NOCLIP Pocket E45 - God of Gamers - OlliOlli

Frontside Varial Podcast Welcome back to the show this week! Today,
we’re going to be talking about OlliOlli. This is a skateboarding
game from 2014 that approaches the genre in a different way than
it’s usually handled. While still definitely showing an arcade
style high score type of design, your run will end as soon as you
bail, enforcing an almost Meat Boy or Hotline Miami style of
iterative gameplay, where you repeat a level over and over until
you get that “perfect” run. This means that even the early levels
can be an intense experience, and when compounded with the
controls, which have you performing tricks by inputting a sequence
of directions on the analog stick (not unlike fighting game special
moves), the game definitely presents a system that is difficult to
master, but satisfying once achieved. Given that, the biggest
hurdle for this game to clear is whether or not it contains the
breadth of content necessary for most people to want to actually
make it to that level. We’re going to be talking about the value
the difficulty brings to the game, how music can help motivate
players, and lament the fact we were never forced to pull out the
claw grip. Thank you for joining us for this episode on a game that
is a staggering seven years old at this point. My opinion on this
game kinda flipped since first playing it nearer its release, and
it feels a lot more interesting these days. How do you feel about
this game? Did you make it to the level of mastery we could only
speculate on? Do you also think high level play of a pretty
simplistic overall game is a cool thing? Does the sequel fix the
issues we perceive as being present in this one? Let us know over
on our discord or in the comments. Next time, we’re going to be
talking about Oxenfree, a narrative adventure game with a focus on
puzzles and dialogue, making it about as unrelated to this game as
it can be. We hope you’ll join us for that.