OlliOlli World was released back in February and is one of 2022’s best and also the greatest skating games in recent memory. If you know, you know. Following that up is the soon-to-be-released VOID Riders DLC. Filled with just shy of 20 levels of extra content, it won’t stack up your time. Though it will be a hell of an excuse to revisit.
VOID Runners sees extraterrestrial beings crash down upon Radlandia. Your journey begins in the pre-explored Burntrock region. Introduced to you are three curious characters, joining the stacked, colourful cast. These are three extra terrestrials by the names of Sair’Rah, Khehvyn, and Pftangxi. They’re creative in design like the original cast, only out of this world. Pftangxi sports a rainbow body, with their eyes quite literally spilling like liquid out of their head. Meanwhile, Khehvyn has more of an android-like appearance, with a football-shaped head and a colour scheme of red and yellow. This trio is a little bit of an oddity, but actually comfortably fits into the weird world of Radlandia.
The very reason they’re here is that they are looking to please their ruler by locating skate specimens (largely yourself) to bring with them to help build an inter-dimensional skate park. The sites where you’ll show off your skills to this crew are in Burntrock, Sunshine Valley and Cloverbrook. Throughout you’ll different versions and spins of these same environments you’ve seen prior, only with different variations. Burntrock is home to a heavy storm on these levels, with the rain dripping down in deep purples like the environment you’ve found yourself in. The once-popular and sunny Sunshine Valley is now abandoned and looks almost polluted with its green air. Cloverbrook is now instead a snowy landscape, the theme that seemed the most ill-fitting out of the bunch.
The challenges requested to be completed are similar to that you would’ve experienced before: collect x amount of a certain item, nail a specific trick over this specific gap. That’s not anything new to write home about. Though what’s going on in the fore and background is refreshing in its own right. UFOs will be taking away and moving rails and paths as you skate by. Cows will be sent up out of the stratosphere via a tractor beam. Speaking of, these beams are something you’ll often pass through, elevating you higher. This not only helps with verticality, reaching new heights and paths, but is another welcome movement to add to OlliOlli World’s clever juggling of many spinning plates in the form of gameplay.
Ending VOID Riders, you will get to travel into a void and meet the trio’s ruler, known as the Nebulord. I’ll leave these for people to experience for themselves, but as you can expect they’re a trippy ride. These all coalesce into one final, challenging level where you must impress the Nebulord through an ever-changing course with no checkpoints. This was an excellent excuse to prove the new skills you picked up throughout the DLC and is a level worth the price of admission alone.
The Void Riders DLC is a wonderful excuse to revisit OlliOlli World. If you’re one to mod out your character, yet another weird and wacky set of cosmetics is unlockable throughout, further complimenting the insanity provided.
It’s available now on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One and X|S. Check it out and get kickflipping all over again!
About the Author
Charlie Kelly
She/Her, They/Them
Charlie loves her video games as much as she loves dumb, charming JRPG protagonists: probably way too much. You can often catch her spending too much time being emotional over LGBT stories in games. She also thinks Yakuza 6 is the best one.
