OlliOlli PC review: timing the landing of skateboarding tricks is tough - but worth it

£9.99; PC; Developer Roll7

It’s been a long time since there was a decent skateboarding game, with the Tony Hawk franchise jumping the shark sometime around the mid to late noughties and EA apparently giving up on their refreshingly intuitive Skate series - but OlliOlli is an attempt to fill that void.

The game is a fast-paced 2D platformer with controls that are a blend of Tony Hawk’s overly simple inputs and Skate’s more complicated precision controls. OlliOlli puts a lot of emphasis on timing the landing of the tricks properly - it's actually such a key element to this game it can make the difference between a 3 point trick and a 2000 point trick.

While the earlier levels can be unlocked relatively easily, completing all the challenges is a much harder task, and as the levels progress just getting from one end to the other without bailing becomes quite a challenge. It is the desire to complete every challenge that will keep you coming back for more, and with the quick restart button always on screen it doesn’t feel frustrating trying the same level a hundred times.

Visually the game is a functional 2D affair with little extra detail. For a game with such a large number of tricks it is a little frustrating that you rely on the name of the trick popping up, but the size of the player on screen is far too small to make out variations in tricks, and this is especially true during grinds.

Borrowing the best elements of the last decade’s most popular skateboarding franchises, and combining them with the endless runner style gameplay of Cannabalt, have resulted in something very fun and addictive.