Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders

Play it on: Xbox Series X/S, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Finish every blue trail

I have zero interest in skiing, but Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders won me over anyway. It’s part racing game, part zen walking sim, and one of 2025’s best surprises so far. It’s a follow-up to Megagon Industries’ 2019 lo-fi mountainbiking game Lonely Mountains: Downhill, and it beautifully takes the pleasant, playful mix of off-road exploration and time trial leaderboard chase and adapts it for a winter wonderland. Going from rolling to gliding doesn’t just change the mechanics, it also shifts the overall feeling. There are times in Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders when instead of trying to master the terrain, I gave myself over to it, letting the white-powder-topped slopes pull me down the path of least resistance.

Not that I haven’t died a bunch. Like OlliOlli and Trials, half the fun is failing in the most spectacular way possible. As frustrating as it can be getting snagged on the same boulder or curve in the trail over and over again, every mistake in Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders is accompanied by an unnecessarily satisfying thud and ragdoll collapse as your faceless avatar bites it. There’s also a co-op and online race mode where things can get really hectic and stressful. I’ll probably play around with that mode more once I’ve mastered the single-player tracks. For now the hills are alive only with the sounds of my frequent defeats and occasional successes, and that’s more than enough for me. — Ethan Gach

And that wraps our picks for the weekend of February 7, 2025. Stay safe and happy gaming!