MyTP One Mountain

Winter is behind us (those of us in the northern hemisphere, at least), meaning thousands of people are mourning the temporary death of winter sports.

Well, what are video games for except to let us live out otherwise impossible experiences?

MyTP One Mountain is another mobile skiing / snowboarding game from Randerline, the studio behind MyTP Ski & Snowboard. Like Ski & Snowboard, One Mountain is about skiing and / or snowboarding down the slopes, performing tricks, and breaking records.

If you're one of the aforementioned fiends of winter sports and you're pining for the bitter chill of the mountaintop, MyTP One Mountain will make you smile for a bit, though its stiff graphics and awkward camera is no substitute for the wind in your face.

As is the case in Ski & Snowboard, the controls for One Mountain are divided between the accelerometer and on-screen buttons. Touching the bottom right-hand corner of the screen speeds you up, tilting left and right steers you, and buttons on the left-hand side of the screen let you perform tricks when you're airborne or grinding on a rail.

This hybrid control scheme is functional, and generally responsive. However, the camera tends to zoom in and out in awkward ways that sometimes makes it difficult to get a good view of your surroundings.

The camera is particularly temperamental after wipeouts, often refusing to automatically position itself behind your skier again. At least you get a chance to practise skiing backwards - whether you want to or not.

One Mountain's gameplay revolves around completing different sets of challenges. You're asked to beat set competition scores, rack up points in style contests, or accumulate a certain score by performing tricks.

There are lots of courses to perform on: One Mountain is not lacking in content. It is, however, lacking in content that's exciting.

All the slopes blend into one another, and the uniform white-and-grey graphics don't help differentiate one hill or half-pipe from another. The game's character models are also stiff and lack personality despite the fact that you can customise their look quite a bit.

Part of the problem is that crashes look weird. Watching your character wipeout is like watching a wooden doll get tossed around.

MyTP One Mountain won't get your heart racing, which is probably not a great thing to say about a snow sports game. But if you're a collector of the genre, you might want to chill with it for a little while regardless.