Review: Olli Olli World
Platform games are one of the first genres in gaming. It never gets old and the formula keeps being reinvented. You see it in the metroidvania and in the countless Mario’s and Mario-clones, but sometimes a rare gem comes along, that shakes up the formula in yet another fun way, and that is Olli Olli World.
Sadly I never picked up the previous games, so this is a fresh experience for me, but I have to admit, it’s a good one. I have played skating games, off course and have played them extensively, but sadly overlooked the previous platforming-skating games that came before this one.
What sets this one apart though is the faux-3D that makes up the game world, although it is a 2D world, you can switch tracks and experience different pathways through the levels.
What I thought was absolutely fun were the vibrant colours and the different challenges that make up the world, which give you different playthroughs of the level to complete all the challenges, which make the game so fun, and challenging, if you really want to go for all the challenges.
I played the game on switch, and it ran smoothly, and it’s a game that really gets you into the “one more try”-mentality that is lost on so many games these days. I love a game like dead cells and this one that don’t tell a big story, but just invoke a sense of challenge over bulking out the game with needless forgettable tasks, of which you have to do 300 to get an achievement, while here, you just do one run, do cool tricks and get the satisfaction of either getting a challenge done or beating your own tricks high score or just do a beautiful run.
What I love as well, is that you can deck out your character by earning (not buying) new stuff in game. And there is an online mode as well, where you can earn different online stuff and even a ranking system (although I didn’t play the online mode, just the story campaign mode).
It’s so fun to see that Indie games lead the revolution in progress in gaming and this one is no exception. Instead of bashing out yet another run of the mill game, which they could have done by just going further with how the previous entries looked and felt, they made the game look different and still play the same, but different (I know this is a paradox, but it’s a good one).
If you are looking for a challenging game to take on the go (as I would recommend this for switch), and do quick one run of a level that is challenging and will quickly turn into a play-session of hours, this is your game.
