The witching hour is upon us! Luckily, it’s a cute witch this time, not some hag from a time long gone with zits and other warts. In Witchcrafty, you dive into the world of witches and pixelated mailboxes. Sounds intriguing. Well, let’s find out – time to dive in!
So, Witchcrafty is a 2D action-platformer with Metroidvania elements – which I love, so it already scored some points in my book. In Witchcrafty you follow a young witch in a world where corruption has taken over the forest, bringing darkness and monsters to the land. As the good Witch of the local village, it’s up to you to seek out the source of the corruption and bring peace and tranquility to the land. Time to get answers to the most important questions; Who is behind all these events? Should you trust strangers along the way? Who stole the Witch’s mail? And much more…
Bewitching Gameplay
Let’s talk a bit about gameplay. Witchcrafty follows a straightforward template for its gameplay, similar to other genres’ games. The first section of the game quickly gets you accustomed to the controls with conveniently placed signposts introducing the initial move set, followed by chance to try out said move. Initially, you can jump, double jump, hit enemies with your wand, and dodge out of the way of enemy attacks and projectiles. It felt like the older Castlevania games with an oversized smock of sugar thrown upon the gameplay.
A nifty feature in many other Metroidvania platformers is the dodge jump; you use the dodge as a mid-air jump to traverse a larger area. And just like any other Metroidvania game, you are bound to unlock a lot of cool stuff. Before you know it, you will fly and jump through the world, hurdling magical spells at enemies, such as fire and lightning, which cost a bar of mana to use. As usual with Metroidvania, these upgrades are necessary to progress in-game. Ranging from accessing areas that couldn’t be accessed before or finding secrets (we do love secrets).
Bugging Art
Like I said before, the game looks great. With detailed animations and a sugarcoated charm, even the enemies look adorable and huggable. Wait, don’t hug the goblins! However, underneath that significant layer of sprinkles and sunshine, there were quite a few bugs (not cute ones). It would be nice to think Witchcrafty was a pleasant gaming stroll in the woods. There were moments when my character would take random damage or would disappear into nowhere. Or would be held back by some invisible force. True, the game will be patched – so it could be fixed by the time you read the review. Nothing game-breaking – just a mention of something you need to consider when picking this one up.
Conclusion
So, to conclude, Witchcrafty has a great outlook and sugarcoated presentation, but its gameplay keeps things just a little too straightforward to make it stand out from the crowd. Especially on the Nintendo Switch, it could have used just a few extra tricks to highlight it over the Metroidvania competition. But, if the bugs get patched, it’s a great game to pick up over the weekend and power through with your children before moving on to the more challenging Metroidvania games out there.
