Hello there, PlayStation people! Simon here, reporting from the epicentre of skate that is Roll7 HQ. 2014 was a mental year for the team here in New Cross, London — we couldn’t have imagined getting SO much love for our little skatey game, OlliOlli.

OlliOlli2 might seem like it has hit Beta status quite quickly, but when you consider that we feature locked on the Vita original in August 2013 — it seems like we have been honing this bad boy for ages! We have now completed all user testing and locked about 95% of features while Sam, our Head of QA, does his evil magic and tries to break the game six ways from Sunday.

So, whats new in OlliOlli2? Well — much like THPS2 we have added Manuals and Combos — a serious game changer allowing a player to chain together combos like some kind of skate ninja from the future. As combos increase, so do the score potentials — so we have added a section to the HUD which shows what a potential score WOULD be if the current combo was landed Perfect. We also have grind switches — a super satisfying maneuver allowing you to switch between 2 grind types (if you nail the grind perfect). On top of this we have also added epic tricks, with longer animation times — which require enough air-time to successfully nail… mmmm, Epic Tricks…

Level-wise, things have been stepped up to the max with curved ground, ramps and rails — which adds a whole new flow to proceedings. Reminiscent of the Tiny Wings feel at points, with the compression and release out of ramps, hours will be lost to just jamming and chilling in the skatepark level — learning the ropes! Dre (our gameplay designer) has also added split routes that can only be accessed by nailing a perfect launch on a ramp. Not to mention secret routes, hidden from the beaten path, allowing you to collect the Roll7 devs!

We ALSO have a totally new mode, Combo Rush — but more on that in a blog post later this month!

We wanted to let people know a bit more about our neck of the woods, and the plan for the sequel — so we made this little video! Check it out…