It’s just you and the mountain, nobody to impress just yourself, no fans screaming when you reach the finish. You’re not doing this for the fame, you’re just proving a point to yourself. Constantly questioning your next move, always searching the right way to tackle your problem. Lonely Mountains: Downhill is one of the most challenging games you’ll ever face and at the same time, it’s one of the most relaxing experiences too.
King of the mountain
The premise of Lonely Mountains: Downhill is extremely easy to understand as it’s basically all in the title. It’s you riding your bike downhill without crashing. It’s just you and your bike, nobody else. The Lonely part of the title certainly has an important role to play as it alters the atmosphere of the game tremendously. At first, I thought I was going to play a new version of Trials Rising; but this one marches at its own drum, or must I say its own silence. There’s no crowd to cheer for you, there’s no shout caster hyping your moves, it’s just you, the mountain, your bike, and nature. While descending the mountain, the only sounds you’ll hear are the sounds of nature. Small birds a couple of miles away, water from a nearby creek, it’s all pretty relaxing. There’s something about the silence in combination with the sound of your tires that really pulls you into the game in mere seconds. The moment you start playing, you’re curious to see what’s at the end of the mountain but it won’t be easy to reach that place. Don’t be mistaken, how serene it all looks and sounds, this game is pretty unforgiving and the learning curve is rather steep too.
If you fall, get back up again and try again
The game features a total of 16 trails but you’ll have to work hard before you conquer them all. It always starts easily with your only goal being the end of the trail. It doesn’t matter how fast you get there or how many times you fall flat on your face. The first run is there for you to get to know the mountain a bit better and discover potential shortcuts. Once that’s cleared, you’re in for the real challenge. The game forces you to clear a trail in a set time or with a limited amount of fails. It’s here where the level of difficulty kicks in. If you want to reach the finish line, you’ll need to know the paths, shortcuts, and controls by heart. If you forget the details, you’ll end up failing time and time after again. It might sound frustrating but it’s never that. The game is extremely fair and if you fall, it’s because you made a mistake, nothing to hide behind here.
To keep it simple, the developers (Megagon) made sure the controls were as tight as possible. Using the shoulder buttons to accelerate and brake in combination with a boost button, it’s easy to master the controls in no time. A bit more tricky is the way you steer. You can switch between two styles but the simpler one was where I just had to steer left or right, depending on where my front wheel was pointing. The controls are pretty tight and easy to learn but you’ll need to spend a couple of hours with the game to truly master it. It’s a game of grinding but the rewards are certainly satisfying.
Conclusion:
Lonely Mountains: Downhill is a perfect fit for Nintendo Switch and a game everybody should at least give a try. It’s one of the most challenging, relaxing, and mesmerizing games I’ve played in a while. You better prepare for some grinding but believe me, once you conquer the mountain, you’ll become the self-proclaimed king of the hill. There aren’t a lot of games out there that manage to pull off this type of challenge so smoothly.
