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Mika and The Witch's Mountain begins with an aspiring witch apprentice (Mika) flying up Mont Gaun to meet the witch Olagari for training. After providing her with a letter of recommendation (from Mika’s mother) and requested items, Miss Olagari seems unimpressed and shoves Mika off of the mountain. It’s a steep fall and when Mika lands, she discovers that her broom is broken. Thankfully, one of the islanders, Allegra, repairs her broom and lets Mika stay in her home. Allegra’s repairs make the broom flyable, but far from ideal. Allegra offers to upgrade Mika’s broom for a few gold pieces but Mika doesn’t have any money on her. Lucky for her, the delivery carrier is hiring!

The concept of a young witch using her broom to deliver packages is heavily influenced by Hayao Miyazaki’s 1989 animated film, Kiki’s Delivery Service. Per the developer, other inspirations include the games A Short Hike and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The colorful world and art style make this game feel like an interactive Studio Ghibli film.

Mika can pick up packages to deliver from Greff who runs the courier service. Greff gives Mika a delivery card where the recipients rate Mika’s service. Mika will only earn money if the customers are completely satisfied. To keep them happy, Mika has to provide fast delivery service and take good care of the parcels being transported. Some of the shipments like ice cream have a limited amount of time to be handed over.

Most of the packages have health points that will deteriorate of the items get banged up or wet. If an item is severely damaged, you can retry and have it respawn from where you originally got it from. Don’t you wish real life had a redo option?

More often than not, when you deliver an item, the recipient will want to send back a response thus giving Mika more work to do and money to earn. Not all of the packages are picked up from the courier, as Mika will get most of her parcels from the customers directly.

While Mika can run and jump, the majority of her traveling is done by flying around on her broom. The broom quickly loses momentum and has the ability to boost once. Mika can ride vertical and horizontal wind gusts to revitalize her broom and add another boost to it.

Scattered throughout the island are one hundred (or more) Napopo statuettes which can be offered at a fountain in exchange for skins and charms. Tarot cards can also be collected in the game. Ancient gods and talismans are also part of the story. Aside from these occult references you’ll find some mild cartoon violence.

If it wasn’t for the tarot cards and offerings, I would wholeheartedly recommend Mika and The Witch's Mountain. The game is oozing with charm and is a short but fun adventure. Ultimately I wish it was more like Kiki’s Delivery Service that just focused on the broom flying deliveries without the occult references.