Review: Mail Time

Mail Time was received for free for review purposes

Since buying my switch in March 2020, I’ve only really played two games: Animal Crossing and Mario Kart, so I’m only really used to big budget games made by massive teams. Made primarily by one developer, Kela van der Deijl, Mail Time definitely fits into the category of ‘indie’, which was a new, and enjoyable, way of gaming for me.

The concept of Mail Time is very simple

The concept of Mail Time is very simple: you play as a trainee mail scout who’s tasked with delivering letters to animals, like punk woodpecker Clarence, and fat cat landlord, Kiki. As you explore the world and meet the different characters you learn more about their backstories and relationships with each other.

To explore the world of Mail Time, players are given a glider but no map. While I did enjoy exploring the world without a map, I wish there had been a little more direction. I spent my first hour or two wandering around the world with a long list of mail that needed to be delivered, completely unable to find the recipients. Eventually I had to watch a YouTube let’s play to figure out where I should be going.

I did really enjoy how open the world was

Once I got the hang of it though, I did really enjoy how open the world was; there were essentially no walls or off-limits areas. This meant that any area was an opportunity for discovery, and wandering off could lead to exciting surprises. One appeal of Mail Time is that there are no time limits or fall damage, which is supposed to promote relaxing gameplay. While I did enjoy these elements, Mail Time actually made me feel more anxious than any other game I’ve played due to the very high heights. I don’t think many players would have an issue with this, and I didn’t really mind it too much, but for players like me with a fear of heights that can be triggered even by images, Mail Time might not quite be the relaxing experience promised.

A big element of the gameplay is listening to the characters’ stories. Personally I’m not the biggest fan of story-based games, especially when the player has no control over the story or dialogue, as is the case in Mail Time. However, I did find the characters quite charming, so I can imagine people who enjoy dialogue heavy games would really like this element of Mail Time. I also enjoyed the inclusion of queer characters, like goose Haley who has a crush on snail Donna, and the option for players to choose their pronouns (even if these pronouns were never actually used in-game).

I also enjoyed the inclusion of queer characters

It took me about five hours to complete Mail Time, but from what I’ve seen online, most players complete it in about two hours, so this is something you might want to consider before spending £16.75 on it. However, if you don’t mind spending that money on relatively short gameplay, I do think Mail Time is worth the money. It’s clear how much time was put into developing the game, and I think it’s always good to support small creatives.