Mountain

by David OReilly

Vitals:

• Screen Saver
• Worth the Price ($0.99)
• Endless Playtime

This week’s game delivers all the serenity and majesty invoked by massive upcroppings of earth known as mountains, sprinkled, literally, with a touch of absurdity in what can only be described as the most postmodern game I have experienced date. Though to call Mountain a game may be less than accurate.

In mountain you watch a mountain. That’s pretty much it. The mountain slowly rotates as calming music intermittently plays and occasional Zen phrases such as “I feel dissolved inside this blooming morning” appear in the corner of the screen.  As the mountain spins day and night cycles occur, providing ample opportunity for experiencing that sunrise or sunset behind a towering peak moment that outdoor enthusiasts will surely recognize. At night the trees sparkle with fireflies adding to the magically soothing atmosphere. Seasons also pass on the mountain, sometimes covering it in a blanket of snow or obscuring it with clouds as rain pours down.

Your own digital snow globe

However not everything that happens in this game falls under normal mountain behavior. At times random objects will appear on the mountain and then later, again for seemingly no reason at all, they will disappear. For example as I am writing this there is a gigantic umbrella resting near the peak, a bunch of bananas sitting in one of the forests dotting the slopes and a horse lodged halfway inside the base of the mountain. The game gives no reason for these appearing and disappearing oddities and other than the weather cycles they are the only thing that changes about the mountain. It would have been nice to see more natural changes to the topography and ecosystem of the mountain, landslides due to heavy rain or the growth and death of the forests that populate it surface.

 Graphically the game is fairly basic, polygons are visible, shadows are simple and almost all of the textures are just gradients of color. This simplicity however does not diminish the game, it is not a 3D Mark testing software or a photorealistic shooter, it is a meditation tool and striking graphics are not necessary for serenity.

Just another picturesque day

Getting to the nature of what this game is I feel I should define the word “game”. Marriam-Webster defines game as: “a physical or mental activity or contest that has rules and that people do for pleasure.” While participation, in the philosophical sense, with Mountain could constitute a mental activity there are no rules that govern it. Furthermore there are no controls by which the player interacts directly with the mountain. In fact when the menu is opened the controls option clearly states “nothing”. The only interaction the player has is by spinning the mountain to view it from different angles or zooming in to observe the mountain up close or zooming out to see it as a chunk of dirt floating in a small atmospheric bubble amidst the vastness of space. Audio events for dawn, dusk and ambiance can be toggled on as can the mountains reflections on its simple life. Quality can be set which seems only to turn textures from basic to entirely flat and remove the stars from the sky when fully zoomed out. Window size can also be adjusted to make the mountain full screen and center stage or a smaller background experience. Given the extremely low level of interactivity I would classify Mountain as more of a screen saver than a game.

It's a mountain... floating in space

Despite the lack of some crucial and defining game characteristics Mountain is a wonderful meditation and relaxation tool. Set in the background of any program it provides intermittent simple short and soothing notes and calming environmental sounds such as the gentle falling of rain. More active observers will catch the mountains positive observances and feelings on the world around it. Altogether this creates a very Zen garden experience.

Mountain may not be enthralling or complex but it is at the very least the best screen saver you will find. There is no real playtime with it, in theory you could run it in the background perpetually and still enjoy the subtle boon it grants. At just $0.99 I really can’t not recommend this program.