When Ski Lifts Go Wrong

When Ski Lifts Go Wrong is an indie game that has been available on PC for some time, but as it was recently released to the Nintendo Switch it was as good an excuse as any to pick it up and see if it's worth taking for a ride

This puzzle game, developed by Hugecalf Studios and published by Curve Digital (who've also published the absolutely hilarious Human Fall Flat), is centred around building ski lifts to transport your victi- sorry, alpine skiers and snowboarders up the mountain. With the help of foundations, different materials such as planks and logs, ropes, and even snow cannons, you have to build these lifts from the ground up. Literally.

A couple of training missions introduced us to to the different game modes, all the while narrated by a ski instructor who isn't afraid to quote his South Park. The first mode is centered around building a less-than-lethal deathtrap (the aforementioned ski lift) while in the other you have to build ramps and bridges so that your player-controlled character may complete the course. You can choose between skis and snowboards in the latter mode, and some courses are even dedicated to snowmobiles. After the introduction concludes we are left with the basic rules of the game; triangles are strong, alpine skiers are soft and we should avoid dropping them from great heights, keep tension in the cable as constant as possible - stuff like that.

With optimism shining in our eyes we started the first couple of "real" courses, and after some trial-and-error, we securely transported the skiers to the top of the mountain. The obstacles aren't too difficult, and the topographical layout was surmountable. Unfortunately, there was a huge knock on the door and the difficulty curve barged in on us, and we found that we had to forego the bonus objectives (staying within budget, stable structures that don't fail, obtain hidden medals) just to clear the damn course.

Now, normally we don't scoff at difficult games. The Soulsborne games and the Ninja Gaiden titles are all games that we're very fond of. But when puzzlers like this one flex their muscles our patience is tried and found very, very guilty of not being adequate. We just didn't get that rush after a frustrating section, you know the one where you pump your fist and give the ol' two finger salute to the screen, it just feels... empty. It might be because the only thing signifying your victory is a small fanfare and the immediate presentation of the next map, or maybe it's because we suck at puzzlers and we feel downright stupid after clearing a course because the solution was pretty damn obvious in hindsight? Who knows?

Our main issue is that you don't get too much feedback about what's wrong with your constructions, and none at all about how you should proceed to improve it. You can turn on a stress indicator that paints your creation in red, yellow, and green to see how the load is distributed, and the first part to fail is painted red for your convenience. In addition to this it's possible to turn down the speed and observe the structural collapse in slow-mo. But still, despite the aids, we felt that the best approach was still trial-and-error, placing elements willy-nilly and seeing what stuck. So, after spending a couple of hours on the harder courses, we couldn't help but feel that we should have done as our mother told us and gone to engineering school.

Thankfully there is a lot of slapstick humour, and it helps to watch the poor alpinists ragdoll down the mountain after a failed attempt, especially after a spectacular one that leads to a cascade of destruction, blood, and guts. Let's just hope those poor skiers have their health insurance sorted.

We also had to Google a couple of solutions when we got completely stuck, and boy was that a mistake! Some of the constructions people have come up with are insane, to say the least, and far beyond our architectural capacities. Still, it's nice to see that someone manages to find joy in these kinds of games.

This one is fun, we'll give it that, but we probably should stay away from puzzlers in the future, mostly for the sake of our blood pressure. When Ski Lifts Go Wrong is cheap though, so try it out if you think it looks fun!