Grand Mountain Adventure 2 review

Sequels can be tricky because it feels like there's a moving target on the amount of innovation to apply. Some games really need to be completely upended to stay fresh and satisfying while others--somehow--just need to serve up more of the tried-and-true formula. Grand Mountain Adventure 2 takes this latter approach and it really works for them. This simple open-world snow sports game adds tiny sprinkles of newness here and there but is largely more of the first game.

The first Grand Mountain Adventure stood out as a game that focused on capturing the gliding feel of skiing over snow while providing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater-style challenges on its slopes. Grand Mountain Adventure 2 replicates this format exactly, though using different locations, introducing some additional challenge types, and including some hidden secrets to uncover.

What really makes these games stand out is the actual feel of going down the slopes. There's something about the top-down view and simple turn controls that combine to give a great gliding feeling that is fun to master through slalom time trials, trick attacks, zip line courses, and more.

Grand Mountain Adventure 2 is an open-world game in the sense that you can control your skiier to go anywhere on any map at any time, provided you can figure out how to get there on skis. Challenges have markers for you to ski through to start them, and completing these challenges opens up more ski lifts to more easily traverse the map and unlocks new challenges to take on. Once you've earned a certain number of "ski passes" from these challenges, you may be able to unlock a new mountain or even take on the "black diamond" version of challenges, which are more difficult.

As you play the game, you'll also earn a currency you can spend on different kinds of ski gear, though it's important to note that changing your gear will not change your skiing abilities. Unlike some other sports games like Grand Mountain Adventure 2, you can only really depend on your own abilities to get faster times or fulfill other challenge requirements. Personally, I really like this decision, as it forces you to really engage with the game's mechanics to try and squeeze everything out of them. Also--thanks to the game's nifty rewind and instant restart mechanics--restarting challenges over and over again never really feels particularly frustrating.

The only times where I felt Grand Mountain Adventure 2 dragging along was in some of the later mountains in the game. For some reason the last two peaks have these very narrow bottlenecks for earning ski passes to unlock lifts. I'd somewhat understand this if I was just finding the challenges to be difficult, but I was having a hard time finding anything to do to make progress.

I eventually was able to find random ski passes hidden around these slopes that led to the environments opening up, but wandering around for them really felt aimless. As much as I enjoy the feel of Grand Mountain Adventure 2, it doesn't lend itself well to meandering exploration, so suffice it to say these periods in the game were somewhat frustrating.

When permitted to roam freely across the slopes to various challenges, Grand Mountain Adventure 2 feels like a smart--though slight--upgrade to the previous game. If you haven't played one of these games before, both have a free portion of the game available. And chances are that if you like the smooth feel of the skiing there, you'll enjoy the inventive challenges that Grand Mountain Adventure 2 serves up to challenge your skills.