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OlliOlli World’s levels are built to keep skaters in rhythm, not to punish them

OlliOlli World review: Roll7's 2D skateboarding platformer trades pixel art for hand-drawn Radlandia, adds quarter pipes and branching paths. Score: 7.3/10.

By mitch·4 min read
A skater glides along a rail above a bright, floating world of islands and color.

OlliOlli World wants you to stop worrying and love the flow state. It is a 2D skateboarding platformer from developer Roll7, published originally by Private Division, and it is built on a simple promise: chain tricks, ride walls, grind rails, and let the combo carry you across Radlandia. It mostly delivers. The game lands on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, and it earns a 7.3 out of 10.

Trailer, via Nintendo of America.

Radlandia Is the Whole Pitch

The setting is Radlandia, and the game treats it as a place rather than a backdrop. You interact with characters, take on side quests, and meet a cast described as colorful while you grind, trick, and air your way toward the mystical skate gods on a quest for Gnarvana.

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That is a lot of whimsy to hang a game on, and it works because the levels do the talking. OlliOlli World is a third-person, single-player game in the platform, sport, indie, and arcade lanes, with action as its theme.

Quarter Pipes and Branching Paths

Roll7 did not just reskin the earlier games. OlliOlli World adds quarter pipes and branching paths, both new to the franchise, and both change how a run feels. Branching paths mean explorable levels with multiple routes, which gives player expression somewhere to go.

The scoring system is the spine of it. High scores require chaining tricks into combos, and you can ride walls and grind on rails to push a number higher. It is not complicated to describe. It is demanding to execute.

A Hand-Drawn Break From Pixel Art

The art style is hand-drawn this time, a deliberate break from the pixel art of previous entries. That choice matters more than it sounds. Radlandia’s personality depends on the look holding up, and the hand-drawn approach gives the world a softer, more readable character than the older games could manage.

It also separates OlliOlli World from its own history. The third game in the series is not trying to be the first two with more content.

What You Actually Do

The loop breaks down cleanly:

  • Traverse the world and take on missions and challenges.
  • Meet characters and make friends along the way.
  • Customize your character’s looks, tricks, and style.
  • Explore levels with multiple paths for player expression.
  • Compete in Leagues against the world.
  • Share levels and dare a friend to beat your best tricks.

That last item is the quiet one. Millions of sharable levels is a big claim on paper, and the Leagues give the competitive side a home.

The Flow State Is the Real Feature

Everything above serves one idea, and the game says so: accessibility, depth, and player freedom feeding into signature flow state gameplay. That is the correct thing to build around, because a skateboarding game lives or dies on whether the inputs feel good enough to repeat.

OlliOlli World understands that repetition is the point. The quest for Gnarvana is a frame, not a story you are meant to sit through.

Where It Holds Back

The case against OlliOlli World is a matter of ceiling, not craft. A 2D platformer with this much route variety and this much combo pressure asks a lot before it gives much back, and the hand-drawn world, however vivid, is doing a lot of work to keep you invested between runs.

The side quests and character interactions add texture. They do not add weight. What carries the game is the trick system and the branching paths, and when those two click, the rest is decoration.

The Verdict on OlliOlli World

This is a confident, well-made skateboarding game that knows exactly what it is. Roll7 took a franchise built on pixel art and tight scoring and opened it up with quarter pipes, branching paths, and a hand-drawn Radlandia that has more personality than most games in the genre bother with.

It is not a game that will convert anyone who has never cared about chaining a combo. The depth is real, but it is depth you have to want. What OlliOlli World gets right is the thing that matters most here: the moment-to-moment feel of grinding a rail and keeping a run alive. That is the whole bargain, and it holds up.

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