One of the things I really appreciate in a game is if it makes me look good, full of style, skilled in a way that I’m not in real life. Elaborate swordplay leading to combination hits; parkour across a cityscape; flying through buildings and structures with no effort and no fear. Many games make me feel stylish – or maybe the correct word is cool? – but there’s something about Lonely Mountains Downhill which excels in this aspect.
It seems an unlikely match. Mountain biking is hardly the most graceful of sports, with constant bumps and rattles; the game isn’t effortless either, with me constantly feeling just a tiny bit out of control. Nothing illustrates this better than the Free Rider mode of each mountain, which loses all checkpoints and tasks you with getting to the end without crashing; I’m managed to do this on just two courses. By the end of the course I was almost shaking with nerves, so much so that on one attempt, with just a couple of corners to go, I just cycled into a tree.
Not stylish at all, right? But the feeling when you get through a checkpoint, when you successfully land a jump off a cliff onto a sloped stone below, when you barrel down a steep hill and turn sharply at the bottom to meet the longer path – it’s exhilarating, and makes you feel that you can do anything.
Oddly enough I don’t get the same feeling from Lonely Mountains Snow Riders. Maybe it’s because that is a bit easier to control (skis are less unwieldy than a bike) so I don’t feel like I’ve beaten the odds every time I complete a section.
I’ve finished all the beginner challenges from the first two mountains now, and a few of the expert ones. The game is really lovely to look at, with a stylised art design which feels solid and complete. Sometimes scenery gets in the way of the path you’re following, which is an intentional decision but maybe removes you from the game a little. It’s pretty much never getting in the way though.
Which is more than you can say for the trees.
