4/5 ★ – AaronElWhite's review of Mika and The Witch's Mountain.

I adore this genre of cozy adventure exploration games and Mika and the Witch's Mountain is an excellent addition to it. Flying take a bit to get used to and precision can be difficult (though very rarely required anyway), but the act of soaring through the air and riding air streams is smooth and feels wonderful. The world - its characters, art style, and delivery focus - does exactly what it intends, which is to evoke the experience of participating in the movie KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE. I found the story simple and charming overall but a little lacking because it doesn't really tie up all its threads (a "villain" just kind of disappears, for example). This could be an early access issue where more is added, and I hope that will be the case. And as for the gameplay loop, it's incredibly satisfying traversing the island, finding collectables, making deliveries, and unlocking cosmetics. The game desperately needs more outfit options but the unique witch broom trails are all awesome. Then there are these charms that you can pay your collectables to unlock, but there is nothing to indicate what they do (if anything) nor are they visible on your character. It's a strange choice to have a purchasable item with no explanation or use. Likewise, there are a series of Tarot cards to collect, but no real purpose for that either, and coins that you earn but nothing to spend them on. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the music. A Short Hike is one of my favorite games of all-time and composer Mark Sapling assists here on a FANTASTIC soundtrack. I immediately went to look for a vinyl version of it and was sad to see a limited edition had already sold out. Each zone has a unique Ghibli-esque track that plays, all of them outstanding. I was sad when eventually I had stayed in an area long enough that the music stopped and would rush out of the zone and back in to restart it playing. Unfortunately, there is one negative when it comes to sound and that is the main character's (and occasionally others too) frequent screaming. The game has no voice acted dialogue but the screeching sound the characters make to serve as exclamation is very annoying. I would be very happy if they decided to cut that out completely as it is just not necessary and hampers every single interaction. All things considered, I was middling on this at the start but found myself really just swept away by the world and binged it over the first few days of release, joyfully completing everything I could going for 100%, and frequently leaping from the top of the mountain to slowly glide around the world from above just taking in the splendor of the view. I'm excited to see how much better it can become before they consider it "done"!