Mika and The Witch’s Mountain (Xbox Series) Review

When I saw the first trailer for Mika and The Witch’s Mountain, the first comparison that popped into my head was Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service. It was a comparison that immediately put a smile on my face – a smile that Mika and The Witch’s Mountain managed to keep plastered there throughout.

When precocious and slightly know-it-all pre-teen witch Mika is sent to study in Miss Olagari’s witch school, her attitude earns her a swift and literal kick off the mountain-top the school is located on. If she wants in, she’s going to have to fly her way back to the top of Mount Gaun on her own. With a broken broom and no clue what to do, Mika takes refuge in the town at the base. Needing money to fix her broom, it just so happens that Orilla Town needs a delivery person and so begins Mika’s greatest adventure that’ll come with plenty of life lessons.

A charming and whimsical experience, Mika and The Witch’s Mountain is best described a cozy, open-island, delivery-adventure game. You’ll be spending all of your time exploring the island, mostly on the back of your broom, while delivering parcels for the people of Orilla Town. While the tangible reward is new brooms that help you fly higher and faster, the real reward is the time spent with the games colourful and memorable cast.

The characterisation and writing is by far the game’s biggest strength. From the short-fused Mika herself to the father trying to help his son fly from the nest to the kindly craftsman that takes you in after your little fall, the game is home to some wonderful characters and writing that manages to create distinct personalities for each villager within a short playtime. More than that, it manages to get you invested in their mini story arcs, making the prospect of each delivery something you look forward to.

As a bonus, delivering the various bits and bobs asked of you is also incredibly fun thanks to a simplistic but empowering flight system.

At first, you can only deliver one item at a time, but as you get new brooms the number of items you can hold at one time increases, in addition to the top speed and how high it can go. Reaching the tippy-top of the island will only come later in the game but getting there is part of the fun. The island is home to many wind tunnels and updrafts that will boost your speed or give you that significant horizontal momentum to reach a house on a cliff. It’s also just so much fun to drift around the island or drop from the top of it to slowly glide your way down, searching for secrets and optional side-delivery’s.

Flying is mechanically simple. You just jump onto your broom and away you go. That said, without the little bump you can give yourself to increase your height every couple of seconds, you’ll slowly drift to the ground or skim along the water’s surface. But once you get used to chaining those bumps, along with using the wind tunnels around the island, the laid-back fun factor takes a jump through the proverbial roof. Mainly because it’s just such a calming experience founded in freedom of movement.

Parcels add some complexity to the mechanics, as each can take a certain amount of damage from various sources. Papers, for instance, are damaged by water, while electronics are susceptible to both water and being bumped around. A lot of that complexity is really surface level though as the game is such a laid-back experience that you really have to go out of your way to damage a parcel. There are also no time limits on deliveries either so you can take all the time in the world getting them to their destination.

Mika and The Witch’s Mountain also sports visuals that match its charm with a cute, stylised look full of bright colours and fun character designs that are simple and expressive. Performance is, generally, great across the board as the game isn’t going to stress anyone’s systems current or last-gen. However, I still had some unaccountably frequent drops to the Xbox’s dashboard despite playing this after launch.

If you like cozy, laid-back games with colourful characters and great, heart-felt writing, then Mika and The Witch’s Mountain should be on your watch list. It’s not going to challenge you in anyway, but it will entertain throughout, leaving a warm, fuzzy feeling in your stomach along with a sense of time well-spent in its captivating fantasy world.

Mika and The Witch’s Mountain was reviewed on Xbox Series S|X using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One, PS4/5, and Nintendo Switch.