Paleozoic's Olympia Rising initially started as a campaign on Kickstarter in 2014. Fans were drawn in by the nostalgia of old 2D platformers and hoped Olympia Rising could live up to expectation. A unique mix of Greek mythology along with the classic genre, this game definitely delivers in terms of visuals and story, but is lacking in terms of control and execution.
Olympia Rising follows the story of Iola, a young warrior hero who meets an untimely demise at the hand of a monster and is cast to the Underworld. Rumours say she is able to escape during the time of the 'The Purge' when wandering souls are consumed by acid pits. Lola decides to take the risk and must defeat various bosses and obstacles in order to exit and reach Mount Olympus.
The game appears to follow a fairly simple formula as you simply clear levels in order to progress; Iola comes face to face with various levels including fire, ice, etc. However, she must collect enough coins in order to progress to the next level, and this is where it's a little complicated. Obolous coins are scattered around the levels and you must collect enough in order to please Charon, the gatekeeper. These levels alternate, so sometimes you will be able to just collect coins at your leisure, and sometimes you will be on a timer trying to collect coins and reach the top before you are struck by lava. The coins would be OK if they amounted to anything more than progressing to the next level, but here they just seem a little pointless. It would be more fun if there was a Super Mario style level up at a certain amount of coins, or if you could cash them in for weapons.
Iola uses a sword to battle enemies, and is able to use power ups to help her in combat. Fire is a useful mechanic - it allows you to shoot flames and get at enemies from a distance. Then there is water, which creates a defensive bubble shield around you and will not let you get hit. Lastly, there is a lightning power which can strengthen the sword. All the power ups are relatively useful, but some more care could have been taken with the sword itself. It's fairly short, and means you have to get super close to the enemy in order to strike a hit. The hit area seems a bit biased as well, with enemies managing to get a hit in way more often than Iola, which can get frustrating. You can also perform combos in order to get extra coins, again quite a fiddly execution but fun once you get the hang of it.
Olympia Rising is not a necessarily difficult game, only in terms of its limitations which could have been rectified before release. The controls are hard to get the hang of - Iola has a lot of momentum but this means you end up missing jumps or knocking into a wall and falling back down to the bottom. There are also blind jumps, which are particularly jarring. Sometimes you will have to fall down in order to progress further, and sometimes this can lead to you dying. It would have been good to be able to look down, as a lot of these deaths feel unjustified. The lava levels can also be frustrating; if a game is to have a timed level, it would fare better to be a very minimal and bare section of the game in order to allow you to focus on escaping. However, with Olympia Rising the timed levels are just as well designed as the leisurely levels, meaning that you feel a bit cheated not being able to explore and collect coins at your own pace.
The pixel style of the game is a fantastic and welcome nod to other platforming greats from the NES days, and the characters are designed and executed wonderfully. A lot of them have great personality, and the setting is lovely to look at. Sometimes, however, the background blends in with the platforms, meaning that you don't really know what is able to be interacted with and not. This takes a little bit of trial and error to get used to. The only characters which could have used a little work are the bosses. We all know how it works with games such as these - the boss has a pattern which you get used to and you try and dodge their attacks and get a hit in where possible. In Olympia Rising there isn't really any such depth to the bosses, in fact you just have to hit the heck out of them and hope for the best. It would have been a lot more enjoyable if the bosses had slightly more distinction than just regular enemies.
The music is pleasant, and you can tell that a lot of care went into both this and the art. These are definitely the game's strong points, and will reel people in with these two charming qualities. The sound effects are also great, although one small gripe is that the sound of being hit matches the sound of an enemy being hit, so you will have to check your heart meter to see who is in trouble!
Olympia Rising is a rather short experience lasting about 6 hours in total, but it of course depends on when you get all your coins and how long you take to complete a level. It is also fairly inexpensive, so quite a good bargain overall. There isn't much in the way of replayability, which is why it would have been nice for the coins to be worth a bit more, as it would be worth going back and collecting those as an extra challenge.
Conclusion
Olympia Rising is a good platformer, but in such a saturated genre it needs to impress more than in does. The characters, story and visuals contribute to the positives, but more care needed to be taken with controls and hit points to make the game less frustrating. There is much to be enjoyed if you are able to look past the negatives, and if that's the case with you it is a worthy addition to your library.
Comments 31
I'm rather fond of it myself. The asking price is also just right for what is on offer.
Wow this looks actually pretty cool, I love the premise. But six hours is rather short. If it's not too expensive I'll give it a try.
Nice to see a Lola who isn't transomething.
