Help the Worm Complete Its Mission

Ever since the appearance of consoles, the platform games have been loved by people of any age. Why? The answer is simple: they are easy to play, lots of fun, and, from time to time, they give a little challenge to the player by facing them with terrifying level bosses. One of the best examples in this sense is Donkey Kong, developed by Nintendo in the early 90’s, which put gamers in the shoes of a monkey trying to find its way through the forest, facing various animals and, at the end of each level, a challenge appeared in the form of a level boss that they had to defeat.

Go Ollie! is somehow a remake of this title, like many others, but it also comes with some enhancements of its own. Go Ollie! is a platform game controlled only by mouse.

The Looks

Upon entering Go Ollie!, you will see the title has some nice graphics for a platform game of its size. The menus are how you would expect, featuring some basic options, but nothing spectacular. From the main menu, you have access to the story of Ollie, a quick adventure game, the high score and the options. I must say that, again, you can use only the mouse when making a selection in the menu. In the game, you will control only Ollie all the time, in a beautiful world designed by the team at the Charlie Dog Games.

The Works

If you want to enter the story of Ollie, you will see that it’s divided in four huge stages that will become available when advancing through the game. When starting it, you can play only the first stage. This one is more like a tutorial, teaching you the basics and game mechanics of Go Ollie!. You are introduced to the world, to the game system, to the characters that live in the woods, and you are shown how to play.

But the tutorial is soon over and you are on your own to explore the wildness and beauty of the forest. Some of your enemies are the snails, which will cost you a life even if you only touch them, and also some beautifully engineered platforms that you cannot touch. You will have to discover more of this on your own. The main purpose of Ollie is to find an amulet composed of six gems, each one giving Ollie super powers when fighting monsters.

The graphics of the title are beautifully rendered, giving you the impression that you are really there and you battle snails, instead of being in your bedroom drinking soda and sitting in front of the computer. The audio part of Go Ollie! is not too great, featuring only some noises when Ollie jumps, dies, and goes through the forest. There is also a theme song that will accompany you through the level, but that will soon become annoying. However, all depends on you, that is if you will play the game with its audio or use a media player open in the background instead.

The animations are masterfully made, although they give you the impression that the game has been made only for kids, because of the very colored in-game world. The older may play Go Ollie! if they like it, but will find fun only in the design of the worm, which is hilarious, and the comic things that can be seen along the way.

The Good

Go Ollie! is a nice platform game that is controlled only with the mouse (unlike most other platform games that are keyboard-oriented), bringing to your experience a lot of fun and helping you relieve some of the stress that you have accumulated after a hard day of work. The graphics are very good for a title of its size, and the interface is easy to manage. I must also mention that Go Ollie! is freeware, meaning that you can play it at any time you want, and never pay for it.

The Bad

The bad thing about Go Ollie!, in my opinion, is the audio part, which could have used a lot of diversity. In some parts, the audio becomes annoying and the only thing that will push you further will be the story.

The Truth

Being a freeware game with good graphics and a decent story, I recommend Go Ollie! to anyone that needs to have a quick dose of gaming fun. But, if you play it in long gaming sessions, you will get annoyed, and in the end bored. Go Ollie! is a decent platform game that has the ingredients to make you smile while you play it.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: