Games were always set to be a medium unique from all other entertainment. The genres available have grown considerably over the past few decades, and the stories they tell range from very dark to super silly. Gameplay can be hyper violent meant for mature audiences, or something cute meant for kids. Generally speaking, I’ve never been a fan of the more “cozy” games like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, or other games they’ve spawned. However, I really enjoyed Spiritfarer, so I try to keep an open mind, which is why I entertained playing this.

Mail Time went through my usual review filter: my daughter. She thought it looked cute and said she’d watch if I played it. She quickly recanted that statement once I actually started it, which wasn’t a great sign, but I pushed forward. The game follows a fledgling mail scout on their first real delivery to someone named Greg. You’ll navigate the little map searching for items, different characters, and learning about everyone’s plights. There’s no combat, so if you’re hoping for something to get your aggression out, you can stop here and look for another game.

The game teaches you the basics in the beginning, but in reality, you can go off and do what you want almost immediately. The only real obstacle that requires a certain level of completion is the ending, as a character blocks progression. Other than that, you can do what you like. Granted, there’s not much to do outside of delivering mail between the characters and finding random items scattered about, but there’s obviously an audience for it. Outside of general walking/jumping, you’ll use mail to glide. This almost acts as a double jump as well, as you gain substantial height from pulling out the letter to float on the wind.

The real draw of the game is the characters and their stories. Soks the caterpillar is probably my favorite overall, but there’s a fairly large cast, all with unique personalities. How they all interact with one another through the scout’s deliveries will either make or break this for you. It was a generally positive experience for me, and as my daughter loves the different voices I do, she would watch a bit as I read stuff out loud for her.

Something I’m finding more and more prevalent in games is poor UI/UX. The little things that you’d expect to just work don’t, and it’s somehow more frustrating than if you were to clip through a wall or something similar. In this, menu navigation is downright horrendous. Just inverting the Y-axis took a few minutes the first time. Yes, I say first time because if you turn the game off and back on, it reverts to not inverted, regardless of the toggle, so you’ll have to cycle it. Other menus, such as the board for mushrooms would skip over options that were available – it didn’t matter what input I used or where. As it’s a minor customization to the character, I generally wouldn’t care, but my daughter wanted a particular color and it wouldn’t let me select it, which made for a poor experience. Outside of that, button prompts would randomly change, some action prompts wouldn’t trigger, and platforming was inconsistent. While the game itself is fine, the little things that are taken for granted are all but missing, and it makes an otherwise relaxing experience needlessly frustrating.

If you’re looking to relax for a couple hours and are into the Cottagecore vibe, you could definitely do worse than Mail Time. However, you may want to wait for a patch to fix the more mundane mechanics that ensure a smooth experience for all players.

6 out of 10

Pros

• Cute Characters
• Relaxing Environment

Cons

• Broken UI/UX
• Inconsistent Platforming

Mail Time was developed by Kela van der Deijl and published by Freedom Games. It launched on NS, PC, PS4, PS5, and XSX. The game was provided to us for review on PS5. If you’d like to see more of Mail Time, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

Check out OpenCritic for a better idea of how our review stacks against others.