OLO a Tactical & Challenging Game for Two
by Paul Wilks
Sep 6, 2011 9:26 AM –
OLO is a super-simple yet fun two-player game for Android. The aim of the game is to get your circles (called OLOs) into the opposing players area. Players take turns to flick their colored OLOs into the opponents area. The game plays until both players run out of OLOs. The winner is the player with most OLOs in their opponents half. OK, that probably sounds more confusing than it is, but two player games are quite rare on Android and OLO is about as tactile and as challenging as they come, so definitely worth checking out.
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC Desire HD
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Fiendishly simple.
- Responsive controls.
- Addictive if there are 2 of you.
Cons
- You really need someone to play with to make it worth while.
- Very basic, might not be enough entertainment for some people.
Features:
OLO is a straightforward game that is very easy to play. Take it in turns to flick your circles (OLOs) to the opposing players area. The area you need to aim for is highlighted by two lines of your color. If you get the OLO in that section- awesome. Your opponent takes their turn to do the same and so forth. The skill and challenge of the game comes when the areas become crowded and you have to strategically shunt the opposing teams OLOs out of the way! Tactics come in when you need to decide to go for a point in the opposing half, or bump your opponents OLOs. Furthermore there are 3 different sizes of OLOs to use, the bigger ones are more powerful than the smaller ones, so these can be used to your advantage.
The game layout presents a gameplay area in landscape where each player has one side. One color is yellow, the other is greeny-blue. The background is a dark grey. It is sparse to say the least, but the joy of the game is very much in the gameplay, rather than appearance. Because you are playing against a friend, the game is as challenging and as competitive as your opponent. Given time you begin to develop various tactics and strategies to help you. In this regard there are comprehensive instructions accessible via a link in the application itself. OLO was originally designed for the iPad, and there would certainly be advantages of using a larger screen.
It should be noted that the Android Market blurb for OLO states that “some Android devices, including tablet PCs, do not support hardware acceleration for CSS translation. This will unfortunately cause performance lags”. Depending on your device then, this game might or might not be a winner for you. However the game is free, and comes without any annoying ads, so it might be worth checking out regardless.
Watch on Mobile
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Olo – Aim to flick the yellow circles into the yellow lined area
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Olo – Some strategy can be employed to prevent successful flicking
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Olo – If the circle is flicked too far it goes dead
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Olo – Blue area is highlighted when it is blues turn and vice versa
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Olo – Here the score is currently 5-3 to yellow
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Olo – With 5 yellows to the two blues, yellow wins
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Olo – Link available to online instructions
Fun Factor:
The game is buckets of fun, although pretty stagnant if you don’t have someone to play with. While the gameplay is simple, there are various tactics and strategies to work on which increase the fun factor significantly. OLO is suitable for adults and children so there could be plenty of challenging fun for all here.
Addictive:
Given the right competition, time and space, this could becomes a chronically addictive game for both parties. Unfortunately, this doesn’t really play well as a one-player game- it would be like playing chess with yourself.
Graphics:
The graphics are very simplistic, but this fits well with the design of the game rather than diminishing gameplay.
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
The game requires no accelerator controls, vibration or sound.