OlliOlli

Introduction

For a few years now, Sony has tried to capture the kind of secret sauce on their handheld platforms that has made for various indie monster hits on smartphones and PCs. With games like 'Journey,' Sony has had the edge when it comes to the more cerebral fare. But out of desire for titles like 'Super Meat Boy' and 'N+,' which scratch a quick and brutal itch, Sony signed up a young, indie, British developer, Roll7, and their prototype of a sidescrolling skateboard game. The result is the full-fledged 'OlliOlli' for the PlayStation Vita.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

Just get ready, because for almost anyone who has played a super addictive, score-based smartphone game but quit due to the platform's inherent drawbacks, 'OlliOlli' is likely to have your number. Take any of a variety of popular iOS titles, and you've got hordes of gamers thinking, "This would be a great game, but the touch screen controls are full of fail, and the random physics, levels, and micro-transactions make the scoring a crap-shoot and the leaderboards a joke." With those flaws in mind, it's easy quite easy to label 'OlliOlli' as a smartphone game that is actually good.

But let me back up. For most of my life, I have gravitated between not being interested in skateboards and skateboard games to wondering if the world would be better off without them. That was before 'OlliOlli.' After learning some of its (addictive) ways, my feelings towards skateboards need serious reassessment.

As with many great games, 'OlliOlli' is built around a simple but exquisite core feel. Though it may look like a endless runner, the player controls the momentum of the skateboarder. Tap 'X' to get moving (and to pick up speed), and then push the left stick in any direction and release to olli. To grind on a rail, hold the left stick down. And to land the skateboard (without a sloppy, point-killing, and possible face-planting stutter), press 'X' within a short distance to the ground.

At this point, avid skateboarders may be rolling their eyes, but for the platforming veteran, jumping with the left stick and then having to land with the 'X' button can feel quite unorthodox, and yet it is the basis for this game's secret sauce. A big wrinkle in that secret is how to get a perfect landing or a perfect grind. It is, of course, all about timing. Pressing 'X' (or down of the left stick for grinding) just before landing (or starting the grind) makes it a grade of "Perfect." Until these become regular and more natural, all gameplay is really just training, and this training is likely to include frequent, run-crushing, level-ending face plants.

Levels are packed with random junk that will end the run. This junk must be ollied over, and then there are the many stair-stepping areas that must be traversed using grinds. Unlike endless runners, the game uses set levels, 50 in all plus Spots (small single run challenges levels), and the flow from ground to rail over gaps and obstacles can, with some practice, draw in even the biggest skateboard haters around. With each landed trick being scored in real-time and individual level-challenges and live leaderboards, the gameplay hums along, challenging the player to become good enough to maximize each trick multiplier. Both shoulder buttons are used for spinning, and the game's Tricktionary is always available.

The game features a giant restart button in the upper left of the screen, which despite the always close proximity of face-planting death, is used with frenetic frequency during play. For better or worse, the levels restart so fast that even when not playing at your best it's tempting to keep trying.

The levels themselves have a devious flow. Whenever you think that you've mastered all of the grind techniques, there will be a level without grind rails or just a challenge that can only be beaten without grinding. Ditto for pushing.

I mentioned earlier how important consistent physics is for a game like this, and 'OlliOlli' really nails it. Just the other day, I was explaining how I felt that for 'Dark Souls' the enemies will attempt cheap kills relentlessly, but since their behaviors and actions are so consistent, the gameplay doesn't feel cheap or unfair. Though 'OlliOlli' is free of enemies this same sentiment applies, tough but fair. The same inputs will result in the same speed and cause the same failure in a given level (like 'Base 5') every time. So even though I'll likely never net world-beating scores, the scores I do post will only be as random as my play-style.