OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood Review

Grinding has never been more fun.

OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita

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Skateboarding used to the big thing those cool kids at the school were into. Grinding around on the local park’s rails and generally being cooler than you were. In recent years there’s been something of a paradigm shift in what the popular bunch at high school do. Most of them have turned into gamers. Popping a manual has been replaced with creating a 1:1 replica of the creepy science teacher’s face in Minecraft. Where we were once beholden to our social rulers and their conversations about the skatepark, youths of the world now discuss Call of Duty loadouts. OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood capitalizes on this old fad meets new fad idea, bringing skateboarding back to gaming.

Well when we say bringing it back to gaming, that’s already been done by developer roll7’s predecessor to OlliOlli 2, OlliOlli. That game gave PS Vita owners a welcome taste of 2D skateboarding on Sony’s little handheld before bringing its majesty onto almost every other platform in the world today. It did this using a mechanical formula which luckily hasn’t been tampered with. OlliOlli 2 doesn’t try to break the mold, it adds a wealth of features onto the original. Think OlliOlli as a cake. It was delicious on its own, but the follow up has more sprinkles and those little silvery ball things that are putting your dentist’s kids through college.olli olli 2

OlliOlli 2 takes place through five utterly weird as hell worlds. There’s no story or lore linking them, mainly because if there was, it’d require more drugs than were taken throughout the 60’s to even comprehend. Luckily for us mere humans the gameplay is cohesive as a pair of LEGO bricks, slotting together all of its elements perfectly.

The aim of the game is, at its most basic level, to get from one end of the level to the other without falling off your skateboard. That’s all you actually have to do and if you’re that way inclined, it’s a more than adequate way to play OlliOlli 2. If you’re only trying to survive though, you’d be conning yourself out of the best content developer roll7 has to offer. Early on, you’re tasked with pushing yourself along the ground and not landing face first on it. Soon after, you’ll have to expertly weavegrinds and switches into the mix.

Then OlliOlli 2 grabs your by the neck. Somehow, a pair of digitized hands burst forth from the screen of your PlayStation 4 or PlayStation Vita and squeeze you with a stranglehold so tight your contacts’ll pop out. It then proceeds to pour tricks and challenges directly into your cerebral cortex. You are no longer your own person. OlliOlli 2 now owns you and your life.olli olli 2

Tricks like Manuals and their slightly more confusing cousin Revert Manuals start flying out left, right, and center. Their complexity is greater than that of your standard Ollie or Laserflip, and yet they are no more difficult to pull off than pushing a button. Going from Boardslide to Nose Manual to Hardflip Late BS Shove-It seems incredibly taxing at first. After a few attempts at some time with OlliOlli 2 you’ll be manipulating the analogue stick and tapping those buttons to get the perfect combo you need all the time, every time.

If the Thumb Olympics were ever a thing, OlliOlli 2 will be the workout every trainer suggests. On both Vita and PlayStation 4, roll7’s latest will demand that your thumbs move quickly enough to achieve every desired goal. As levels start to become more complex, even seemingly impossible, you’ll find yourself almost unintentionally entering a zen-like trance. There’s no air or no sound around you. Your senses are dulled to the outside world yet heightened in the pursuit of achieving at least a completed level in OlliOlli 2.olli olli 2

It’s not just about completing each level either. Every stage has five challenges upon it. These range from keeping a single combo running through the whole area, grabbing specific pick ups placed in challenging locations, or dishing out a particular selection of tricks. These challenges, when all five are completed, unlock a new layout with five challenges of its own. Defeat all those and you’re into RAD mode which is insanity in video game form.

OlliOlli 2‘s five zones, which themselves run across a broad spectrum between wild west setting to an alien mech factory, have new obstacles which you’d think would be hard to learn. However after your first mistake in any of the zones, the obstacles and grind points are very well telegraphed. Using some sort of – probably forbidden – color magic, roll7 have been able to make everything in OlliOlli 2 incredibly easy to spot. The only Grind Rails that are a little difficult to discern at times are found in the Aztec portion.olli olli 2

Every single level is designed to test your mettle while giving you just enough to go on should you be struggling. Later zones will require pinpoint precision in stark contrast to earlier locations which are more of a place to hone your skills than actually play through.

Even if you were to have any problems working out at a glance what environmental element is where, it’s almost too easy to commit every level in OlliOlli 2 to your memory with nothing more than a blink and a nod. That leaves plenty of time for you to delay frustration and focus on getting up those scoreboards.


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Author
Chris Jecks
Chris Jecks has been covering the games industry for over eight years. He typically covers new releases, FIFA, Fortnite, any good shooters, and loves nothing more than a good Pro Clubs session with the lads. Chris has a History degree from the University of Central Lancashire. He spends his days eagerly awaiting the release of BioShock 4.