REVIEW: The wintry ILA: A Frosty Glide is a warm hug of a cozy micro open world

When the weather starts to get cold and the leaves fall from the trees, I gravitate toward specific pieces of media. Gilmore Girls. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Night in the Woods. Things that put me in the mood for a big ol' mug of cocoa, and get me warm and cozy like a nice soft blanket.

Starting now, I might just be adding ILA: A Frosty Glide to the roster. This cozy micro open world magical skateboarding experience is exactly the kind of cozy that's perfect for the season.

​Just the Facts

Developer: Magic Rain Studios

Publisher: First Break Labs

​Platform(s): PC*, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and X, Nintendo Switch *denotes platform reviewed

​Price: $19.99

Release Date: October 20, 2025

Review key provided by developer via Clever Communications.

The story behind ILA: A Frosty Glide is a familiar one. Two friends have a fun idea, they watch it crystalize into something more with the help of a successful game jam release (Dunkey's Bigmode Jam, in this case), and eventually, the newly established team takes to Kickstarter to make their dreams a reality. Magic Rain Studios followed the formula, starting with two friends who met while skateboarding, and through that shared love came out the other end with a super exciting project where you shred the gnar as Ila, a young witch equipped with a handy skatebroom.

In ILA: A Frosty Glide, you lead the titular character to embark on a journey to uncover what happened to her lost kitten, Coco. A series of dreams and visions pull Ila to a mysterious island — a once-inhabited land of witches, magic, and sassy magical chicken beings. As she follows the tracks toward Coco, Ila confronts her own self-doubt along with the mysteries of the island and the folks who used to live there. She gathers power from the residual magic of the island to grow both as a witch and as a person on her journey to the top.

ILA's narrative is simple, cozy, and warm from start to finish. It's got heart and tons of it.

Whether it's the missing pet at the center of the story and the memories you'll relive of Ila's time with Coco, or the letters from home that accompany Ila along the way, there's a comfort to the storytelling that keeps you smiling across the 3-4 hours you'll spend looking for Coco.

One of the closest comparison points I'll namedrop throughout this review is A Short Hike, a game that similarly sees a player exploring a small open world, growing in strength and bonding with the inhabitants of an island as you climb. These games are both short, digestible, and cozy, making them perfect single-sitting experiences that scratch a very specific itch.

In a modern context where open worlds are synonymous with 100-hour epics, games like ILA and A Short Hike show a different way forward. Offering worlds you can grow familiar with, instead of ones you feel you've only seen a sliver of, these micro open world adventures are the epitome of the "make smaller games" movement that we and many others have been major proponents of in recent years.

Especially when "small" still offers a full, satisfying, and fun play experience like ILA's.

At the heart of Ila's toolset is her trusty skatebroom, the key to the smooth, floaty movement that makes this such a dream to play. As you soar over gaps, get launched into the air by boosting rings, or kick off of ice walls, every piece of the skatebroom's move set is perfectly tuned to feel dreamy in motion. And chaining them all together feels like ascending to another plane. Ila can also slam down onto the ground, both to bounce off of mushroom jump pads and to open chests and press buttons, giving her a fairly full move set.

As you explore the island, you gather up stardust charges that give your broom the ability to fly higher and for longer, unlocking more paths forward and extra maneuverability that directly ties to your progression. The scaling of your ability is genuinely felt with each new charge, and by the end, you're soaring across the map and gathering goodies from every possible corner.

The snowy atmosphere of the island is perfect. The crunchy snow, the voxel-adjacent art style, the ever-present sounds of nature all add to the cozy feeling that blankets ILA in an effortless calm.

This amassing of treasure is a big part of ILA's charm, as chests and coins give you the ability to unlock a series of cosmetics with which you can decorate the young witch. You've got skatebrooms, witch hats, tunics and sweaters, and capes to gather — either from the aforementioned chests or from the few shops you find on the island. It's a little touch, but an appreciated addition to have Ila's look feel catered to your aesthetic.

