Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders

2019 was a great time to fan of downhill dirt biking, because that was the year that not only brought us the insanely addictive racing game Descenders, but also Lonely Mountains: Downhill from Megagon Industries. Now, six years later, both of those series are hitting the slopes with sequels set on snowy mountains. We’ll see how Descenders Next turns out when it’s released later this year, but first out of the gate is Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, a strong follow-up that trades in the dirt bike for a pair of skis. It’s a sequel that expands on the original concept in fun and exciting ways, giving longtime fans something more than just a scenery change. Today we’re going to grab our lift pass and hit the slopes when I review Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders.

As the title suggests, it’s just you against the mountain. One lone skier taking on some of the craziest and nastiest slopes this side of SSX. You’ll do everything in your power to stay upright and survive dozens of increasingly difficult paths, all shown from a fixed camera perspective. Complete the different challenges to not only unlock brand new mountains, but also earn money to buy extra gear and outfits.

By switching from dirt bikes to skiing, the developers have managed to open up the levels and really expand on the original concept. One of the biggest issues I had with the original game was its use of narrow paths that sometimes felt a bit claustrophobic. While there are definitely narrow moments in Snow Riders, the levels are far more open, giving you a lot more options on how you want to complete each event.

Structurally, this sequel plays out a lot like the original. The game is split up into three different mountains, each with their own look and obstacles. For example, you’ll need to deal with solid ice when racing down the Tannenstein stages, while our skier will need to put up with flowing creeks and water hazards when competing on Monte Guanaco. Each of these slopes has four regular “blue” paths to take on, with four harder “black” trails that can be unlocked, all adding up to a total of 24 different stages. Each of these events will have you racing down a two- or three-minute path with multiple checkpoints in hopes of earning a fast time without crashing too much.

The trick is doing this with the fixed camera angle. While it takes a little getting used to, there’s no question that it allows for some truly breath-taking moments. There will be times where the camera will follow behind the skier as we navigate an especially tricky set of obstacles, as well as times where the camera will be in front and on the side. The game is smart in how it uses the camera angle, especially when it comes to playing with the camera in front of the skier. It’s never easy making a game where the hero is racing into the screen, yet Megagon Industries accounts for this by making these parts of the stage more open and less hazardous. You can race down these sections with reckless abandon because we know that we’ll have enough time to dodge that giant rock or make the important leap. Similarly, the other views allow the developers to challenge the player in different ways.

Of course, it all comes together because of the great gameplay. Right from the start, it’s easy to control the skier and navigate the slopes. I found that the physics were a lot more forgiving this time around, which means you can take more chances and be daring. I also like that we can crouch down to pick up speed without it resulting in a jump, and I was surprised by how loose and agile the skier was when dealing with tough obstacles and jumps. There’s enough depth to the gameplay to make you feel like you’re still improving, even after you’ve completed all three of the slopes.

That said, the real star here is the level designs. This is where the game truly feels like a sequel. While Lonely Mountains: Downhill gave you a few paths to take, Snow Rider feels wide-open and full of possibilities. You’ll see two, three, four, FIVE different ways to go, some of which will shave valuable seconds off the clock, while others will actually slow you down. Some paths are only for the most daring, while others are relatively safe. This is the kind of game where you’ll notice a new path every time you play, giving you plenty of incentive to replay all 24 events. I love how the open levels make you feel like you have endless options, yet still manage to creating memorable moments where you race through the ruins or make a massive jump. The game is good about both the big and small moments.

On the downside, I wish that the game offered more challenges to complete across the different stages. The three you get are always the same, which is pretty boring. The first two are comically easy to get, which means that most players will check them off after a single run. The third challenge is harder, but it doesn’t stray far from the other two. And that’s a shame. It would have been fun to incentivize the player to explore every part of the stage by giving us landmarks to check off or stage-specific challenges. Where are the trick challenges? You can pull off all kinds of cool moves, yet there’s very little reason to. Across the board, this game needs more challenges.

It's worth mentioning that there are new modes outside of the single-player campaign. There’s an online race mode, which adds a bunch of other players to the once lonely mountain. I like this mode in concept and had a lot of fun racing against other people, but the inherent problem with it will show up almost immediately. Because we’re still racing from one checkpoint to the next, what tends to happen is one or two players will gain a big lead, while the rest of the room struggles on one or two of the harder parts of the path. This ends up separating the group in such a way where you rarely see the other players, and the races take too long because you’re always stuck waiting for a few players who couldn’t get past the second checkpoint. By the time we’re racing the final trail on the multiplayer circuit, half of the room will have abandoned the room. On the bright side, I never had a problem finding people to play with, and while not perfect, this is a fun diversion that will go a long to helping you gain levels and in-game currency.

There are a few other issues I have with this version of Lonely Mountains, including the visuals. While it looks largely the same as the first game, I felt like Downhill did a better job employing a soft blur and giving us more varied locations. Part of the problem is that the white snow is a lot more limiting than the dirt, sand and grass found in the original game. This is, of course, a problem that has plague all skiing and snowboarding releases, and while the developers had done a good job of making the three mountains look different, this is clearly a problem that has yet to be solved.

There are also some lingering problems with the fixed camera angle. While I praised the developers for designing the levels based on the view, they still fall back in to a few bad habits. The biggest problem is that we’ll sometimes be asked to ski through narrow paths that are completely obstructed by the mountain. These are moments where you’re quite literally skiing blind, and that’s no fun. We should always have an eye on the character we’re controlling, no exceptions.

While the new modes may not stack up and the campaign could use some more challenges to keep players invested, there’s no question that this is a big improvement over the already good original. The game does a great job of constantly stringing you along with more items and things to unlock. But even if it didn’t have any of that, I would be coming back time and time again for the gameplay and the level designs. Snow Riders is more proof that Megagon Industries is onto something with their Lonely Mountains series. Here’s hoping the next one doesn’t take six years to come out.