Vicky is a sweet young girl who lives on the poor side of town with her grandmother. She dreams of becoming a witch someday so she can use magic to help her friends and family. Unfortunately, only rich people in town can afford to go to magic school. But a chance meeting with a mysterious stranger gives Vicky the tools to use magic. Now it’s up to you to help Vicky cast magic spells to do good deeds and maybe even save the whole town in the process.

In Witch’s Wish, you control Vicky as she explores her two-sided town. Use the D-pad to move Vicky around and tap the touch screen to examine objects and talk with people to advance the story. In fact, most of what you do in the game is talk to folks, making it feel more like an interactive visual comic book novel rather than a game. By poking about town, you can unlock artwork and music, too.

Once you meet a certain person, Vieky will obtain a special chalkboard. By drawing specific shapes and symbols on the board with the DS stylus, Vicky will cast different elemental magic spells. The handwriting tool is pretty responsive, so drawing the right magic shouldn’t be too much trouble. She’ll learn more magic as the game progresses, and you must figure out which spell to use in each situation to solve puzzles and help out Vicky’s neighbors. Later on, Vicky can enter the Witch One competition to find out who is the best spell caster in town.

The one main problem with Witch’s Wish is you can only save at certain points in the story, so it’s a bit of a pain since the game is on a portable handheld. And there’s only one save file, too. Since most of what you do in the game is talk with others, some may not like the slower pace of gameplay as well. But Witch’s Wish has such a good storyline, graphics, and artwork, gamers who enjoy cute, laid back titles may enjoy it anyway. The game has an air of quality about it, somehow.

Kid Factor:

Witch’s Wish is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Comic Mischief. Vicky can cast silly spells on people and animals. But the spells only scare them; drench them in water, or other cartoony antics. Reading skill is a must as everything is text-based. Some kids may not like the slower pace or the lack of decent save files and options. But young girls and fans of cute games should still enjoy it anyway.

Tags: Game Reviews