Miniclip and playing browser-based physics games in secondary school hold many fond memories for this writer. Which is probably why Thunderful’s Lonely Mountains: Downhill feels nostalgic, even with the evolution of the physics based biking game.
The premise of the title is simple, get to the finish line asap by any means necessary. Lonely Mountain: Downhill takes other cues from earlier Trials tites with alternate paths and shortcuts available for the keen-eyed. On first impressions, Downhill is simply a love letter to mountain biking with a generous helping of pastel-coloured polygons.
A Perfect Balance
Once players finish their first track, time attack challenges begin to rear their goading heads. The obvious racing fare like ’Finish the track in X amount of time’ or ’Do X so many times’ don’t exactly sound like inviting concepts. However, Lonely Mountain: Downhill stands above its modest list of modes with the most organic movement system I’ve used in any biking game.
Initially, movement is set to which direction the front wheel is facing. Whilst it makes sense, it’s quite disorientating given the isometric viewpoint of Downhill. The option to revert the directional output in the main menu is a godsend. The other inputs are used simply for braking and boosting. No over-the-top and bloated button inputs here.
Gravity-Powered
Lonely Mountain: Downhill is focused on keeping players engaged and engrossed. Checkpoints are dotted around the track to help players concentrate on the next track without fear of losing their entire progress. Checkpoints save the time so far instead of adding to the overall time of the track completion which is a great addition. Although some challenges will ask you to forego the checkpoints for a one-shot race to the finish line. Ouch, my anxiety.
As players progress they will unlock various bicycles with different statistics, parts for upgrading and aesthetic unlocks such as paint jobs. For the custom purists out there this is a great option, but ultimately the system holds little weight. The review playthrough didn’t really illustrate much difference, and the basic bike can be used to progress through the game just fine. Even the fanciest of frames couldn’t stop my polygonal avatar falling to a horrible death after missing a ledge after a cliff jump in all honesty…
A great presentational choice was to include no soundtrack in Downhill. The lack of music only emphasises the simulator aspect of the game and again paces more emphasis on immersion. Hearing nothing but the gravel being squeezed under the breakneck turns of a player’s mountain bike sounds incredible.
All Downhill from Here. But in a Good Way.
Visually, Lonely Mountain: Downhill has a fetish for pastel-coloured Polygons and it’s beautiful. It goes alongside Thunderful’s obvious mantra of selling immersion via simplicity, and it allows for some really smooth framerates and a clean presentation. There’s the odd frame rate issue, but nothing to write home about.
Overall, Lonely Mountain: Downhill is a beautiful game to play. One which falls squarely in the ’easy to pick up, difficult to master’ category. Its simple presentation hides a wealth of precision gameplay that will keep players entertained for a few hours. Lovely stuff.
