Climbing Mountains

The concept of climbing is something that has been around since pretty much the beginning. One of the first that comes to mind for me is Jumpman climbing steel beams in the original Donkey Kong. Climbing perfectly symbolizes the progression a player makes throughout their time with a game. They're constantly facing harder challenges, yet they are stronger with each one they defeat. In the end, they are at the top. Triumphant over the game, and the mountain they just climbed. 

Some games I have played recently take this concept of climbing a mountain a lot more literally. They all feature gameplay and stories centered around climbing mountains. However, the mountains I climbed in these games are very similar to the mountains we all climb in our everyday lives. In a much less symbolic sense, they are also great examples of why I've climbed literal mountains throughout my life.

The first game I want to mention is Celeste, an all-time great 2D platformer. The game features Mario-like levels of gameplay variety. That's not what I'm talking about here though. The game follows Madeline and her journey to climb Celeste Mountain. This is done through standard 2D platforming gameplay in combination with a unique twist in every level. For example, one level the player focuses on shifting platforms, and another is all about resisting wind currents and timing jumps perfectly. The game is very difficult, and I died easy over a thousand times in my playthrough. I was frustrated, upset and at times I considered quitting. However, these emotions fit perfectly with a game about doing a hard thing like climbing a giant mountain. I pressed on and finished the game to prove to myself that I could. Afterall, that is the same reason that Madeline climbs the mountain in the game. She needed to prove to herself that she could do it. 

Another great mountain climbing is much more obvious with its title. A Short Hike follows Claire, a bird character at what seems to be a nature recreation area. It becomes clear at the beginning of the game that the goal is to climb Hawk Peak so that Claire can get cell reception and take an important phone call. Through a wide variety of outdoor activities and pretty standard 3D platforming, the player gains fun experiences and power ups that help them climb the mountain. Upon reaching the summit, Claire gets a phone call from her mother in which the player finds out Claire's mother had just gotten surgery and sent Claire away to the mountains to keep her from worrying. Climbing the mountain proves to be a lot more fun that Claire was expecting, and she seems proud of herself for actually doing it.

The last game I'll go over is Toem. The player takes the role of a young photographer who must journey their way to the top of a mountain to witness a phenomenon known as "Toem". The player makes progress in the game through taking pictures and completing photo-based quests for the characters found throughout the levels. The levels are split into areas locked off by bus stops in which completing quests gets the player tickets to go to the next areas. Eventually the player finds themself in a snowy mountain level and it is clear the end is close. Upon reaching the top of the mountain the player gets to view a wonderful display of color and natural lights. This is especially significant because everything in the game is black and white. This really makes the Toem even more beautiful. Seeing such beauty helps the climb worth the effort.

All three of these mountain climbs have one major thing in common. In every case, the journey up the mountain is what makes it so enjoyable. Celeste was an endless stream of platforming challenges, A Short Hike was an open world full of fun characters and activities, and Toem was a blissfully relaxing adventure with plenty of pictures taken along the way. To reinforce this idea, I recently graduated from University. While I was so happy to be at the mountain's peak at my graduation, it was the journey through my University studies that I enjoyed the most. 

We all climb mountains every day. Sometimes we climb mountains that take years to summit. These three games do a great job of exemplifying that while it is nice to reach the top, it is the journey up that mountain that really makes the climb worth it.