Mika and The Witch's Mountain Review - A Cute and Cozy Indie Game Full of Witchcraft and Wonder
Mika and The Witch’s Mountain is a fantasy adventure indie game inspired by the animated movie Kiki’s Delivery Service and the cel-shaded visuals of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
A young girl is on her way to becoming a witch. Grab your broom, and let’s glide into my review of Mika and The Witch’s Mountain. It is a fantasy adventure indie game inspired by the deliveries of Kiki’s Delivery Service and the cel-shaded visuals of The Legends of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
Welcome to The Witch’s Mount
You play as Mika, an aspiring witch who meets Olagari, the head witch of the magic school, who will determine whether you can become a full-fledged witch. She immediately teaches you a tough lesson by throwing you over the mountaintop, with your broom breaking your fall. Now stranded at the bottom of the mountain with a broken broom, you must seek help. You encounter Allegra, who repairs your broom just enough to make it usable. The town’s previous delivery person is missing, so you start delivering packages to earn money to upgrade your broom and eventually make your way back to the top of the mountain. As you explore the small island, you’ll meet the townspeople, deliver packages, and learn about the history of this magical place.
Exploring The Island
You’ll spend most of the game gliding around on your broom, only hopping off to deliver a package or grab a collectible item. It’s an open-world adventure, so if you see an area and can glide to it, you can explore it. You start delivering packages for Greff, a pompous dork who is convinced you are ill-prepared, treating you similarly to how the head witch did at the start.
Your deliveries range from ice cream and seaweed to kites, bills, money, or lunches. Each item has icons indicating if it’s fragile or cannot touch water. Based on the quality of your delivery, you receive a rating, with each item having a minor health bar. You can hold 'B' to destroy the product and return to your starting point to try again if you want a better rating.
Collectibles are scattered around the island, which you can turn in for new outfits or charms for your outfits. The more deliveries you make, the better upgrades you get for your broom, including a speed boost, extended gliding time, and increased carrying capacity, maxing out at four items.
The island has wind pockets that push you forward or lift you higher, helping you get around more quickly. You press 'Y' to bounce as you get closer to the ground, preventing you from damaging a delivery. You discover orbs placed around the island to unlock stone openings that use the wind to launch you into the sky, allowing you to reach higher areas. Honestly, without these wind pockets, the game might get a bit dull due to the slow gliding pace. The more you navigate, the faster you reach your destination by utilizing these air pockets.
At first, you’ll frequently check your map to see if you’re nearing your destination. The menu button always defaults to settings instead of your map, which is a bit frustrating. You have to search for the map each time you open the menu, and it was odd that sometimes it alternated between the map and settings regardless of what you had selected last. This is a minor inconvenience that could be fixed in an update.
Cel-Shaded Symphony
When The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was released in 2003, many fans were upset by the cel-shaded visual style, which gave the game a more childish look. However, in hindsight, it’s now one of the most requested Zelda remasters by fans. The visual style still holds up today and has influenced many games, such as Oceanhorn, Lil Gator Game, Tunic, and an upcoming Kickstarter project called Humblets.
The style of the old-world statues, wind machines, and temple-like areas almost looks like they’re straight out of The Wind Waker. The NPCs in the game are at times inspired by Studio Ghibli films. Mika establishes its own identity with the interesting characters you meet and their dialogue.
The style of the old-world statues, wind machines, and temple-like areas almost looks like they’re straight out of The Wind Waker. The NPCs in the game are at times inspired by Studio Ghibli films. Mika establishes its own identity with the interesting characters you meet and their dialogue.
The sound effects are what you would expect from a game like this, and the soundtrack leaves something to be desired. It’s all average and gets the job done. As you move between different areas of the island, the music changes, but it doesn’t transition smoothly. Either the song cuts out abruptly and then transitions into another, or it cuts out and reloads a minute later. The main theme is the best song in the game. Take a listen:
Mika’s Delivery Friends
You meet some lovely characters throughout the game who support your witch delivery endeavor, offering assistance and giving positive reinforcement along the way.
While the nice characters seem overly polite, the meaner characters are the opposite; they are outright rude, sometimes without any provocation. Their behavior seems oddly placed and doesn’t feel as well-developed as that of the nicer characters. Mika is adorable, but her interactions can come off as too harsh.
You subtly help two characters spark a romantic storyline that hints at something just beginning. Additionally, you assist a father and son in bonding over a recent loss, and a mother and son come together for the good of their family business.
Broom Sweeping and Kick Starting
Before I get into my final thoughts on the game, I wanted to go through a few details.
Mika and The Witch’s Mountain was one of the biggest gaming Kickstarter projects, reaching an outstanding 3,250% of its original goal, with over 24,000 backers and more than 1.4 million dollars. The original launch date was set for October 2023, but the game eventually launched in August 2024, which is not uncommon with crowdfunding campaigns. Oddly enough, the game was released on Steam in Early Access.
Here is a short quote from the latest public update to provide context:
Even with that explanation, I still don’t understand why it’s in Early Access. If the game is complete, then it’s compete. If you’re adding something afterward, then it’s DLC or a quality-of-life update. From the long list of proposed updates, like:
That, to me, doesn’t sound like a finished game. It sounds like they will update the game to complete it in the coming months, and I’m looking forward to seeing how these additions play out in the game.
Mika and The Witch’s Mountain is a cute, visually appealing game with easy-to-handle mechanics and a short, inspiring story. I’m interested to see how things develop until the Early Access banner is removed on Steam, and I’ll provide a review update when that happens.
So, what do you think of Mika? Have you played the game, or are you looking forward to picking it up? Did you back the campaign, and what are you looking forward to? Let’s discuss in the comments!
🎮Mika and The Witch’s Mountain | Steam | Switch | Kickstarter
🗓️Release Date | Out now on Steam and Switch | PS5 & Xbox Later Date
Wishlisted!
This was the game where I decided I should create AIIG. How such a beautiful game gets lost in the mix is just infuriating (and it at least has profile - there are so many other indie games that get even more overlooked). Thanks for covering it!