Game review
the mountain is as it always was
6.9 / 10
- Developer
- christine mi
- Publisher
- christine mi
- Released
- 1 January 2024
- Platforms
- phone, desktop
- Genre
- narrative,exploration
- Monetisation
- free
- Players
- false
The short version
A genuinely beautiful small Bitsy piece built around a dithered mountain-and-lake vista - some of the strongest pixel art seen in this review batch - confirmed working with real keyboard and swipe-driven movement on both desktop and phone, held back mainly by the format's inherent brevity and one-shot nature.
Biggest strengths
- Confirmed genuinely functional on both platforms - repeated key presses or taps advanced the opening dialogue into a real overworld scene, and a real key press (desktop) or swipe (phone) genuinely moved the avatar's position, confirmed via direct screenshot comparison rather than assumption
- Some of the most striking pixel art in this review batch - a detailed, dithered mountain range, forest treeline, and rippling lake under a soft sun, rendered with real depth rather than flat placeholder shapes
- Loaded and ran cleanly with no console errors once its background music was fetched and bundled (see cons), and no other bugs to fix
Biggest weaknesses
- The build as hosted was missing its background music file entirely: a bare relative filename that pointed nowhere once installed outside its original itch.io CDN folder. Fixed here by fetching the same file directly from the game's own itch.io CDN location and shipping it alongside the page
- The background music (credited as a track by R Beny via a Bandcamp link) has no stated licence for reuse - flagged here for the record rather than resolved, the same shape as other unlicensed third-party audio seen in this discovery batch
- On desktop specifically, keyboard movement only worked after first clicking on or near the game canvas to give it focus - a real, if minor, discoverability snag for a keyboard-only player who might not think to click first; touch on phone had no equivalent issue
Who it's for: Fans of short, visually distinctive Bitsy narrative games who enjoy a brief, contemplative single-sitting experience.
Our recommendation: skip
6.9 / 10
Opening
the mountain is as it always was is a small, quietly striking Bitsy piece centred on a genuinely beautiful dithered vista - a mountain range, a forested shoreline, and a rippling lake under a soft sun - among the strongest pixel art encountered in this batch of narrative games.
A real bug, fixed before testing could begin
The build as hosted was missing its background music entirely: the page referenced an audio file by a bare relative filename that pointed nowhere once installed outside its original itch.io CDN folder. This was fixed by fetching the same file directly from the game's own itch.io CDN location and shipping it alongside the page, after which the game loaded with a completely clean console.
Real controls, confirmed on both platforms - with one desktop quirk
Testing dispatched real input on both platforms rather than assuming movement worked. On phone, a real touch tap advanced the opening dialogue and a real swipe genuinely moved the avatar, confirmed by direct screenshot comparison. On desktop, the same dialogue-advancing key presses worked immediately, but keyboard movement itself only started responding after first clicking on or near the canvas to give it focus - once that was done, arrow-key presses genuinely moved the avatar, confirmed the same way. That focus requirement is a minor but real discoverability snag worth knowing about.
A genuinely beautiful setting
The dithered mountain, treeline, and lake read as real, carefully composed environmental art rather than a Bitsy default palette swap - this is a visual highlight among the small narrative games reviewed this session.
Final Verdict
A visually striking, genuinely well-made small Bitsy piece, confirmed working correctly on both desktop and phone after fixing a real missing-asset bug. The art is a clear strength, but its brevity and lack of replay value put it below what this shelf is looking for.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Confirmed genuinely functional on both platforms - repeated key presses or taps advanced the opening dialogue into a real overworld scene, and a real key press (desktop) or swipe (phone) genuinely moved the avatar's position, confirmed via direct screenshot comparison rather than assumption
- Some of the most striking pixel art in this review batch - a detailed, dithered mountain range, forest treeline, and rippling lake under a soft sun, rendered with real depth rather than flat placeholder shapes
- Loaded and ran cleanly with no console errors once its background music was fetched and bundled (see cons), and no other bugs to fix
Cons
- The build as hosted was missing its background music file entirely: a bare relative filename that pointed nowhere once installed outside its original itch.io CDN folder. Fixed here by fetching the same file directly from the game's own itch.io CDN location and shipping it alongside the page
- The background music (credited as a track by R Beny via a Bandcamp link) has no stated licence for reuse - flagged here for the record rather than resolved, the same shape as other unlicensed third-party audio seen in this discovery batch
- On desktop specifically, keyboard movement only worked after first clicking on or near the game canvas to give it focus - a real, if minor, discoverability snag for a keyboard-only player who might not think to click first; touch on phone had no equivalent issue
- Very short and built as a single considered playthrough rather than a replayable game, consistent with the Bitsy narrative format but thin for a shelf built around repeat play