Olympia Rising once started as a successful Kickstarter campaign, promising to bring back the traditional 2D action games. If you look at the screens, you know the developers went all out to succeed in their goal. The game combines the Greek mythology with an interesting pixel-art but is it fun to play? Time to find out in our new Indie Corner.
Poor Lola
The story follows the brave warrior Lola who was defeated by a brutal monster at the very start of the game. Since she lost the battle, she is cast to the Underworld. She doesn’t need to fear yet however. Legends have it that damned souls are able to escape the Underworld during ‘The Purge’. Risking her life once more, Lola decides to travel to Mount Olympus to grab her chance of freedom.
The story itself isn’t that special and is told by reading the scrolls that are placed in the world. Not really an interactive or appealing story if you ask us, which is a shame based on how good the game actually looks. When it comes to style, Olympia Rising certainly is a unique game. Don’t get it for the story; get it for the gorgeous pixelated artwork.
Collect those coins to advance
Once the story is told, you’re able to start the actual adventure of Lola. At first, Olympia Rising feels like a very traditional 2D platform/action game but things change thanks to the coin mechanic. Instead of just going to the next level once you complete the previous one, you’ll need to pay coins to Charon, the gatekeeper. If you haven’t collected enough coins, you’ll need to replay the level and collect the needed amount of coins. It’s an interesting mechanic and it’s different from games like Super Mario where more coins will result in power-ups or extra lives. Nothing comes for free in Olympia Rising so coins won’t give you advantages aside of unlocking the next level.
The balance of collecting coins and action is just right. During some levels, Lola will have all the time she needs to collect the coins in the level. These levels play like a Yoshi’s Island type of game where exploration of the levels is crucial to advance. Besides these ‘slower’ levels, the game also features some more stressful levels where you’ll need to run away from lava while a clock is ticking away. These levels are harder to complete since you’ll miss a lot of coins during your first run. Not everybody will like replaying these levels but we liked it a lot. These levels truly challenge your platform and combat abilities.
The combat isn’t that great
This brings us to the actual combat of the game and it must be said, it isn’t perfect. First of all, the sword of Lola feels a little too short. Sure size doesn’t matter but it does in a game like this. In order to hit the enemies, Lola needs to get really close to them, often resulting in damage taken from that specific enemy. It’s hard to strike an enemy down with the short sword and it feels a bit unfair that enemies can easily attack you even if you’re further away.
That being said, the game does try to compensate by giving you special powers from time to time.
The firepower is one of the most useful powers since it enables you to throw fireballs at your enemies, taking away the short range problem of your sword. Besides fire, you can also use water to generate a shield around you so you’ll take lesser damage. Lastly, there’s a lighting power to strengthen your sword, which is nice but doesn’t solve the problem of its length. All the power-ups are fun to play with but none of them solve the critical problem of the short sword, to be honest.
| The Good: | The Bad: |
| + Great style and music | – Short sword |
| + Interesting levels | – Frustrating coins |
| + Well balanced gameplay | – Not that innovating |
Olympia Rising isn’t a bad game but it comes with some problems. The art and music are gorgeous and will suck you into the Greek Mythology without a doubt but the combat could have been a lot better. It’s a shame Lola’ short sword can become frustrating and the coin collecting can result in unwanted replays. That being said, Olympia Rising is a nice effort and welcome addition to the 2D action platformer. Sure, there are better games on the market but this one’s worth trying out.
Score 3.5 out of 5:
