[Review] Witcheye - Nintendo Switch

[Review] Witcheye – Nintendo Switch

Developer: Moon Kid
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Categories: ?
Release Date: 08.27.20

It’s hard to really place down the genre that Witcheye is in. It’s not quite a platformer, as there aren’t really platforms. You’re an eye, well a Witch’s eye, going back after that knight that stole your treasure. You bounce around, collect, and get to the end. It’s all rather simple, but floating and bouncing around is a novel twist and you’ll only use movement and a single button to stop movement. Simple, but different.

Each level had four gems, three green, all relatively easy to find, and a blue gem, which is usually hidden, most often not too hard, but in the few instance it was, I was left scratching my head wondering where it could possibly be. On top of that, each world has two treasures separate from the gems. The first of which is hidden in one of the stages in a world, in even more devious places than the blue gems. The second of which you’ll get purely from being a boss.

The average enemy you’ll come across is easily removed, even with the handful having projectiles, minibosses early in the game are no different, just taking more hits. A few worlds in, they’ll get shields, spikes on certain sides, they’ll teleport more frequently. You’ll need to plan out what you do with them. Of course, you could ignore most of them, but you could possibly miss out on a health drop you might need, or even a gem. Bosses on the other hand are quite a bit more clever and deserve the stage they get to themselves. They’re pattern based, so it doesn’t feel too random like some of the normal enemies would.

I’m mixed on how I feel about Witcheye’s artstyle. I think the spritework is great and it’s far from a bad looking game, but I find myself not caring for how simple designs are. Nothing seems out of place, but the designs, not the spritework seem a bit amateurish. At least for the Witch and enemies. Bosses, with their bigger sprites do look a bit more creative. Music on the otherhand is consistently good, with a decent enough selection of it. You might get sick of it after replaying stages, but it’s all good.

Witcheye is a nice little creative experiment, which isn’t too difficult, nor does it overstay it’s welcome. Any complaints I have are probably more opinionated than actual flaws.