Mail Time Review

Check out our review of Mail Time to find out what we thought about delivering mail to forest animals in a cozy little grove.

Can you believe there was a world before maps? I mean, of course, many of you probably remember a world before Google Maps, but there was also a world before maps, as a concept, were invented. Before compasses, too! And even back then, I’m certain there were messengers carrying messages back and forth.

So how did people get around without maps and compasses? How did they know where to go and which path to take? It was by asking the locals where so-and-so is, of course. Mail Time is a game that’s all about the ask-people-for-directions experience. It’s also really, really cute.

In Mail Time, you play as a mail scout in training. Their name, appearance, and pronouns are all up to you, and best of all, you can change these traits at any point in the game. Our young whippersnapper is close to becoming an official mail scout, and they only have to deliver mail to a certain Greg.

Getting to this Greg fellow turns out to not be very straightforward, though, so now, you’re going to run around and deliver people’s letters while asking about Greg.

Mail Time’s world is immediately charming. It basks in warm, cozy colors like a bakery full of freshly baked buns. Its denizens are all small animals, and your player character appears to be a stuffed doll.

Everyday objects lie scattered around to creative uses, such as a house in a kettle, or ice cream sticks arranged into picnic tables. Flower patches turn into forests, pies turn into trampolines, and paper boats appear as big as real boats.

Your role in this small-but-big world as simple as moving around and talking to people. You can also jump and glide, which are both critical in getting around. The game is also quite liberal in where it lets you jump, and there’s no penalty for falling from a height.

Traversal is all chill here in Mail Time, and that also means that there’s rarely just one way to get to the place you’re going to. Even if that place is above you, you can likely get there by three or four different routes, provided you’re adventurous in your jumping and gliding.

You might be a mailperson, but you are far from uninvolved in the local affairs. You very quickly become privy to the residents’ problems as you’re tasked to deliver their mail, and sometimes, you even help them out by collecting necessary items.

Each of the residents has a unique personality, and so does the protagonist, who is quite talkative and even sassy towards the animal inhabitants.

But I have to return to the point made originally about the game having no map or compass. It was quite liberating to look at the world itself as I traversed it, to form a sense of direction by myself and to discover new places and people as I went.

It goes to show how even simple fetch quests can be elevated by making the experience of the journey more important than that of reaching the destination.

That said, if you’re looking for anything more than what’s written on the tin, you’re out of luck. Mail Time really is as simple as running back and forth in a magnified world and having simple, funny chats with the animals who inhabit it. It’s a sweet, cozy, playful experience if you can adjust your expectations accordingly.

Mail Time is an adorable time involving mail, and it is clearly a labor of love for its tiny team of devs. If you’d like to spend a couple of hours jumping, gliding, and delivering mail in a cozy garden world, you won’t be disappointed.

Developer: Kela van der Deijl
Country of Origin: The Netherlands
Publisher: Freedom Games
Release Date: April 27, 2023 (PC); Coming soon to Switch, PS4, and PS5

This review of Mail Time is based on a copy of the game provided by the publisher. The PC version of Mail Time was played for this review.

Thank you for reading our review of Mail Time. Already playing the game? Check out our walkthrough here!

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Mail Time Review

Check out our review of Mail Time to find out what we thought about delivering mail to forest animals in a cozy little grove.

This Article was written by: Rahul Shirke