Mothergamer Plays Mika And The Witch's Mountain

 *Note: I received a free copy of the game for my honest review. Thank you to Keymailer for the PS5 game key!

When you're introduced to little witch Mika, she's on her way to witch school at the top of the mountain. Well, things don't go as planned and Mika gets tossed off the mountain and her broom gets broken. Mika meets a kind villager on the beach and they help her fix her broom, but this broom isn't going to last very long which means she'll have to earn money to buy a new broom. 

Mika on her way up the mountain. 

Luckily, there's a job opening for Mika at a delivery company. The guy running the place, Greff is definitely phoning it in as he explains to Mika that she gets paid based on her job performance. The game explains the package delivery system. Some are marked urgent and some have stipulations such as don't get the package wet or damage it. If you do it perfectly, you get paid for the packages that are in exceptional condition or those with green stamp marks. You have a stamp card to keep track of all your completed deliveries which you can check any time in your inventory menu. If you're not sure where to go, you can pull up your map and it will show where the person expecting their delivery is. 

Finding out where our delivery location is. 

With each successful delivery you get the funds to not only get a new broom, but also get upgrades to it so you can fly faster and higher as well as a variety of skills. The flying is the one thing I struggled with in the game. The concept is there, but the execution is lacking. The controls for flying Mika's broom are extremely clunky and the game doesn't do a great explanation of explaining how they work. I would lose altitude really quickly and then constantly having to try and catch a wind current so I didn't crash land the broom got very frustrating. I found myself fighting the camera as well during some of the flying sessions. I had to try a lot to get it right and that definitely detracted from the fun of the game. It's not great if people have to struggle with the controls for something like flying and bad camera angles. 

Struggling to fly on the broom. 

I did enjoy chatting with all the different characters on the island and there's even a few side quests involving favors you can do for them like helping a Kappa deliver ice cream to kids on the beach. The art style for the game is cute and charming and you can see the nods here and there to Kiki's Delivery Service. There's also a few secrets here and there as you explore that add to the ambience of the story and you get to learn more about Mika as you continue her journey. 

I liked Mika a lot because of its relaxed vibes and whimsical charm. It's not necessarily unique, but that's not a bad thing. I did find the game is a bit short; about three hours if you focus on just the main story and about four to five if you do all the side quests and  find all the secrets. Short isn't terrible either, but I did find myself wanting a bit more and felt there were a few pacing issues here and there for the story.

Mika And The Witch's Mountain has the potential to be great if they can just sort the clunky flight controls and the odd camera angles in places. It's a good game and it has a cozy charm to it with the art and characters, but it needs a little more tweaking to the story and mechanics in order for it to really shine. 

Mika meeting one of the villagers on the island. 

*Mika And The Witch's Mountain is available on the following platforms: Playstation 5, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam

*Join our community on Twitch where we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer