Review: OlliOlli (3DS)

OlliOlli is a 2d skateboarding game that mixes addictive one-life gameplay with over 120 tricks and grinds with 100 deviously crafted levels & 250 challenges across four gameplay modes. OlliOlli rewards the most skilful and riskiest of players, always tempting you to go for that massive 360 Inward Heelflip and ludicrous chain of combos. Leaving you to time your landing to perfection – or risk losing your score!

Pros:

• Great graphics with some silky smooth animations. The game looks brilliant on the small screen screen.
• Controls are really easy to learn. Left stick is used for doing tricks and jumping. Grinding is automatic and can be halted by jumping off. The left shoulder button is used for spinning whilst airborne with the right shoulder button used for grind variations. The one key button used is the X/A button as that is the one you press just before you land and is solely responsible for the outcome of your score. Press it too early and you get a sloppy land and lose all your points, Whilst a perfect timing press will give you a green glow to confirm you nailed it and get all your points.
• You can use d-pad or analogue.
• Cross buy! Buy it on 3DS or Wii U and get the other version free. You have to use the same account for it to work.
• When you mess up you can instantly restart by pressing the button on the touch screen.
• and insta re load the level. Yes insta is a new word I like to use.
• Tutorial section where you can go when ever you like to learn how the game plays, Brush up on technique and generally get to grips with the game.
• Connect to online for online leaderboards or play offline.
• Banging soundtrack with songs by great acts like Qemists, Dorian Concept and Flako, The sound effects shine through as you hear every grind,bail, scream for help or that crunching sound that can only be heard whilst face planting the floor! You can change the music track playing at any point by pushing the right stick right.
• The game has a distance meter that you may have seen in other games like Jetpack Joyride, It doesn’t really serve a huge purpose but does give you a sense of how far in the level you are.
• Always available to you is the Tricktionary, Your bible that displays all the moves in the game with a description of how to pull them off.
• Visible on screen combo counter and move performed.
• Daily grind is, If you cannot guess, your daily event. Allowing you infinite practice runs, you only get one proper shot at setting a high score. At the end of your run you can see your ranking score.
• When finishing a level you get a score and a best combo score and a brief look at your standings on the leaderboards. Every level has its own individual leaderboard.
• Levels are split up into 5 areas with all 5 having their own 5 levels. Merely finishing a level (no easy feat) will unlock the next level and a spot. A spot is basically the daily grind but with the daily part taken out. Every level has 5 tasks ala Tony Hawks like score x amount of points or collect every spray can etc. Finish all 5 and you unlock a pro version of the level. Pro is harder and faster and again gives you 5 more tasks. Finishing these unlocks RAD levels which notch the difficulty up to insane levels. All levels and spots have leaderboard descriptions at the end.
• Proper twitch crazy, level learning,fist pumping,lightening fast gameplay.
• You get only one shot at level just like in the spot sections. Face plant and the dream run is over, miss a jump and the dream run is over. Annoying you may think but any points banked before your epic fail is saved which is amazing! Be a pro but be careful.
• The bottom screen is used for reloading checkpoints, seeing your objectives or you can flip it to show the tricktionary on the fly. One of the best uses of the touchscreen yet.

Cons:

• No 3D effect.
• Difficulty spikes especially when going for 100% completion as some of the tasks are crazy hard from the get go.
• Controls do have a learning curve about them, This is a skateboarding game yes, But it aint no Tony Hawk, Expect to learn the controls and understand the importance of landing the trick. This is OlliOlli.

In Summary, This game surprised me. I know its awesome but I feared that a 3DS port may just basically be a boring port. I was wrong. The game is the most fun yet, Maybe its the analogue stick but man the game feels so responsive and looks just as good as the other versions. The touchscreen displays all your objectives and ticks them off as you do them. You can also swap that out for a look at the ever extensive tricktionary, flipping between moves and grinds. Yes the sequel is out on PS4 and Vita but I still urge you to play the 3DS version. No 3D at first seemed a bit of a weird exclusion but to be honest you soon forget as you get your grind on. Fast gameplay, responsive comfortable controls, This game is excellent and becomes an instant classic and must have. Cross buy just makes it a no brainer.