It’s nice to take a break from the hardcore games that challenge us to constantly ‘get good’ and practice until we land the win. With Grand Mountain Adventure: Wonderlands by Toppluva and Microids, we get a more relaxed approach with some challenges included. This snow sport game blends together a mission-based system with sandbox, exploration gameplay. It is a soothingly well mixed style that is a nice break to take.

Gameplay

When you first start out, the curiosity will hit you as to what the future levels will include that the first one doesn’t. This will lead you to start doing the first missions and try to unlock more levels to play through. While this is a solid attitude to start with, and one the developers anticipated based on how they set up their tutorials, it leads you to find out that the levels themselves are the same.

By this, I mean that each new mountain will essentially present the same setup. You will have slopes to ride, areas to explore, missions to complete, and a few hidden specialties to find. Of course, this isn’t a bad thing given that the game is meant to be an explorative sandbox. New mountains to explore was always a fun thrill and the further up the chain of levels you go, the more challenging the different challenges became. Plus, there is the benefit of unlocking these new levels for their aesthetic because some of them are so much more appealing, scenic-wise

Your first set of challenges will basically just be slope challenges to get you adjusted to the controls and the ski ticket system. By earning more medals per challenge, you can earn a ticket per medal meaning a gold medal would earn you three ski tickets. Your goal is to collect enough tickets to open up other ski lifts to take you higher up the mountain. As you complete challenges, you will also unlock other challenges to take on, many times at the top of newly unlocked ski lift.

The ski tickets do not rollover to the next level nor get spent when used to unlock ski lifts. They are basically the games point system and you will have to earn enough points in each level in order to unlock ski lifts, challenges, and the next mountain to continue.

Outside of completing missions, simply letting your curiosity run wild can be rewarding as well. In the side parts of the map, you can find random ski tickets, challenges, and neat scenery. It is definitely worth exploring in this type of game. You can even do so with friends if you wanted.

When it comes to the controls themselves, they are different whether you chose to use ski’s or a snowboard. As a fan of the snowboard, I went with this option, so the controls were basically to serpentine to build up speed. If you did a trick over a jump, landing it perfectly would give a speed boost as well. The ski controls can’t be too different aside from the speed and brake system as skiers use the ‘open for speed, pizza slice for brakes’ system, so there will be some differences.

Audio and Visual

This game doesn’t offer much in the sound and music department. It was there and always seemed to play a gentle tone in the background, but other than that it is just you and your snow sports character going down slopes and learning to be cool. Visually speaking, this game utilizes a top-down view that can be zoomed in a bit for player preference. The graphics are minimalistic, but well-down where needed and active.

Replayability

Thanks to the whole sandbox detail of the game and being able to just enjoy the slopes with no real reason, this game has plenty of replayability to it. It’s simply a nice, calm game to experience and kill some time with.

What It Could Have Done Better

Even for a game as casual as this one, their tutorial could have been a bit better. They really only show the most minimal of basics to the game and then just leave you to it. Some of the stuff you find while exploring could have used an explanation for players that aren’t accustomed to what different things they find in the video game mean. If you are adept with video games, you likely wouldn’t notice the lack of guidance for some things that could have used an explanation.

Verdict

Grand Mountain Adventure: Wonderlands is a casual snow sports game that isn’t afraid to offer some challenges to the average player. Mixing together mission-based challenges with the causal gameplay of sandbox snowboarding and/or skiing isn’t always done right, but these teams did a great job with it. This is definitely a title I would recommend to someone who is looking for a game they can relax with and occasionally challenge themselves to do better.

Grand Mountain Adventure: Wonderlands is now available on both PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch.