Outrider Mako Review (PC) – Postman Mononoke

Outrider Mako has been on my radar for years. Originally shown off way back in 2020, it’s been five long years of development for this title. Now, suddenly seeing the light of day, Outrider Mako is available on Steam. It’s a charming pixel art adventure with a few roguelike ideas and various other inspirations thrown in, especially those of the Studio Ghibli movies and Japanese folklore in general.

You play the role of Mako, a feisty little girl made of barely a few dozen pixels. She’s done a bit of a Chihiro from Spirited Away, fallen through some crack or other in our world and entered the yokai realm of the Mononoke. But unlike Chihiro’s strange escapades trying to survive in a crazy yokai bathhouse, Mako finds herself at the spirit post office. Bumon’s Delivery office to be exact.

From here she is told she has no way back from the world of the Mononoke except to work off some kind of strange spirit debt by making deliveries to the gods. Mako takes to her new job with gusto and the guiding help of a few odd yokai, giving you tutorials and combat tips at the beginning, but most of these fall away and she’s on her own to stand and deliver.

I usually like to cover narrative first, but what I’ve described already is kind of it. It’s premise and setting, and very little else. You deliver your materials to the gods, and each says thanks. There’s a little about what that god is or does, or where to go next, because another god is acting up without their delivery or sacred item, but I never really found the plot going anywhere much.

It was a little disappointing to never really learn anything much about Mako herself beyond her ability to fight. Even the Mononoke are one-dimensional mythical creatures, with no depth. That Studio Ghibli look is only skin-deep. The game instead relies on quick, reflex-heavy combat and a sort of roguelike run structure for deliveries to carry it through. But is it a roguelike? No, but perhaps a short digression to discuss.

Kissed by a Rogue?

I only say roguelike in the barest terms really. You are a delivery girl for the gods, sent out on runs to collect the materials these deities have ordered, and fighting your way through each area to deliver them. However, there’s no procedural generation, with each new area feeling crafted for that deity, and staying the same even if you return to the depot.

Each run does reset you in terms of moves and health, but you can slowly accumulate temporary weapons and potions to make things easier. Nothing sticks around for long and there are no permanent increases you can keep.

A card system gives bonus power-ups that can be game-changing, but again these don’t stick around after you completed a stage (possibly a few deliveries per stage). You’ll see from what I’m describing, it isn’t a roguelike, but it has a few structural things and a way of dealing with power-ups that verge on that genre. It’s still an action adventure with a linear structure, but it will still feel a little like one of those games.

So back to the main review. We need to talk about combat.

In Outrider Mako, combat is chaos. The small array of moves all seem to be sat on the same buttons and all seem to be directionally controlled, or based on what you are targeting. For example there’s no dodge, but a jump that can avoid projectiles. But the same jump can lodge you on an enemy’s head or a pillar, and lock you there. You have another array of fiddly moves from there where you need to jump up and then crash down on enemies.

Throw into the mix needing to use red goo on enemies – this is a damage-enhancing red goo that can splatter, and is the only way to open treasure chests or damage certain enemy types. But jumping on an enemy’s head, throwing red goo on them, then doing the jump up and smash down move, all without getting hit by dozens of bullets, is a tall order and can end up very chaotic as you bounce around the screen. I had a hard time with some enemy behaviour as well – enemies with little duck forward and then always evading backwards movesets when you counter, mean that when you do you counter move and they are quicker to their next forward move, you end up really often killing yourself just advancing on enemies. I know, patience padawan etc, but still.

When the doors of an area lock and you have to do this in waves it’s a special kind of chaos, one that did not gel with me in the first hour or so. If you stick at it, it will gel as you progress and practice, of course, but its fiddly. I think I was more than halfway through the game before I really had control rather than a haphazard luck-based progression. Overall, the combat’s chaotic nature left me a little frustrated, rather than drawn back again and again like I was in Moonlighter for example.

The world and the enemies, the little mazes and locked sections and elevators to open and shortcuts to find, all made Outrider Mako feel like a charming little top-down pixel art Fromsoft title. There’s a little bit of the Dark Souls about area progression and difficulty. It’s not in any way a Souls title, and don’t get me wrong it has no other Souls mechanics, but the mazelike areas, the shortcut finding and such, just felt a little reminiscent.

With the crazy bouncing jump command, areas are also full of interactive things to press and jump on. This means that platforming or combat or whatever you are being asked to do, there’s rarely a dull moment when you aren’t being asked to engage completely.

It was also nice to see gameplay changed up quite dramatically for a level or so a few hours in. Bumon (of Bumon’s Delivery Service) suddenly appears, a strong silent type pulling a cart that happens to have a cannon on top. Mako can hitch a ride and the game transforms into an almost-shmup, almost-twin-stick shooter experience for a level as you ride up a path shmup-style, and approach a boss. It was a welcome reprieve, if a little tough.

Outrider Mako is not without a few other small issues. I found the shops and currency virtually worthless, only ever given these odd tickets to call for help, or five very expensive random items that I could pick up from combat in a few minutes. The potion crafting had some use, to stock up on health potions as you didn’t get these back when you died, but I rarely bothered with any of the other items.

I also found Mako had a tendency to miss with the slash attack or be turned around if you aren’t very deliberately pressing the direction you want, like its resetting you all the time. I lost count of the times I was suddenly slashing in the wrong direction and then getting whacked from behind by the enemy I thought I’d been advancing on. If this was an actual mechanic, it was lost on me – it felt like a glitch.

Outrider Mako is a charming but ultimately underwhelming little pixelart action adventure. It’s Japanese mythology, pixelart and level design will bag those all-important eyeballs, but the chaotic combat and not very deep, not very interesting run structure and lacklustre story meant I found it a bit dull. There’s a nice game in there, but certain elements hold it back from reaching up to the heights of some in the indie space.

That said, it’s short and undemanding for the most part, and its structure may be just the right level of compelling for some. I’m going back to finish it off – I still need to find out how or if Mako gets back to the real world, or if she’s doomed to make deliveries in the yokai realm for the rest of her days.

Outrider Mako is out now for PC via Steam (review platform).

Developers: Asamado Games

Publisher: PLAYISM

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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