There has long been a magical connection between skateboarding and video games: even if the actual sport has lost a bit of popularity, its virtual adaptations continue to emerge. Like golf, it’s inspired developers time and time again, and among the many attempts to create a worthy successor to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, few have stood out like the original OlliOlli Roll7, released in 2014, and its sequel, OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood. But if they are pretentious and just a two-dimensional skate game in an urban environment, then the new one OlliOlli Dunia World marks a monumental step forward. Now that it’s not a series, it’s a franchise with ambitions and ideas that not only fits with Tony Hawk, but leaves him behind.

At first glance, everything is the same: the three-dimensional plane is still missing, but the controls and the basic idea have not changed. Our virtual skateboarder must pass a series of short levels, earning the maximum number of points. Everything has changed other.

developer:
Roll7

Price:
$ 20.09

The first thing that catches your eye after turning it on for the first time is the radical style change. Associations with animated series on Adult Swim or Nickelodeon, or rather Adventure Time, immediately spring to mind. This is not the OlliOlli we are used to. The game is full of bright colors and colorful patterns, and first of all the game offers to choose your character. Discreet personalization is the main element of novelty, where you can change everything – skin color, hair style, clothes, board style and so on. At first, the choice is huge, but the more levels you pass, the more interesting cosmetic items you’ll find.

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The second innovation is the large number of different worlds that make up Radlandia, the fictional world where everything happens. I apologize immediately if some of my names don’t match the official ones – no matter how hard the translators try, they don’t manage to convey the original humor. I don’t blame them for that – English humor, which is largely based on puns, is rarely suitable for translation. Therefore, if in the original one of the characters screams “zomBEES”, then in translation they turn into “bee zombie”. The meaning is the same, agree, but in the first case it’s somehow funnier.

And yes, the dialogue, which suddenly pops up a lot, is another big change. Responding to the word World in its title, which often symbolizes a qualitative leap for many platformers, OlliOlli provides its games with a mythology, and even a plot of its own. Do we need a story about Narvana (another pun) and the skateboarding god? On the one hand, no. At the beginning of each level, our silent hero has to listen to the chatter of several characters – sometimes funny, sometimes boring. But you can rewind it immediately, and, in general, I’m more likely, however, this is how the game has an added charm. There are tons of interesting characters, all with their own unique designs and characters.

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Well, well, beauty is beauty, but the main thing is the gameplay. Maybe, I’m the least worried about this, but Roll7 doesn’t hire debutants. And I was right: OlliOlli World stands out with great controls and lots of tricks. Its main achievement is accessibility, because even an inexperienced and incompetent (I’m talking about myself, no offense) players who cannot remember all the key combinations will be able to complete all the levels and see all their beauty . Even if a level seems too difficult, there will always be save points scattered throughout the level, allowing you to come back in an instant.

In OlliOlli World, control is focused on analog sticks: drag the left stick in any direction and release to perform tricks and take off. The tricks change depending on the direction of the wand, which allows you to paste various tricks without having to remember any key combinations. Most of the controls are sharpened right on one stick – very elegant.

In principle, this is a linear video game, but there are many additional tasks and even “quests”. There’s more than enough content to keep you engaged for a long time, especially since each level motivates you to pass it multiple times. There are five biomes in OlliOlli World, but there are already plans for two paid expansions – Void Riders and a second yet unnamed one. Both are part of the OlliOlli World Rad Edition. The presence of plans for additional paid content may irritate purists, but I honestly don’t mind, especially since there are no visible microtransactions within the game itself – it’s all up to the player.

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I could go on and on about what OlliOlli World is, but I won’t. Because it’s not even a game – that’s what our English-speaking friends refer to as “vibe”. He mood, it’s a way to transfer to another plane, where the absurd, the phantasmagoric and the comic reign supreme. Where there is no gloomy color, and good music is so important that you can change it at any time with the push of a button. I was happy with how the game looked and how it tried to entertain me in every way. I loved the previous installments, but World made me a fan. Now I’m looking forward to seeing what Roll7 will do next. I’d keep my fingers crossed for a free-roaming open world, but I wouldn’t rule out a sequel in the same vein. Something tells me that the World will be getting updates for over a year.

Finally, I want to note the excellent optimization for the PS5. The picture, of course, is clear and attractive, but I’m especially referring to the DualSense controller, which receives support for advanced vibration feedback and uses the built-in speaker. The vibe here is great – this is why I recommend this particular version, as this new haptic field of perception helps a lot to dissolve into the world of video games. Well, support for 4K and 120fps modes is no less important.

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Decision

OlliOlli World is unmistakably a contender, if not for the game of the year, then for the first real masterpiece of 2022. Don’t think that cartoon graphics make this release any less significant: Private Division is in charge of the release, and the ambitions of the developers are anything but childish. childish. Here you will see: OlliOlli will still push Tony Hawk. Meanwhile, let’s all play World!

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