OlliOlli2: Welcome to OlliWood Review
By: Omar(@siegarettes)
- OlliOlli 2
- Developer - Roll7
- Publisher - Roll7
- PS Vita, PS4
- Rating - E
KA-LACK LACK. KA-LACK LACK. KA-LACK LACK. Wheels on concrete. Waves of wood on steel rails. The feeling is familiar, known and comfortable. I’ve been here, and done this. Covering OlliOlli was my first paid gig, the first time I turned my words into cash. I know it well. Coming to the sequel, I found it easy to slip back into the same rhythms, feel the same suspension of time in the moment before touching down. Everything from back then is still here, but in a lot of ways OlliOlli 2 reflects the game in my memory better than the original did.
Back up. What even is OlliOlli? Well, it’s the modern progeny of the digital skateboarding scene. With genes from auto-runners, the dexterity demanding controls of Skate, and the combo system of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Marry those, add a wrinkle to touching down, and you’ve got OlliOlli. Bring in manuals and reverts, THPS3 style, and you’ve got OlliOlli 2.
It’s safe to say I have a lot of good feelings about OlliOlli. First gig aside, it stripped down the feeling of nailing tricks and finding skate lines to a more accessible format, while keeping the nuance alive. It felt like a game you’d never play enough of, because you could always be better at it. OlliWood refines that further, filing down the edges and adding to the toolbox.
The art immediately makes a fresh impression. OlliWood trades in the textured grit and Canabalt slate color scheme of the original for a warm Los Angles palette, complemented with movie-poster styling. The new sets provide a wider range of color and mood absent from the first, which could begin to feel almost monochrome by comparison.
Instant restarts and manuals are undoubtedly the biggest addition. The first game had the restart on the SELECT button, and popped up the objectives with each restart. Removing that screen and moving the function to the triangle key cuts out the short, but irritating downtime of the original and keeps the rhythm and momentum of a session alive. Manuals allow you the ability to keep a combo alive as you hit the floor, shifting the focus from finding the biggest air and longest grind to chaining a succession of tricks together and working it into a flawless run. (Big air isn’t gone, however, but expanded on with new launchers that reward you for pulling off the jump). Concrete felt like a obstacle in the first, signaling the end of movement, a suspension in the rhythm. Manuals work that quiet space into the beats of big air, grinds, and the waning and building gravitation pulls of the player and their board. Nailing a landing isn’t the end, but a lead in to another combo.
This brings in a lot of new space for level design (which is definitely taken advantage of) but also has the side effect of creating a more breathless pace. The first game demanded just as much unwavering attention, but the concrete brought a brief release of tension as you banked your points. OlliWood doesn’t let off until you’ve run the level entirely through. That alone is neither a positive nor negative, but it is a notable change in the feeling of the game.
Reverts I feel less charitable towards. While they allow more flourish and expression to landings, the timing has a certain level of strictness that feels absent from the rest of the game, even as demanding as it is. I’m not comfortable writing them off just yet, but at the moment they push the game a little further from accessibility and further into demanding technicality. Again, that’s not a problem in of itself, but it is a notable shift.
That’s a little bother, however. OlliWood is the best form of the sequel: one that feels like the intended version of the original, not because the original was lacking, but because it iterates on it in such a way that its additions now feel essential.