Lonely Mountains: Downhill
A mountain biking game focused on downhill racing.
Lonely Mountains: Downhill, a third-person biking game, launched in 2019 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. Created by German studio Megagon Industries and published by Thunderful, it challenges players to navigate courses across various mountains. A Nintendo Switch version followed in May 2020.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Megagon Industries
- Publisher
- Thunderful
- Platforms
- PlayStation 4
- Windows
- Xbox One
- Nintendo Switch
- Released
- PS4, Windows, Xbox One
- October 23, 2019
- Nintendo Switch
- May 7, 2020
- Engine
- Unity
- Genre
- Sports
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
In Lonely Mountains: Downhill, players ride a mountain bike through tracks split into timed segments that act as checkpoints. Crashing into trees, rocks, or falling off cliffs ends the run. The main game features four mountains, each with distinct themes and terrain, plus a fifth mountain available as DLC. Every mountain offers four trails. Bikes can be upgraded with parts that influence speed, control, and stability. By finishing challenges, players earn new bike components, unlock up to six different bikes, and gain access to cosmetic items like helmets and t-shirts.
Development
Development began in 2015 in Berlin. The team was inspired by a mobile game called Skiing Yeti Mountain, noting it was simple but had incredibly tight controls. The director also cited Danny Macaskill's The Ridge as a major inspiration. The visual style was inspired by Lara Croft Go and Monument Valley, and the low-poly aesthetic was chosen to make the game's world more readable. Downhill was originally intended to be a racing game with trucks, but one developer, a mountain biker, convinced the director to change the focus to biking. The studio had previously released only mobile games, and Downhill was also intended for that platform. After positive feedback and requests for a console/PC version, the studio tested gamepad controls, which they felt drastically improved the experience, so development shifted to PC and consoles. The developers wanted a challenging game without AI opponents, offering instead a romantic fantasy of nature untouched by men. Mountains were inspired by real places but designed for enjoyable play over realism, and they aimed for visually distinct mountains and trails to aid memorization.
Reception
Lonely Mountains: Downhill received generally favorable reviews according to Metacritic. Matt Miller of Game Informer praised the controls, saying the bikes control like a dream with quick-turning and believable acceleration arcs, but criticized the slow unlock process that limited available bikes until the end. David Lloyd of Nintendo World Report enjoyed the options for taking risks and shortcuts to improve times, and liked the visually stunning trails with detail in trees and streams. Christian Donlan of Eurogamer praised the lack of music, noting the soundtrack of the lonely biker, a distant woodpecker, and the ticking bike chain, and enjoyed the low-poly art style. Jon Mundy of Nintendo Life liked the controls and bike feel, saying it perfectly nails pedal-powered locomotion, but criticized the Nintendo Switch version's performance, noting numerous instances of slowdown and odd lengthy pauses during runs.
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