The first ever skateboarding game I played was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, quite late in its lifespan too. It introduced me to a whole world of extreme sports that I've only ever heard about before, but never actually seen. It was also one of the first games I remember that I actively tried to perfect over time. Always trying to outdo my high-scores, and try to keep combos going as long as I could. Then I discovered the manual. Holy crap! An entire new world of crazy high combos opened up before me. The reason why I just spent all this time talking about what is frankly still one of my favorite skateboarding games of all time, is because OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood is practically the 2D version of THPS2.
OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood, much like its predecessor, is all about skating from the left side of the screen to the right side, executing as many flashy tricks, grinds and jumps as you can, usually attempting to chain most of those tricks together in one long combo. What makes this process easier to perform, yet difficult to master, is the inclusion of manuals. Manuals will be your saving grace in trying to get the highest score possible, but they'll require some practice in order to ensure you're stringing the tricks together and not falling flat on your face. Olli 2 is certainly not easier by any means than its predecessor, and those who enjoyed the first game's challenge have a lot to look forward to in the sequel.
You'll be skating through five different themed locations, split up into five separate areas, each one containing five different challenges. That's 125 challenges right off the bat. However, beat all of those, and you unlock the fiendishly difficult Pro challenges. Beat those (somehow) and you'll unlock RAD mode. What I'm getting at here, is that there is tons, and tons of content here waiting. Unlocking the Pro level doesn't just mean you have harder challenges, but the stage itself gets harder, adding obstacles that weren't there in amateur, which will try to make your life more difficult, but also provide new opportunities for bigger tricks and longer combos.
The tricks themselves haven't changed much from the previous game. You still jump and pull of tricks with various spins of the analog stick, and adding some modifiers with the shoulder buttons. The new stuff comes in the aforementioned manuals, which you pull of by pressing X as you land and pressing either left or right on the d-pad. Thankfully, unlike THPS2, you won't have to balance yourself to keep the manual going. Instead you'll lose speed quicker than you normally would, so you won't ever be staying in a manual for extended amounts of time. However, adding even more complexity are the Revert Manuals which will certainly help with raising your score, however, you have to simultaneously press either L2 or R2 along with X and the direction of the manual when landing. It can become a little too much to handle, but the great thing about Olli 2, and its predecessor, is that you'll gradually learn to get better, the longer you play. You never earn XP to unlock new tricks. They're all there. You just gradually learn to execute them more masterfully.
Aside from the game's main campaign, you can also tackle Spots, which are location based challenges that task you with getting the highest score possible, which will then be immediately compared to top players online. Let me tell you, it's the easiest way to demoralize yourself in OlliOlli 2. Unless of course, you are the top player, in which case, congrats and please teach me your ways. The Daily Grind is also available which gives players a chance to practice on a predetermined level once, and then try to get the highest score possible.
The game no longer sports the pixel based graphics, and instead now has a stylized look, more akin to a flash game. While I personally liked the pixel graphics a bit more, the new graphical style doesn't deter from the game. What's even better this time around is the soundtrack. Roll7 picked some truly awesome tunes to skate to. And while I personally didn't recognize any, they all sounded great.
If you're a PS Plus member, chances are that OlliOlli 2 is already downloaded to your system. But for those that don't have PS Plus, I can wholeheartedly recommend OlliOlli 2 if you've loved the original, or even if you enjoyed the goal-based gameplay of the Tony Hawk games of old.
