OlliOlli World (Xbox Series X/S) Review

One of the major differences from its predecessors is that OlliOlli World has inserted a story, as well as a supporting cast of characters to guide the player through its vast number of worlds and levels. Each level opens with dialogue which pushes the narrative along, and introduces new mechanics and challenges gradually to help ensure that players aren't put off by the notoriously harder difficulty of the originals. You can design your own skater with a plethora of costumes, accessories, poses and body types, more of which are unlocked along the way.

The graphical art style will be admired by most, and despised by a few who will yearn for the traditional pixel style that the series was known for. However, the new art style creates room for more progressive levels by adding in a depth of field allowing for multiple paths and a flow that at some points feels akin to Rayman Legends.

Part of the difficulty in the original instalments, was the controls, as well as the relentless traps set in the path. OlliOlli World still has these obstacles, and they will still get in the way, but it is just more forgiving. For example, stairs can now be incorporated into combos and progression from level to level isn't dependent on clearing all the objectives from the previous stage. The same could be applied to executing and landing moves, where landing one wrong move doesn't cause the player to bail, but instead just score fewer points than if they landed it perfectly.

Checkpoints are scattered throughout levels, but there are rewards for those that manage to complete the run without having to use them. It might not be worth getting too hung up on the earlier levels, as some of these objectives and challenges would be easy to come back and complete once more progress has been made through the story, although this is entirely optional of course.