When I first saw Grand Mountain Adventure: Wonderlands, my mind flashed back to SkiFree, the same camera position and basic gist of gameplay, but there were no Yeti’s to be found. Now having spent a lot of time just skiing across the mountains provided, I found there was more going on than a very tenuous connection to a 30-year-old game. Is this a grand adventure though, or more of an avalanche waiting to happen?

There is no story to be discovered in this game, it is more about the joy of exploration, across 12 mountains from around the world. Exploration is key, but the biggest difference between this and other snow related games, is that there isn’t a goal to chase down, but rather you explore, based on your own inquisitive nature. Each time you head to a new mountain range, you will have no passes to get higher up the slopes, but compete in races, time-trials, big air events and more, to earn passes and once you have enough, you can move up the mountain and earn some more. The reason why this is very different, apart from the camera position, is that the game never tells you where to go or what event to do next, you make those choices on your own. In addition, not all the events or challenges are highlighted on the map, their general location maybe, but that is it, you have to get near it and then try to locate them, before undertaking the challenge they are asking of you.

It was this simple mechanic that honestly got me hooked, after playing games that were all about pushing forward, killing a certain number of things or making choices that could impact the galaxy, a game where I didn’t have to worry about making any choices was great. Once you have unlocked a few mountains, unless you have the desire to push to completion very quickly, there is nothing that really needs you to do so. Each of the mountains are different, based on real world locations and offer up new things to discover as you just meander around the place. Even just trying to make your way down the edge of the map, leads you to discover hidden items, extra life passes and more, so it is never time wasted. What is a little sad though, is the inability to warp to the start of a challenge, at least once you have found it, because sometimes getting up to the top of the mountain is slow going and that isn’t as much fun as coming back down it.

Of course, tackling the slopes, hills or even towns, is the main focus of the game and how you choose to do it, is what makes things fun, as long as you can get used to the camera position. That is going to be a massive learning curve for all players, in theory, it all makes sense, you move the stick to the left and your character goes to the left of the screen, but the challenge is that in moving to the left of the screen, they are actually turning right. The impact is more stage left, than actual left and made me think of those bikes that are changed to reverse the steering direction, it really does take a lot of adjustment to get used to. This isn’t one of those aspects of a controller layout, like making X jump instead of A, but rather that the direction you are moving steers the character in the opposite way, but also not at the same time. There are also no ways to adjust the controls, if you would rather move to the right and have your character turn to the right, so turning to the right, always goes stage right.

If you can get your head around that and you will want to try, the game does offer up a heck of a lot of fun, because it never takes itself seriously, the problem though is that it never offers up anything substantial in terms of satisfaction. By that I mean that when you take a jump off a ledge and spend heap of time in the air, the game doesn’t make a big deal about it, just recording your air time and distance travelled. If you are coming from the world of SSX, Amped or even Cool Borders, there is nothing like those games offer, in terms of visual indicators to show your progress, which sounds nice, except the game will often provide challenges or collectables that require tricks or grinds to achieve and without that sense of completion to your actions, it is hard to learn. There was an item that required me to grind along four different beams, in order to collect it, which in most games sounds very simple, but without knowing how balanced I was or if I was even on the middle of the line, I kept sliding off. Part of me enjoyed the challenge, that I needed to learn the rails and balance system, but after the 12th attempt, I was getting more frustrated over it than anything else.

If all that sounds annoying and you would rather just enjoy the game without all the hassles, the game does offer a Zen mode, which as its name implies, removes anything that could become a problem. So, no challenges, trials or even other folks on the powder, just you and the mountain and while that is fun, it does get a bit stale after a while, though experiencing it at least once on each mountain is a must. For those who want a challenge, the game does allow for up to four racers to compete locally, and while some elements from SSX are not present, the ability to knock your mates down, or anyone on the slopes is and that is always fun. When playing with mates, the game does allow all the modes, so you can race or just cruise down the slopes and while it does feel a little odd, to be competing against folks in a chill game like this, there is still a layer of fun to be had doing it.

On the presentation side of things, there are some good and some not so good, the first good aspect is that with the camera you are getting to see everything around you and while there are multiple camera focal lengths, they never feel restrictive. The flip side to that is that if you want the camera to be behind your snowperson, then you are out of luck, as the game is always set to look back up the mountain, rather than behind and much like the controls, it does take some getting used to, some folks may not like it at all. The locations all look good, while they may look similar at first, there are small touches that make them stand apart, usually the trees, but given that you are generally just focusing on making a successful run, you shouldn’t notice them until you come to a stop. There isn’t much in terms of character customisation, at least in an impactful sense, because the camera rarely gets close enough to see your character. When you do discover the binoculars and start to look around in first person mode, you will notice the lack of world, outside of the confines of the map and that is weird, but it isn’t a game breaking element.

On the sound side of things, everything present is there to help you relax, the music is calm at all times and while there are sounds of folks on the slopes, they fade away quite quickly if you head off the marked trails. There were times, especially in timed challenges, where things picked up a little, which was nice, but it was never that big of a departure from the rest of the music that it stood out. Given that the game is aiming to be a quiet and relaxing experience, the audio served up matches perfectly.

Grand Mountain Adventure: Wonderlands is an utterly charming and chill experience from start to end, in fact I was using it a lot as a pallet cleanser between other more chaotic games. Being able to jump in and either complete a challenge or two, or instead just make my way around the various locations, however I wanted was great. While the controls are a massive adjustment, due to the cameras unique position, there is still a lot to enjoy here. Those who see a board and snow and think SSX or some other more extreme series may be let down by the lack of options, but the upside to that, is that you can just relax and not have to worry, letting you enjoy a true wonderland.