by Amr (@siegarettes)

• Super Hiking League
• Developer: Bit Ink Studios
• Publisher: Bit Ink Studios
• PC

Get to the top! It’s a simple conceit, and Super Hiking League turns it into a competitive scramble that tests your precision and nerves. You can jump, attack and use your grappling hook to ascend to the top of various mountains, trying to beat your opponent there. And with such straightforward mechanics, Super Hiking League relies on everything surrounding them to build its complexity. 

The complications come with each stage, which weave symmetrical and asymmetrical layouts together, allowing you chances to interfere with your opponent’s progress. I found the ones that favor asymmetrical layouts to be far more engaging, since they gave you more chances to interfere with the other player and make it feel like you’re competing in the same space. 

This is the same reason I didn’t care for the race mode, which removes the ability to attack the other player in favor of a straight up race. With symmetrical layouts or attacks turned off, Super Hiking League feels more like a punishing time trial where every mistake you make has the chance to lose you the round, with no chance for a comeback. Eventually, that problem became exasperated in the story mode, where stages became longer and the CPU became so proficient that a single mistake could make it impossible to win, robbing the tension of each match and turning it into frustration. 

It almost goes without saying that the preferred way to experience the game is with another person, where human error can turn each obstacle into a mad scramble rather than a grueling test. Even the pastoral Kirby’s Adventure-esque pixel art and upbeat music of the game can’t mask the terror of a supremely competent AI. 

Super Hiking League can be an enjoyable romp, but if you decided to climb its mountains make sure you bring a hiking partner.