"completed" here meaning beating all of the amateur levels and unlocking a decent portion of the pro levels, since there's no way I can continue to want to play this given how difficult it's getting. it's a neat idea to combine a precision platformer with skateboarding mechanics, but players interested more in the former than the latter will quickly run out of reasons to continue playing. after simply finishing all the amateur levels all objectives are score-based, and learning to maximize scoring via mid-air spins, revert-manuals, etc. requires an extra level of muscle memory with truly diminishing returns for actually enjoying the game. I don't have any issue with how its all implemented, but at a certain point I have to question if I wanna dedicate hours to practicing this or just moving on to other titles. another reason: this game is extremely precise, to the point that even a couple frames of lag will likely be noticable. my gf noticed this on the main tv I play on (with game mode on!) after playing it on vita for a while, and when I compared it to vita it was night and day. it would really suit these games to have lag config built in.

as for the level designs, there's again sort of a push-pull between the precision platformer and the score-based skateboarding design philosophies at play here. it's difficult to create true playground-esque environments outside of a 3D environment, and the closest that roll7 can approximate is branching paths or joint rail/floor sections. these sections are nice, but they're alternated with linear areas that require precise jumps or mandatory perfect grinds to maintain speed, and these can become grating. level-long combos in this game can often be quite long, and when it comes down to missing the small window on a boost ramp towards the end and having to restart from the beginning repeatedly certain levels can feel like a drag to clear. my strategy generally involved doing the simplest tricks and manuals possible to try to focus on the platforming, but once the levels are finished this avenue really falls flat. this is my ultimate takeaway from the game: the avenue for mid-level players is so short as to feel pointless. if you aren't willing to dedicate yourself to high-level play, you'll finish the main set of stages and then maybe dick around with challenges until you get bored and put it down, and considering that the pro challenges and eventual RAD mode are a good chunk of the game, it feels like an incomplete experience. considering that only 2% of players on ps4 actually have finished the amateur mode, it seems like many people bailed before even I did. in short, a neat 2D skateboarding concept with surprisingly niche appeal.

Really good. Sad I played OO: World first because this is also an awesome game. It did take me a LOT of getting used to because the game is super shit at explaining mechanics at times (the worst one being that the game has each trick last a different amount of time, and you often need to police yourself on tricks or mis-inputs before you fall over.)

Outside of that, great, if a little short, with good replayability. This is a great game if you want to really feel yourself getting better with every run.

Mucho mejor que el primero, con mecánicas mucho más sólidas y pulidas. A veces parece más un juego de ritmo que otra cosa y es muy muy divertido y agradable de jugar... pero la dificultad es endiablada, especialmente al final, y ha hecho que lo disfrute un poco menos porque se vuelve más frustrante que otra cosa.

Aún así, supongo que para la gente que disfrute de este tipo de desafíos, es un imprescindible. Yo lo voy a aparcar aquí por el bien de mi salud mental.

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A much better game than the first, with much more solid and polished mechanics. It sometimes feels more like a rhythm game and it's very very fun and satisfying to play... but the difficulty is hellish, particularly near the end, and it made me enjoy it a bit less because it becomes more frustrating than anything else.

Even so, I suppose it's a must have for people who enjoy this kind of challenge. I'm gonna stop here for the sake of my own mental health.

Now I think I should've started with the first one 😅 anyway, at first I was frustrated. I had a hard time picking up the controls but when I got it the game got so fun! I wasn't doing the challenges, I was just focused on having fun and completing the stages. Then I got frustrated again when the last five of the stages kicked in. Those stages would clock at barely even a minute but it took me hours just to beat. But I'm extremely proud that I kept at it. A very "easy to learn, hard to master" kind of game.

There is one fundamental gameplay change in OlliOlli2 compared to its predecessor. It's not the multi-route maps or whatever. I don't care much for them. It's the addition of 'manuals' which allow you to string together combos in between grinding on handrails and jumps, despite landing on flat ground. This was not a feature in the original. It's hard to pull off, but this essentially means you could finish a level without breaking your combo. It makes the game much more stressful to play if you are trying to climb the leaderboards since you are constantly trying to land time your manuals – the upside being that missing one does not preclude you from sticking a perfect landing. Manuals does not really add or detract from the experience, but it does feel like the game is trying pretty hard to justify its own existence as a sequel.

Most of the game is otherwise virtually identical to the original. There is a multiplayer mode which has probably been played by 2 or 3 people in the game's history. It's shame that the developers didn't have the foresight to know that friends weren't going to come together over a game of OlliOlli*. They should have made multiplayer servers available but alas, those would have been shut down by now anyway.

There are a few QoL changes here and there that help refine the experience, but I am overall not a fan of the visual overhaul. The graphics and the new challenges system is why I eventually returned to just playing the original. Your already small character now fills about half as much of the screen as he used to, mostly to accommodate the insanely cluttered world and level design. Whereas dying in OlliOlli 1 is as simple as having missed a difficult landing, in OlliOlli2 I would not fault you for losing levels out of pure confusion as to what constitutes a trap, handrail or a background embellishment (this is not too bad in the first world). But if you want to market this as a sequel it better look good! And it does look conventionally pleasing, but in the process it sacrifices the core of what made the first one so easy to pick up and enjoy.

Likewise, the new challenges now include having to do specific tricks! I remember how I wrote in my review of OlliOlli1 something along the lines of "don't read the stupid Tricktionary, just feel out each trick" and "it's just not that type of game". Well, fuck me, the sequel is exactly that type of game! I am never going to read that tricktionary man, no way. Fuck that. OlliOlli 1 is still where it's at.

Edit: I forgot to mention one thing about why I felt the stylistic choices of this game suck. If, as a game developer, you are centering challenges around specific tricks and at the same time making the player considerably smaller, making it harder to see the tricks in action, then your game's visuals are at odds with its mechanics. You are, at once, asking the player to focus on doing specific tricks AND taking their attention away from the visual feedback of doing them. The result is an alienating gaming experience, something I had a hard time expressing when originally writing this review. I especially feel that when my frame of reference was the stellar OlliOlli1.

Eu gostei muito do primeiro OlliOlli. Esse ano estava querendo algo arcade pra jogar enquanto ouvia podcasts, encontrei esse perdido lá na minha biblioteca e o instalei.

Joguei demais ele. As adições de jogabilidade ao primeiro jogo são bem legais, continua divertidíssimo emendar um combo no outro e tentar dominar os controles e acertar as manobras. A música é muito boa também e é um jogo bem charmoso.

Infelizmente ele fica MUITO difícil pro final. Muito mesmo. Se nos três primeiros mundos eu tentei completar fazendo todos os objetivos, chegando no quarto mundo eu só consegui completar alguns. No quinto e último, nem isso, não consegui chegar ao final das últimas fases. O escalonamento de dificuldade sobe demais pra mim, no ponto de deixar de ser divertido.
Abandonei quase no final, mas considero o jogo completo, pois obtive meu objetivo principal com ele.