Lots of good games released in 2022; Elden Ring, Tunic, Pentiment, Grounded, The Callisto Protocol, Horizon: Forbidden West… and more. Despite different genres, different budgets, and different development studio philosophies, all of these games have one thing in common: a lot of pressure.
Whether you’re trying to break the circuit of the Thunderjaw’s fangs or dodge the razor-sharp return blows of the Godskin Noble’s epee, the game of 2022 will get you through. But if you need a break from being caught off guard by a well-fermented revolution in Pentiment, or throwing a fit at Tunic’s sluggish worldbuilding, there’s one place you can go to relax: OlliOlli World’s blissful “Gnarvana.” Available for free to all PlayStation Plus members starting February 7th – I think you should at least give it a try.
Filled with pastel colors, filled with charming Adventure Time art style, and accompanied by one of the coolest gaming soundtracks you’re likely to hear, OlliOlli World is a refreshing gaming cleaner for 2022. It’s not open world, it’s not full of shit trying to kill you, and it’s not dull enough to be annoying. It’s a nice, simple WYSIWYG game. All you need to do is understand your input, understand the rules of the world, and get on with it.
More than something like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, this game feels more like an accurate reflection of skating in 2023: it’s not just ripped jeans, punk rock, and six-packs of beer. It’s more contemplative, more laid-back, and more electronic. Skaters of all shapes and sizes come together to celebrate the art of skateboarding in this quirky fantasy world where everything seems to be geared toward making skate life better. Everyone is talking about flow, mindset, Zen.
They should. Because that’s what this game is good at. At the heart of the OlliOlli series (this is the third game) has always been the developer’s obsession with getting players into a state of flow. Think too much about what your fingers are doing and you’ll give up. Play with your mind — not your body — and you’ll eat curbs before you say “radical.” Once you’ve gotten past the first few levels and learned the basics of how to ollie, when to grind, what a manual can do, and how to build (and maintain) momentum, OlliOlli World will let you relax in Playground World and, in addition to Look no further than “empty your mind”.
Once you get into a zen-like state — think Bart Simpson saying to himself “the tree fell in the woods, the tree fell in the woods” — the game begins. You’ll find yourself setting goals without hesitation, getting high scores to embarrass your friends on the leaderboards, and pulling off tricks that would make Bob Burnquist blush. As you clear more areas and sniff out more secrets, you unlock more gear too; whether you want to be a fae woodland hippie skating on sidewalks, or a doll-dressed emo sk8r boi rummaging through industrial waste, You can all live out your fantasies.
Before you know it, it’s 2 a.m. again and you’ve got a blister on the pad of your thumb. You’ve entered the strange and wonderful world of Radlandia and a few more areas, and it’s time to sleep. OlliOlli World is better than any glass of chamomile, any kind of CBD, and the purest whiskey for calming you down and calming you down. Even if you get stuck on a particularly tricky level design, or if there’s a particular objective you can’t quite complete, you’ll have a good time grinding it out over and over because you feel like your brain is unwinding and shed the weight of the day.
The game highlights the goodness of the free-spirited skating counterculture while delivering an incredible masterclass in gameplay–all dressed up in a warm, encouraging, and engaging world. Like a skateboard.
