Game Info
GAME NAME: OlliOlli
DEVELOPER(S): roll7
PUBLISHER(S): Curve Digital
PLATFORM(S): Nintendo Wii U
GENRE(S): Sports
RELEASE DATE(S): March 5th, 2015
I was never a big fan of skateboarding in real life as I was always more of a baseball or football player (even fat guys can play those sports). I did have a fascination for the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series though and put in enough hours that I will forever hate the song Ace of Spades by Motorhead. The later games in the series gave a nice sense of exploration in the open world parks, but OlliOlli brings it back to the old school and takes on the linear course of skating and in 2D to boot.
Roll7’s take on the skateboarding genre started on steam and the PlayStation family of systems but thanks to Curve Digital, the Wii U porting masters, has found it’s way to the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS. This is a monumental moment for Nintendo as well as it marks the first time that crossbuy has been implemented in North America. If you buy either version of OlliOlli you will get the opposite version for free, pretty awesome deal in my opinion.
In OlliOlli there isn’t any storyline or quest mode. Instead, each of the different areas are split into five courses that are filled with obstacles and objects that you can use to grind along throughout the level. In each of the courses you have the objective to accomplish certain goals to earn stars. You can earn up to a total of 5 stars per course. Some of these are easy tasks like perform a nosegrind while others are ridiculously challenging, such as get all perfect landings. I found it best to get what I could get and move on after a few attempts as the more difficult objectives are only for the masters of the game. To complete a level and move on to the next requires you to just get to the cheering crowd at the end of the path and not get all the stars, which is a blessing for sure. Each level has a Pro mode as well which is just more difficult challenges.
The game can be played completely off screen with the simple press of the – button but if you do play it on your television the GamePad is used to show you the challenges that you need to accomplish for each level which I found to be quite useful. The controls are simple but very confusing at first. The developers did include a tutorial that I would highly recommend completing before you try it alone but even afterward getting the timing of the landing down can be quite tricky. When you go to launch your character into a trick you have to flick the left stick. By adding half moons and quarter turns you can get some more impressive tricks in. To speed up your player you can hit the A button twice. This button is also used to land your trick and will take some mastery to do so as you only have a small range of when to tap the button to get a perfect landing. While in the air you can grind on rails and other objects by using the joystick. I always feel like I need to hit A to land on the grinding object as well, but all you will need to do is pick a direction on the joystick and let it rip.
There isn’t any multiplayer which is a bummer. There is a really fun daily grind mode though and will keep you competing on the leaderboards with fellow gamers each day. You have 24 hours to complete each level and you only get one shot so you will need to make sure you’ve practiced up a ton before you take your shot at one upping the competition.
I enjoyed the sort of 16-bit art style they are trying to achieve and with the high definition picture it really shines. It really does come across like a 2D Tony Hawk or maybe even Uniracers (I’m sure I might have been among the few who actually experienced that wonderful game). The soundtrack isn’t really good or bad and just takes the middle road. I really like the punk and metal experience that you get from other skating games and this had more of an electronic feel, and I’m just neutral on how I feel.
The Recommendation
This is for sure an interesting take on the skateboarding genre. Each level is short enough that you could play them over and over again to complete the challenges with out getting old or taking too much of your time. Beginners will be able to get through the levels while if you give it enough time to master the levels you will be able to go back through and beat every single one of them. The game has been out for a while on the other consoles, but if you have a Wii U and a 3DS you can not pass up the crossbuy deal as you can own both titles for less then ten bucks and that is a complete bargain. Here’s to hoping the second title makes it’s way over as well.
