PC Gamer - UK (2022-04)

OlliOlli World is weirder and wilder
than those who Olli’d before it – and
it’s all the better for it.
The third game in the series
follows the template laid out by
OlliOlli 1 and 2. You’re
tasked with skating a
line down a
sidescrolling course,
using A to push and the
left stick to launch into
kickflips and the like.
As you go on you build
up your bag of tricks,
chaining combos with
manuals, grinds and wallrides as you
look to not only finish stages, but
finish them in style.
OlliOlli World loves skateboarding

• not just the tricks and flips, but the
  culture, the fashion and the music,
  which in 2022 means more chillhop
  beats than thrash punk and ska. But it
  doesn’t feel absolutely beholden to
  the idea of what skateboarding
  culture needs to look like. While

OlliOlli 1 and 2 sported a recognisable

set of sidewalks to shred, World uses

those touchstones to create a

wonderfully surreal Adventure

Time-esque skatopia.

It’s a much-needed

tonal refresh for the

series, and one that

plays perfectly into a

new-found third

dimension. Skate lines

weave around cliffs,

abandoned casinos, and

massive ice cream

cones. Switching from

flat backdrops to a world with real

depth doesn’t just make World a

prettier game – it gives Roll7’s

designers much more space to

challenge your skate skills.

OlliOlli World’s stages now shift

back and forth, looping around on

themselves with quarter pipe gaps

and destructible floors that open new

routes. This new freedom is best

explored in tough new Gnarly

Routes. Take the right turn and you’ll

be pulled down a harder path,

demanding more precise jumps and

tricks at a faster pace, with the

promise of more stylish rewards.

EASY ROLLING

That said, OlliOlli World has taken

great care to make its particular style

of skating feel more laid-back and

approachable than past games – at

least for the first few stages.

More punishing elements have

been removed in favour of offering

higher score bonuses. But levels also

feel more laid-back at first, and new

elements are doled out so gradually

that you’ll still be getting tutorials

well into the third or fourth region

out of the game’s five total.

Each map has its own

leaderboards, and revisiting a stage

will assign you a rival to face off

against. But that’s a lot of stages to

battle over – and while I’m sure

there’ll be folks competing for these

spots, Gnarvana is where most

challenge-seekers will get their fix.

Unlocked after beating the first

region, Gnarvana is a mystical space

that lets you generate and share

tracks by choosing their difficulty,

length and biome. Being cobbled

together from proc-gen parts they

miss the bespoke appeal of the main

stages, but it’s also where World’s

Daily Challenges exist – spewing out

a new track every day to fight over.

World’s pivot to a gentler learning

curve may risk putting off series

die-hards, but skateboarding games

are in the midst of a renaissance.

World’s radical reinvention doesn’t

just help it keep up with this pack of

new skaters – it’s just what the series

needed to spawn one of the most

stylish, satisfying skaters around.

86

A fresh new style and

smoothed out lines make

OlliOlli World an

unmissable skate-’em-

up. And that’s just gnarly.

VERDICT

O

lliOlli World isn’t like other skaters. It’s not shredding lines
down some asphalt concourse, pissing off security guards
and scaring passing shoppers as it slams a 50-50 into the
kerb. Roll7’s series of sidescrolling skaters has instead
travelled to the far-off shores of Radlandia, a skater’s
paradise where the rails are always polished and aspiring shredders
compete for the chance to become the next Skate Wizard.

FRESH STYLE

OLLIOLLI WORLD is a radical refresh for the sidescrolling skater

By Nat Clayton

More

laid-back and

approachable

than past

games

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

Skateboarding as a

sidescrolling

platformer

EXPECT TO PAY

£25

DEVELOPER

Roll7

PUBLISHER

Private Division

REVIEWED ON

RTX 2070, 16GB RAM,

AMD Ryzen 5 3600

MULTIPLAYER

No

LINK

bit.ly/34IW9Tr

1

2

5 4

3

5

SHIBA INU

SHORTS

When at the beach, do

as the beach-goers do.

4

GREY PADS

There’s nothing

less stylish than

skinned knees.

3

DROWN TOWN

BOARD

What’s a skater without

a suitably gnarly deck

graphic?

1

HOBOLOGO

NAVIGATORS

Keep the sun out

your eyes while

stuntin’.

2

WORKSHOP

PUFFER

Make an impression

with a bold, bulky

silhouette.

IT’S CALLED

FASHION

Look it up

OlliOlli World

REVIEW