The protagonist's name is Iola with an 'i' as opposed to Lola. And I really disagree with the comment about the coins being pointless. This review does not mention the combo system, which increases the amount of coins you gain by bouncing from one enemy to another. An enemy kill resets your jump so you can perform another jump and double jump. The idea is to chain together large combos, which rewards you with a bunch of coins - for progression to the next level. You can also use your magic power to fly about in the air, which also helps to chain combos together. The combo system and the ability to fly make this game feel very unique and it encourages you to chain together huge flashy combos, rather than play it safe.
Unfortunately about 1000 games look like this right now!
@shinynewbicycles So, basically, this review is as far from the mark as the one for Chronicles of Teddy?
I'll definitely give this a try.
@ricklongo Pretty much!! It's becoming a worrying trend. This game does share some similarities with Chronicles of Teddy - it currently has a huge glitch - another worrying trend in WiiU indie games. The glitch makes it (nearly) impossible to beat the 4th boss. I say 'nearly' as I found a way to glitch it out and beat it - check out Miiverse posts (it's a small Miiverse community). The dev has issued a patch, but we know how that story goes from our wait for the CoT patch! Regardless, I loved this little 3 hour game enough to play it twice. The gameplay just really clicked with me.
Does make me wonder if the reviewer played this through to the end, though, with such a major glitch.
@shinynewbicycles you beat it in 3 hours? Would you say it's worth the price for that short of gameplay?
@Zoda_Fett for the price, I think that length of gameplay I fine, personally. It's a short, snappy game that I've already played twice and will no doubt play again in the future. But it's up to you whether or not you think you'll get enough value out of that, personally. It's £4.49. A pint usually costs me £4 and I get less than 3 hours enjoyment out of it!
This looks to be my kind of game. C'mon, US release.
ill be getting this game
super glitch brothers nx coming soon
SO glad Olympia, Washington is getting a retro video game. Those screen shots really look like the Pacific NorthWest. Especially the giant crab monsters--you got to stay home when those are around or try to bribe it with Olympia Beer--sometimes Raineer beer is acceptable...Sometimes.
Can anyone who's played this compare it's feel to anything from the 8/16 bit era? I've seen a few clips and the controls look really floaty.
Just a quick note about the L4 glitch. There's already a patch submitted to Nintendo for this. Should be pushed out very soon. Thanks for the nice words everyone! We worked really hard on the game.
@paleozoic how bout that US release?
Looking forward to it soon. No official date yet from NoA.
@paleozoic did you use unity to develop this? or html5?
This is the engine. http://impactjs.com
@paleozoic Are you planning to address any of the issues pointed out by the review?
Thanks in advance!
@paleozoic awesome - I haven't looked in to impact much to be honest. How did you land on that over, say, Construct 2 for nintendo web framework support? Also did you find it difficult to port over to the wii u?
@mudmask Back when I first started toying with .js game dev, Impact was one of the only good mature options. Sort of just went from there. Had PlayEveryWhere do the Nintendo conversion. Apparently it's a pretty smooth trip.
@maceng I still really like the coin collecting mechanic, and the hurry up lava levels. I can't see not having enough time to look around as a negative on a game. We hoped that actually added replayability if anything. As for the length, —we're happy with what you get for the price. Looking at Steam play times, lots of people take way more than 6 hours to beat it. But to be honest, it's just great to make something and get any feedback on it at all.
As for the glitches, we've got one patch already through Nintendo since the article, and another one is submitted for release. We're working on it.
@paleozoic hey keep it up - I feel like this genre hasn't done so well on nintendolife lately in general. looking forward to purchasing this stateside.
@paleozoic Hi there! Any update on whether the patch will/has come out in the UK? I am considering getting this game. Thanks for any reply.
@Scottie - Already had a couple patches for the game pushed through!
@paleozoic Are there any more patches to come in the UK? I have heard there are still some issues with coin collecting and lava levels. Thanks
@scottie A new patch just hit Friday that knocked out any of the known bugs. Everything seems smooth, and we're working all the time to make sure it is!!
@paleozoic Okay great news! Thanks for the replies. Think I will give this game a go now. I like platform/adventure type games, with not too much backtracking.
@scottie - Great news. Send me an email to joe at paleozoic dot com and let me know what you think!
day 2!
Wow - this game is busted. Just wait until you hit level 2; precision platforming with constant, weird, jittery lag. Poor coding? Weird conversion? I don't know, but I would suggest using your $5 for anything (practically) else on the eShop. I legitimately regret this purchase.
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