Beyond that, there are multi-part stories you can track down across the island and a few special items you can gather up to fulfill side quests, like a collection of glasses to give to a sentient snowman, or fish bones that Coco left behind from her time on the island.

Like A Short Hike, ILA thrives in making the most of its small space. Every nook and cranny has something for you and welcomes your exploration, whether it results in a simple batch of coins or some crucial unlockable that'll complete the 'fit you're chasing after. It begs you to wonder what might be down each path — if there is something hidden in that waterfall, or if you can possibly reach the top of that mountain. Most of the time the answer is yes, and most of the time you'll be rewarded for chasing after that innate curiosity, which is something I love.

ILA should be a completionist's dream, especially with its overall smaller scale making 100% completion more achievable. But some frustrating things hinder you if you're aiming to chase perfection.

In an effort to keep its UI light, there are none of the usual tracking tools that would help you find specific items or NPCs in need of the items you're delivering. Some meandering is to be expected in a game that centers around traversal, but as I was trying to wrap up some of these quests, I found myself lost at times, notably in an area that is purposefully obscured by a thick fog.

The whole experience is built around exploration and going where your curiosity pushes you, but without a map or any kind of tracking, some of that post-game clean up can be a bit of a headache.

I also felt that ILA's occasionally wonky camera was a challenge. There are certain areas in which Magic Rain wants you to see a scene from a specific perspective, locking the camera in one spot as you attempt some challenge. Meaning that as you zoom through the environment, your camera can really get wacky as it suddenly pulls you into a specific zone or tries to figure out exactly where it should go. Some of these fast-moving perspective shifts can mess up your flow, and sometimes your skatebroom just doesn't react the way you'd expect it to with these sudden changes.

Minor quibbles aside, everything else Magic Rain does is (successfully) built to comfort you. The snowy atmosphere of the island is perfect. The crunchy snow, the voxel-adjacent art style, the ever-present sounds of nature — whether blowing wind or rustling trees or running water — all add to the cozy feeling that blankets ILA in an effortless calm. It's the kind of environment I'd be keen to have running in the background while I work or whispering on the TV during the holiday season instead of the generic 10-hour yule log.

The piece that really sealed the experience for me is Joaquim (Sku) Scandurra's dynamic soundtrack. Lo-fi lovers will feel at home with the layered piano, drums, woodwinds, and chimes that are built to come in and out at just the right time to match the mood of the area you're in and the tempo of your exploration. Just as impressive are the moments when it knows to take a backseat and let the environment (literally) speak for itself, cutting the music to let a waterfall's mist take up the soundscape, for example.

It's the kind of soundtrack you almost take for granted in the moment — that you bop along to as you play but only really appreciate its full beauty when either it goes away or when you look back on the gameplay.

Sku's work matches the overall magical quality of the soundscape, with nearly every action embellished with a twinkly flair, and the dynamic quality works well to allow each instrument its moment in the sun.

There's a reason a game like ILA: A Frosty Glide has been prominent at events like Wholesome Directs, and it's apparent from the moment you put your hands on it. It's an incredible ambassador for the cozy game movement, enveloping its players in the warm blanket of good movement, lo-fi music, and a self-empowering narrative.

If you're looking for a game to get you right into that winter mood, look no further.

Video Games Are Good and ILA: A Frosty Glide is . . . GREAT. (8.5/10)

+ a micro open world that begs to be explored, coziness in all factors, great feelin' broom control, a beautiful dynamic soundtrack

- wonky camera work can throw you off, not really a skateboarding game, post-game exploration lacks helping tools

Thanks for reading this Video Games Are Good review. Learn more about our review rubric — and if you'd like to discuss reviews and get early views at upcoming articles, join our Discord. We're proud to continue bringing human voices and thoughts to the video game journalism and media landscape. Thank you for supporting our coverage!