accessibility, depth, and player freedom as you dive into the signature flow state gameplay of OlliOlli World.

Unfortunately, It’s not yet available for public purchase with a release date expected later in the year for PC (through Steam), as well as PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch later this year. I’ve enjoyed the OlliOlli World enough that I’ve already added it to my Steam wishlist, I’d happily suggest any casual gamer does the same.