Cursed Mountain

Cursed Mountain is a survival horror action-adventure video game where players take on the role of mountaineer Eric Simmons. The game is split into thirteen levels, with the player controlling Eric as he explores a number of environments, solving puzzles and fighting hostile ghosts. All actions are controlled using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. While basic movement and interactive actions use the d-pad and buttons, several combat and environmental triggers rely on the console's motion controls. If Eric dies, the game ends and the player must reload from an earlier save point.

During level exploration, some doors and pathways must be unlocked by completing puzzles in other areas of a level. Some puzzles require Eric to activate his third eye, which reveals hidden symbols in the environment. During some sections, Eric must climb sheer walls, with his movements mapped to the motion controls. During exploration, Eric can find items such as health-restoring incense sticks, and journal entries which flesh out the game's lore. Items and weapons found by the player are stored in a backpack.

Set during the late 1980s in the Tibetan Himalayas, the story opens with a log from climber Eric Simmons; his younger brother Frank was hired by wealthy expedition organiser Edward Bennet to retrieve a Terma artefact from the mountain Chomolonzo that is believed to bring eternal life. The local practitioners of Chöd Buddhism believe that Chomolonzo is the embodiment of the goddess Palden Lhamo. Frank has disappeared, going up the mountain alone after an argument with his climbing partner Paul Ward. Eric goes himself to try and rescue Frank.

He finds the city of Lhando completely deserted. Attacked by a ghost, he is narrowly rescued by the monk Thod-pa, who teaches Eric to awaken his third eye and fight the ghosts before vanishing. Reaching Bennet, he learns that Frank did something wrong with the ritual preparations for climbing Chomolonzo, but may still be alive and that Thod-pa can help.

Cursed Mountain was primarily co-developed by Sproing Interactive and the Vienna branch of Deep Silver, who also acted as publisher. The team of Deep Silver Vienna included multiple staff members from its precursor studio Rockstar Vienna. The first concept was a game set within the religion and scenery of Asia. Using this as a base, they decided upon the Tibetan Himalayas as the setting, leading into its mountain-climbing elements.

From there, the basic combat mechanic of exorcising ghosts using control gestures was settled upon, leading to the team developing the title on Wii. Pre-production planning lasted ten months, followed by 19 months of active production. In addition to the main studios, the team employed 16 external companies across fourteen different countries. To ensure continuity between these developers, the team laid out the game design in a simple document and stuck to it, while communicating frequently with the other studios via web calls.

Review aggregate site Metacritic gave Cursed Mountain a normalised score of 67 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average" reception based on 51 reviews. Upon release, the game saw a mixed reaction from journalists, with many praising its atmosphere and faulting its controls.

Eurogamer's Keza MacDonald and GamesRadar's Shaun Curnow praised the setting as the game's best feature. Kevin VanOrd, writing for GameSpot, lauded its authentic use of local folklore and cited the narrative as one of the strong points of the game. IGN's Matt Casamassina cited the narrative as "unique" due to its setting and tone. James Newton of Nintendo Life lauded the narrative and setting.