Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading.
In this explanatory review, we’re covering Mika and the Witch’s Mountain by joint developers Chibig and Nukefist:
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain: (The Explanation)
Every story has a beginning. Many video games use the early hours of gameplay to teach the player to hone their skills for the adventure ahead. And sometimes that means being pushed off of the mountain top to near fatal results. In Mika and the Witch’s Mountain you play as a young witch, looking to gain some experience from her mother’s teacher. Instead of allowing Mika to learn the easy way, the headmaster of the school tosses her and her broomstick off the mountain.
Upon landing, Mika and her broomstick are a bit tattered and worn for wear. Mika embarks on a journey to repair her broomstick, which requires money, which entails getting a job, which leads to journeying around the village below meeting townsfolk and giving a helping hand while earning some coin.
The premise is simple, and the story opens up slowly as you begin to help people around town. In a lot of ways, the game is a giant fetch quest. The gameplay loop of being the town courier requires that you deliver packages or return missing items to their owners. While this may sound simple, each item you carry has a durability and sometimes requirements for making it to their owner safely. For instance some packages aren’t allowed to get wet, broken, or dropped.
There were other quests that required me to get the package to a person in a set amount of time. And due to the way you manage packages, you can only hold a certain number with you based on your level of broomstick enhancements. All of this makes for a slight juggling of knowing how to get from point A to point B along the island’s many routes. Not too long into the game I unlocked an ability to fly through magical jetstreams that help to launch Mika faster and higher around the island.
If you have played other, CHIBIG games, specially in the Mara or Koa series you will come across NPCs that look familiar. I don’t recall if these characters from those games are the exact same, but many strike a similar resemblance to the other CHIBIG characters tying the game series world together.
Mika has basic controls for moving around the island world. With the L stick you will ride Mika’s broomstick left, right, up, and down. The R stick controls your camera movement. A drops your item. The B button allows you to interact with things in the world. Y either puts away or gets out your broom to either walk around or fly. The X button is used to jump. In some instances I found myself wishing the A and X button were swapped in the game. Hopefully an update will allow us to map in-game button changes for customization.
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain does have a map and task list which were very helpful. Early in the game you will find yourself needing to fly the long way around the island until your broom is upgraded and you find hidden paths through the mountains central area and to higher elevations. There are optional side quests as well, like one where you need to find baby ostriches to return to a farm, or another where you help out a local train conductor.
Overall, Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is a charging game with a lot of heart and soul. I did have some graphical issues where character models would glitch in and out, mostly during some of the cutscenes. The dialogue in the game and character drawings and noises they make were a nice blend of rich, anime style animations and artwork, paired with grunts and expressive sounds specific to the character. Overall the world music playing in the background wasn’t too distracting and Mika and the Witch’s Mountain would be characterized as an overall cozy game.
If you are looking for a package delivery witch flight courier simulation game where you strive to do your best work while helping local townspeople, Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is a solid game. The overall visuals and artstyle won’t jump out as the best on offer on the Nintendo Switch and with some glitchy hiccups that don’t detract too much to the overall gameplay, you should definitely give the game a try. So hop on a broom and head to Witch’s mountain today!
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain: (The Gameplay)
Game Specifications:
Developer: Chibig, Nukefist
Publisher: CHIBIG
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Adventure, Simulation, Role-playing, Platformer
No. of Players: 1 Player
Release Date: August 20, 2024
Price: $19.99
File Size: 1.3 GB
Nintendo.com Listing
