Cursed Mountain

Cursed Mountain is a Survival Horror video game for the Nintendo Wii, released in 2009. It is set in the late 1980s atop a mountain called "Chomolonzo" (or "Sacred One") in the Himalayas and is thematically based in Tibetan Buddhism.

Eric Simmons is a famous mountaineer whose reputation overshadows that of his younger brother, Frank. Envious, Frank Simmons accepts a foolhardy mission to climb Chomolonzo and retrieve a sacred Buddhist artifact, or "terma", that his sponsor claims is hidden near the summit, in order to finally make a name for himself. When Frank vanishes and is presumed dead, Eric refuses to accept it and comes to Chomolonzo to try and find his brother. To his surprise, he finds the local Sherpas have begun abandoning the region in droves, taking with them nothing more then they can carry -- which he admits is very unusual for them.

He soon discovers that Frank has angered the goddess of Chomolonzo through his deeds, and by opening the terma, has torn a rift between the mortal world and the Bardo, the realm in which the souls of the dead wander until it is time for them to either reincarnate or achieve Nirvana, allowing swarms of angry ghosts and demons to pour into the realm of the living. Eric refuses to get caught up in this mystical stuff, instead insisting that all he wants to do is to reach the summit and find his brother.

Tropes used in Cursed Mountain include:

• Action Commands: After hurting a ghost sufficiently, Eric can use these to perform a "ritual of compassionate banishment", which sends the ghost back to the Bardo and gives him some health. These same commands are used to defeat the bosses.
• Artifact of Doom: The terma which, upon opening, released spirits and demons into the living world.
• Cliff Hanger: Literally, in some fashion. The game ends with Eric on top of Chomolonzo, having just left Frank to die and be reincarnated at his insistence, with little available oxygen left for the journey down and no easy way to do so even if it were possible.
• Critical Existence Failure: Averted. When Eric's health dips below a certain point, he slows down a bit and staggers.
• Dark World: The Bardo.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The display desaturates whenever a spirit is present or when Eric is in Third Eye mode.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: Most locals who had not fled Chomolonzo following the disaster are dead. At least Eric has spirits and demons to keep him company.
  • Possibly. Thod-Pa and Jomo Menmo might still be alive.
• Evil Brit: Inverted in that most of the Western cast is British, played straight with Bennett and arguably Frank.
• Ghost Town: Chomolonzo, quite literally.
• Glory Seeker: Frank constantly pushes himself, risking life and limb climbing mountains.
• Green-Eyed Monster: The motivation for Frank to persist in climbing Chomolonzo was to climb out of his brother Eric's shadow.
• Heart Container: The player can increase Eric's health by seeking out Jomo Menmo's prophecy pages. These are usually found by purifying certain marked Buddha statues.
• Hollywood Atheist: Eric refuses to accept that there might be some sort of supernatural event going on, insisting instead that he's hallucinating from oxygen deprivation. He does this even as he banishes ghosts, fights demons, looks into the Bardo itself, and at one point is guided to safety by the voice of a helpful ghost.
  • Not always. He sure as hell STARTS that way, and he holds on to it against the weight of unbelievable evidence for the longest time, but if you pay close attention he starts to slowly drop it, until at the end he accepts Frank's death and leaves the Terma, stating that "the world is not ready for its power" and that he will "leave the Goddess to protect her own."
• Interface Screw: After Eric first meets with Jomo Menmo, he feels as though he has been drugged. As such he is reduced to a walking pace when following her. During this sequence the screen wobbles, blurs, and fades in and out.
• Jump Scare: Used to demonstrate the health game mechanic.
• Late to the Party: Chomolonzo is mostly barren by the time Eric arrives.
• Mighty Whitey: Notes found through the game show that Frank was very rude and disrespectful towards the locals.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Long before Eric encounters the first enemy spirit, the display turns monochrome while walking through certain areas of Lhando. After the second occurrence, the game advises the player to move slowly so as to not alert any nearby spirits.
• Notice This: Notes and important items can be identified by a white pillar of light. Healing items are bathed in a red pillar of light.
• The Obi-Wan: Thod-pa.
• The Rival: Frank to Eric.
• Ominous Fog
• Powerful Pick: Eric's primary weapon, which makes sense given that he is a mountain climber.
  • Energy Weapon: When Eric first unlocks his Third Eye ability, he can fire energy beams from his pickaxe.
  • Swiss Army Weapon: Eric can find various attachments to enhance his pickaxe's powers as well as grant new abilities such as being able to grapple spirits.
• Press X to Not Die:
  • When Eric crosses a bridge on the way to Jomo Menmo, the player must hit A to jump to the other side before it collapses.
  • When Eric is captured by a spirit and bound to a sacrificial rock the player must shake the Wii Remote to avoid getting stabbed and free himself.
  • As Eric walks along a narrow mountain path the camera cuts to an overhead view and the player must press A to avoid getting crushed by falling rocks.
• Redemption Equals Death: At the end, Frank decides not to return to his body, guilty and anguished after unleashing the hordes of the Bardo on the mountain and having been forced to confront his own inner demons. He instead chooses to drift into the Bardo and be reincarnated, hoping that he'll live a better life the next time around.
• Regenerating Health: Eric can recover up to a third of his health by standing still for a while.
• Roar Before Beating: Spirits usually do this when becoming hostile.
• Scripted Battle: At one point Eric picks up a small Buddha statue as a key item which triggers a mini-battle against a fast flying spirit. However, after some time passes the spirit automatically disperses due to Thod-pa banging a gong.
• Shaky POV Cam: Prior to battling the vulture-like demon, the perspective switches to it flying overhead every time Eric activates one of the three nearby statues.
• Shangri La
• Sins Of My Brother: Because of Frank's actions, the shaman Jomo Menmo decides that Eric's death will appease the goddess of Chomolonzo.
• Some Dexterity Required: The aforementioned ritual requires different Waggle commands for different types of ghosts. In theory they are all simple Wiimote slashes, but the horizontal and especially vertical practically require an architectural level to make sure the game accepts them, however it is generally acepted that holding the wii-mote like the pickaxe (upside up) while doing the rituals improves the detection a lot.
• Stealth Hi Bye: The monk Thod-pa pulls this on Eric after teaching him how to use his Third Eye.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: Eric is much more willing to believe that he is simply going insane than he is willing to accept the idea of spirits and demons actually existing.
• Visible Invisibility: In certain sections some of the enemies are invisible but can be revealed by smoke from igniting nearby candles.