It only took me so long to realize that Mountain is an uninspired derivative of Getting Over It because by the time I stumbled upon GOI about a year ago, I had completely forgotten about this one. I played with Mountain a few times and wanted to like it, but it seemed something was missing from its attempt at existential irony. I saw its icon while paging through my games folder just now and it all made sense: why Mountain was made and why it misfires. Even as a joke, which it may well be. If you think you might like Mountain, try Getting Over It. Both are very offbeat and both are exercises in frustration and learning to live with unhappy accidents. But GOI gives you something interesting to fail to do, over and over and over again- and its commentary is much more subtle and engaging. I am still failing to win Getting Over It. but winning is not the point with either of these. GOI, though, does have a point—and a narrative arc that changes. Not by much, but it makes a tremendous difference.

I didn’t know what to expect and I think it helped me in being completely open to whatever the mountain would be. I found myself looking at the mountain as something I want to protect. Green, serene, void of anything negative. Suddenly, an old fridge crashes into my serenity. I can feel the discomfort, my urge to do something to “fix” the scene, clean it up. Then I realize there’s nothing I can do but accept it, release my anxiety about it and seek ways to welcome it and other unexpected or unwelcome things into my mountain (world). A great exercise in letting go of the urge to control and just accept the beauty of everything as it evolves.

I’ve been running it under TvOS for several days and I can understand why some people are very negative about it. But if you leave it running, especially with a good sound system, it adds a minor, somewhat melancholy, but also interesting element to the day. It reminds me of Bob Shaw’s “slow glass”. My son thinks it’s just a Big Troll, and I’m familiar with David OReilly and maybe that’s how he thinks of it, too. But I’ll invoke the Author Fallacy and claim that it doesn’t matter. Mountain can be a small but interesting addition to your day, if you want it to be.

When I played this, I didn’t really think much of it at first, but I started to see that it was very calming to me, especially when I play the keyboard thing, because the notes are just so pretty and relaxing to me. Also, I read some of the reviews that said that you can’t pick up the trash, but you actually can if you press and hold it for a few seconds. Just thought I’d mention that so people wouldn’t hate on this game for that.