OlliOlli World (2022)

Made a playlist and it is just OlliOlli music, Daft Punk, and Justice and it rules.

You know that you love the mechanics of a game when you will play a level over and over again to beat it and you're still having a good time. I think I played the final DLC level one hundred times. I felt such joy when I finally beat the level, but the feeling of being done with the game still alludes me. This game rocks too hard.

Take-two can sniff my butt. What a buncha bozos.

This is one of those games where I wish we were on a 10 point scale or I could give 4.5 stars. It really pushes my buttons in all the right way but doesn't quite hit a 5/5 due a few general interface issues and Switch-specific nitpicks. The TLDR is that if you enjoy series like SSX or THPS then you will feel extremely comfortable with OlliOlli World.

Behind the chill vibes and the story-mode are a slow burn of tutorials and mechanics that eventually add to a very complex set of options and ways to attack each level. You don't even finish all the tutorials in this game until near the very last level of the campaign. This isn't a criticism - in fact the progression is paced out very well. As you learn and unlock new challenges, it incentivizes you to go back and replay levels to beat the challenges you missed, the new ones you've unlocked, to score higher with your new knowledge and to try and beat your friends. I constantly found myself intending to pick it up for 20 minutes and then realizing it'd been 2 hours. There is never a lack of things to do and improve on.

The few issues I had that kept me from giving this a full five stars was mostly interface related. The Switch isn't the fastest console out there and it really shows here. OlliOlli World really wants you to listen to its characters babble about basically nothing and the controls to skip dialogue or move through the menus are not particularly intuitive. The number of times I wound up entering or leaving the wrong menu or level on the map and then waiting for the Switch to load is countless at this point. A more intuitive interface and the ability to completely turn off character dialogue would be very welcome for those of us that want to be able to easily go in and out of levels during the endgame. Also - get ready to accidentally restart your run when you don't mean to a bunch until your fingers get some muscle memory under them. The gameplay itself is smooth and responsive but everything around it is pretty slow and clunky.

Overall, I really have enjoyed my time with OlliOlli World and I see myself returning to it pretty consistently to get better, improve my scores and keep up with the the online Gnarvana League. Definitely recommended if skating or this type of game is something that interests you.