Wii owners looking for M-Rated games have likely been grinning ear-to-ear recently, with developers finally embracing the console's unique features to deliver adult titles. Deep Silver's Cursed Mountain, which releases in America later this month, adds another notch in the Wii's big boy belt, bringing yet another dark tale to the system. This time, it isn't mature for over-the-top blood and gore (MadWorld) or dialogue (House of the Dead: Overkill), but for something much more... adult.

More of my time with Cursed Mountain was spent asking questions than actually getting into the game. Those questions eventually became an interview, which will be posted on the site later in the week. What I did see with the actual game, however, I enjoyed. Players control Eric Simmons, a mountain climber attempting to find his brother, who has become lost during an expedition. Set in the 1980's, this means it's a bit harder than ringing his Blackberry, and it's up to Eric to scale the mountain and find him. Climbing a snowy, dark mountain to find someone is already a somewhat insurmountable task. In Eric's case, it's a little more difficult than even that. See, the Mountain is Cursed. Didn't see that coming, did you?



Ghosts and spirits of several varieties occupy the small villages that Eric encounters on his trip up the mountain. As Harold Ramis is nowhere to be found, and Eric doesn't have a machine gun or anything, Eric must use Buddhist and Tibetan rituals to destroy the ghouls. Using a sacred artifact (which can be upgraded throughout the game), Eric has to blast them with energy by swinging around the remote and nunchuck to send them back to the abyss. The physical motions of completing these tasks helped immerse me in the game, despite the situation (room full of game developers and press) being less than ideal for a horror game.

I found myself, on several occasions, actually a bit frightened. It's moody, strange, and feels as though it can deliver a unique experience to the Wii. The motion controls helped amplify the mood, which is about as dark and dreary as could be hoped. It obviously lacks the graphical fidelity of a high definition title, but what it lacks in polygons it looks like it makes up for in environment. Hopefully. We'll have more about the game closer to release, and be sure to check back at the end of the month for the full review.