Citrouille: Sweet Witches (v2019.09.05)

Candy-colored charm masks a punishing arcade platformer where every screen can become a small disaster. Citrouille: Sweet Witches follows Praline and Vanille, two tiny spellcasters pushing through a confectionery fantasy full of hazards, hostile witches, and treats worth fighting for. Its cheerful hand-drawn look and flower-filled stages suggest a relaxed children’s game, but the actual mood is tense, fast, and gleefully unforgiving. Surviving the campaign means learning its strange movement rules as much as reacting quickly to danger.

The defining twist is the lack of a normal jump button. Movement revolves around conjuring magical ladders, using each witch’s personal spell, grabbing temporary power-ups, and finding safe routes through compact obstacle courses. Gift boxes can produce weapons that turn the tide, although attacks are indiscriminate: in co-op, friendly fire means a careless spell can hurt the partner meant to help. Story mode contains more than 50 levels spread across several themed worlds and can theoretically be cleared quickly, but its strict shared life pool makes mistakes expensive. Two players can tackle the adventure on one screen, while competitive play expands the roster to four witches and turns the same mechanics into local multiplayer chaos.

Flower coverage gives Citrouille: Sweet Witches its most distinctive competitive idea, since spreading blooms both builds power and decides one of the versus modes. Alongside a straightforward last-witch-standing deathmatch, timed matches reward whoever controls the most ground when the clock expires, creating a scrappy mix of arena combat and territorial pressure. The four playable witches each bring a different spell, so matches benefit from experimenting with their strengths rather than treating everyone as a reskin. Players who enjoy the compact cruelty of arcade platformers, the frantic local battles of TowerFall, or old-school games built around mastery should find plenty to like here. Its adorable presentation makes it welcoming at first glance, but it is best suited to patient players and competitive couch groups willing to laugh at repeated, spectacular failure.