• Price: $19.99 USD (currently on sale for $16.99 until September 8th)
• Developers: Chibig, Nukefist
• Publisher: Chibig
• Release Date: August 21, 2024

A review code was kindly provided by Chibig. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Note: A Day One patch was released, and *fixed* the only technical issue I had experienced.

We’ve previously reviewed Ankora: Lost Days, and Chibig has published many other cute, colorful games (set in the same universe) on Switch. Their latest release, Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, is a single player cozy game inspired by the likes of A Short Hike, A Hat in Time, Lil Gator Game, and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.

Mika’s mother drops her off at Stellar Lighthouse, a magic school that she had attended herself as a child. Mistress Olagari is not inclined to give her special treatment though, pushing her off a cliff and telling her to make her way back up on her own.

Sadly, that push causes Mika’s family heirbroom to break upon landing. She ends up in Orilla Town, where a local craftswoman gives it a temporary patch job, but tells her that there’s no way she can use it to fly back up to the mountain peak. Mika will need to get a job to pay for a new broom, and so she seeks employment at a delivery service.

Her new boss explains that customers will rate their delivery experience. Certain packages shouldn’t get wet and/or damaged by running into cliffs; a damaged package will decrease your rating, but thankfully if you mess up you can reset the delivery by holding the X button.

I was still able to get green stamps for all deliveries (that weren’t plot related) by resetting a package as soon as it was damaged. This does send it back to the place where you picked it up, though. I can see some players getting frustrated with the damage mechanic, so a “safe mode” or something might have been a nice accessibility feature that prevented damage.

I did damage quite a few packages before I really got the hang of flying. You don’t simply control the broom by pressing up or down, instead using the air currents to help you stay in the air. The horizontal currents increase your speed, while the vertical currents increase your height in the air.

You lose altitude until you hit another vertical current, and the horizontal currents can make it harder to maintain control of your broom. At least initially, poor Mika was frequently slammed into cliffs under my control. 😅 Sometimes I would deliberately switch to walking and then start flying again after walking through particularly perilous areas.

Once I got the hang of flying it wasn’t too bad. You get a new broom after finishing each day of deliveries, which comes with improved flight capabilities and extra package slots. Find special items that go onto pedestals to improve wind flow on the island as well.

The story occurs over the course of 3 days, and Mika’s goal is to earn enough money to buy a broom that’s good enough to reach the top of the mountain again. But that doesn’t mean that objective must be your only focus! As you fly around the island, you might see some items shining up at you from below. There are several side quest deliveries you can make in addition to the main quest.

There are also a variety of collectibles for you to find. Search every nook and cranny of the island to find Napopo statues (a nice reference to another Chibig game). You can “purchase” cute new outfits and keychains based on the amount of statues you’ve found.

I did wish we had more outfit options, but the ones they did have were adorable. (And I loved how changing her outfit changed her character portrait, too.) You can also unlock new trails for your broom, with flowers or rainbows streaming behind you.

Simiente jars, the other type of collectible, can be found by deliberately falling from great heights onto a jar. My issue here is with the tutorial message and accompanying image (which is admittedly super cute). Personally, I would call these a pot or vase of some sort instead of a jar, and they don’t look the same as the actual item in the field to me (in pottery type or colors).

I only figured it out on accident when I fell onto one. It may have been better to have the drawing depict an undamaged version in the same colors as the actual item. That being said, the collectibles you get for smashing the jars are really neat, and again, the art is fantastic!

Something I really appreciated for the sake of finding all of the statue collectibles was the map. Including a map is extremely helpful. I often get lost even with maps in games (and real life). But they designed their map to show which way you’re facing, and they included the ability to see where people are.

As long as you interact with the signboard in each area, it will be labeled on the map, and it will then show you how many of the statues you’ve collected in each area so far. I found the game very user friendly as far as navigation is concerned.

When it comes to the story and characters, I think they could have been stronger. They estimate that this should take about 6 hours to complete, and that is reflected in the story and character development.

It is a little disappointing that we can’t talk to people directly unless it’s related to a quest. Everyone else just has a speech bubble with some dialogue, but you can’t interact with them. You also can’t go into any buildings. I did like the characters I met around the island – I just wanted more time with them.

If you’ve played any other games from Chibig though, you’re in for some nice surprises here and there. And we can expect more from Chibig and Mika, as they indicated on the Steam page that they intend to add more content in the future (estimate: 6 months from now).

At the moment they plan to add new mini games, cosmetics and collectibles, broom tricks, dungeons, side quests, and most importantly: the ability to pet animals. In its current state Mika and the Witch’s Mountain is still an adorable experience that can make you smile. I think the planned additions sound great, and look forward to seeing how they expand the game.