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Maybe it's too early to be doing this, but I've already got a fair idea of what my favourite gaming moment of 2014 will be. It came while nestled by an open fire on a chill January weekend spent holidaying in a sea fort with friends, one of us on a laptop guiding Brockley Academics to victory in Football Manager while I sat on a sofa in the smoky fug lost in the brilliant loop of OlliOlli on the Vita.There's something about roll7's side-scrolling skater that makes it the perfect Vita game, to my eyes; it's the approachable exterior that slowly layers up to provide a diamond-hard challenge, the edgy skater cool undercut by a lounging, lazy electro soundtrack and, most importantly, because it was so much fun to play. There were problems, of course - a few difficulty bumps didn't make for the easiest of rides (screw you, Base One, for eating up an entire afternoon of that holiday) and a persistent bug froze copies for some time after release - but as a console debut from the New Cross developer it was mightily impressive stuff.
Sony was clearly taken with it all, as it's set roll7 to work on a sequel that's due out on PlayStation 4 and Vita next year. It's a more polished, more expansive game that irons out some of those bumps in the original, introduces a new aesthetic and fleshes out the repertoire of tricks in your rider's back pocket. Coming with what feels like more significant backing from Sony, it also makes the most of the unique features of the PlayStation hardware, being one of the first games to make the most of the forthcoming SharePlay feature.
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