Kiss goodbye to your free time; meet Alto's Adventure!

Bad news guys, I’ve got a new game to tell you about that’s going to eat up all your free time and turn you into one of those dopey phone-tapping lunatics that stare at you all bug-eyed when you ask them to “Get the hell out of the WAY!” on the morning commute. I’ve not had this kind of crippling addiction since Monument Valley, but this one’s bitten me hard.

Alto’s Adventure has been developed by Canadian programmers Snowman. It takes the form of an endless runner that sees a young snowboarder/llama farmer on a downhill quest to round up his escaped livestock. Of course it’s not all mountain llama herding; you’ve got the opportunity to collect coins that someone’s foolishly left lying around, pull mega stunts on the alpine architecture and get big, BIG air.

I spent many thousands of hours of my childhood playing something called Snowboard Kids so Alto’s Adventure seems like a marked step up from that, both in terms of the gameplay and the graphics. In fact the graphics are some of the nicest around. The 2D vector style has been used to glorious effect, and as you work your way through the game the sun rises and sets, the wind blows, rain falls and snow batters you hard. There’s sections of forest, giant chasms for you to cross and constantly changing terrain for you to marvel at.

Anyway, you should be able to tell that I’m keen, and I challenge anyone not to lose at least 24 hours bombing down this fictional Peruvian mountain. Enjoy!