Wind of Witches review: casual top-down shooting fun

Wind of Witches is a top-down shooter developed by Konami Singapore that serves up a visual feast of Halloween inspired fun. Although the game certainly seems well-rounded at first, there are a few minor details which hold it back from being a more accessible title for gamers in the long run.

Review

The objective of the game has you controlling flying witches which blast through waves of creepy crawlies including bats, spiders, and even the Grim Reaper. Like your customary top-down shooter, there is variation of incoming projectiles you have to dodge as well. However, fans of the genre should note that Wind of Witches is targeted at players looking for a more casual experience. While you still control your witch with finger-tracking swipes, she is restricted to lateral movements on the screen instead of the familiar multi-directional positioning in other titles such as Air Attack, Endless War, Phoenix HD, and Lightning Fighter.

In addition to your witch, there are a host of little ectoplasmic creatures known as Lwa that surround and complement her attacks. They come in three traditional forms each with their own strengths – defense, offense, speed – and can be mixed and matched via formations that give you some leeway in deciding which type of Lwa you deploy. The game is pretty straightforward as you attempt to better your score with every attempt while plowing past enemies and bosses. After every try, the gold coins that you amass are added into a pool which can be used to purchase upgrades for your Lwa as well as unlock new witches with unique special abilities.

Room for improvement

I definitely do want to acknowledge what Konami Singapore has done well with Wind of Witches. It is definitely not lacking in the aesthetics department and the team has done a great job with this by bringing the environment and characters to life through their art style. A host of unlockable witches to aim for also offers some extent of long term re-playability.

However, I felt their decision to restrict extra character lives through a transaction was a bit sketchy. If you’ve used up your available lives, you can either wait about seven minutes for a life point to be restored or replenish it with diamonds. Diamonds are scarce in the game and taking that decision will more than likely end up with you spending real money to purchase them via an in-app transaction. Considering your health bar maxes out at a capacity of six hearts and each attempt lasts under a few minutes, it can be a chore if you plan to have a single extended play session.

Final thoughts

Wind of Witches is a pretty title that can be easily grasped by most gamers with its simple mechanics. Despite its present in-app purchase model, its foundations are sound for a casual title and it definitely shows promise for the future with a little additional patchwork.

Wind of Witches can be downloaded for free from the iOS App Store here.

(Editing by Steven Millward)