Wallride, grind, and skate through Radlandia on a journey to become the new skate wizard in OlliOlli World. Developed by Roll7 and published by Private Division, OlliOlli World offers up a vivid skating world of challenges to perform intricate tricks and dozens of difficult levels. Aspects of the game are suitable for any skill level, and the amusing cast of characters keeps it interesting.
In OlliOlli World, players create their own unique character and traverse the world of Radlandia on a mission to meet each of the five skate gods and make it to Gnarvana, led by a tight-knit group of skaters each with their own entertaining personality. As they help the protagonist learn moves and increase their skill level, they'll also reveal interesting stories about their past and their love for skating. Along the way, the group will meet a number of quirky NPCs in OlliOlli World that offer side missions, additional challenges, or skating tips.
The main mission for each level is to get to the goal by any means, but there are also additional challenges to complete and local heroes with high scores as forms of completionist content. Some levels have alternate paths with side missions or Gnarly Routes, which are more difficult trails that lead to the goal. In each of the five worlds, learning new skating techniques and completing the game's tutorial missions in between levels is balanced and spread out instead of offered all at once in the beginning of the game.
While the challenges can be quite difficult at times, OlliOlli World welcomes players who are new to the series by allowing them to progress without completing any additional challenges. As long as the goal is reached, moving on to the next level and finishing each world is possible. For more experienced players, beating Mike's challenges, getting the highest score, and completing every level without checkpoints will undoubtedly keep them busy. Even after beating the main story, there's a new and unique challenge on every level from the final skate god to go back and complete.
Aside from the main story, players can unlock optional side quests that lead to new skate areas. OlliOlli World also has asynchronous multiplayer capabilities to compete to have the highest score in each season or play endlessly in previously unlocked worlds. The Gnarvana Portal helps hone skills and play for endurance rather than trying to beat challenges or reach a goal. The Gnarvana League has seasons where a set number of players compete to have the highest score and receive unique cosmetics depending on how they place. During progression, skaters unlock a large number of cosmetic options that make it easy to create a character that stands out. There are plenty of unique clothing options, from onesies to drink hats, that create incentives to complete challenges.
In each level of OlliOlli World, there are three Mike challenges that involve specific parts of the level. For example, players may need to avoid obstacles, like balloons or birds, take the Gnarly Route to meet NPCs, or catch and bump a frog riding a bee. Most of the challenges are unique, which makes the experience of completing levels less repetitive, and the challenges and the difficulty of the level as a whole increase greatly while moving through each world.
At its core, OlliOlli World is an intricate action-platformer game that offers a fun experience and a vibrant, interesting world of unique characters. With additional challenges unlocked, side quests to find, competitive seasonal online tracks, and the ability to play in the Gnarvana Portal, there's plenty of post-game content to enjoy. Although some mechanics can take a while to master, and challenges may be frustrating at times, OlliOlli World is an overall fun experience with a lot to offer those familiar with, and new, to the series.
OlliOlli World will be available on February 8, 2022, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Screen Rant was provided a digital PlayStation 5 download code for the purpose of this review.