Some games need to show me something so hype can start growing — a screenshot, a cool GIF or maybe a trailer — but a privileged group of titles can make me excited just for telling me the concept. Like, how not to love the idea of being a little witch that does deliveries with her broom? From the devs of Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara (a cool and competent 3D platformer that I liked), it comes Mika and the Witch's Mountain, for now in early access.

The story follows Mika, an apprentice witch that felt down a big mountain and needs money to repair her broom and go back to the top. The only way to get a salary down the island is starting a delivery job, an adventure that also makes her learn a lot about the villagers. The plot of Mika and the Witch's Mountain is cute like a children cartoon: Mika, of course, is the best developed character (and I really love her), but the others, although they talk about important things (like their insecurities), are mostly NPC footnotes.

"Easy but fun" is the best way to describe the gameplay of Mika and the Witch's Mountain. Mika's broom is totally focused on horizontal movement through gliding. The whole idea is learn to use the wind to go to higher places, but it gets specially interesting when you start upgrading the "vehicle" allowing for small vertical boosts that can be used everywhere. Although simple to control, the challenge of not bumping into an obstacle with a box (and then breaking it) is interesting and even a little hard until you learn the layout of the island.

The map is way smaller then I expected, but it needed to be because of the tiny scope of the game anyways. After the first hour, you already start to recognize the place and learning new shortcuts — it's rewarding as mastering the controls. The extra deliveries and collectables available to find (and drop) are the only "extra challenges" you have outside the main path, but at least they ask for this knowledge of the island and the characters you gather during the game.

It can be strange to see a game so complete like this being on early access, but it make sense when you see how much content is available right now on Mika and the Witch's Mountain. The main story is complete and you can finish it in a couple hours, even collecting all the extras. But there's so much more I would love to do here, like exploring the ruins! Fortunately, this and a lot more is already confirmed in the EA roadmap, so I can only wait to see what more adventures Mika will have in the future.

Mika and the Witch's Mountain is a small and cozy adventure that feels eve more magical and relaxing experience than some of other of its type. Mika is lovable, and controlling her through the skies is even more lovable. There's no difficulty on the quests here, and you would want to look somewhere else for this type of challenge, but if you only want to relax, I ordered a magic game for you and I'm just waiting for the delivery girl to show up flying on her broom...