OlliOlli: Switch Stance Reviews
OlliOlli: Switch Stance is a 2D skateboarding simulator that refuses to lie to its players. You will struggle and you will experience pain. It is going to be difficult, but if you can pull it off, it can be incredibly satisfying… even if the execution of such tricks involved a healthy heaping of dumb luck and/or divine intervention.
In a recent interview with creative director of Roll 7 studios, John Ribbins, he describes a bit of his own personal experience as a lifelong skater. This is something that can be seen in every aspect of the OlliOlli bundle. Especially the central focus on pulling fun tricks, and doing so with perfect timing. It feels like an idea worn to perfection over decades of work. Ribbins actually describes having coded a functional version of OlliOlli at around age 13. The core concept being a fast, twitchy arcade game that felt "true to skating". This idea still shines brightly in today's version of the game, and is not done through the inclusion of things like Chad Muska with a boombox, or an un-lockable version of the new Vans 2019 catalogue. Roll 7 chose instead to "make a kickflip look like a kickflip". They chose to make a skating game that focuses on pitch-perfect timing and playing with our desire to cram just ONE more trick into our combo.