Minit Reviews

Minit is an experimental game at heart, and in many ways it’s a successful one. The innovation of the time limit adds a whole new dimension to the stripped back Zelda-like gameplay and the death mechanic makes travelling around the world as much of a puzzle as an arcade adventure. While it is a short game, increasing the playtime further would stretch the central mechanic to breaking point. On the one hand it is a game that deserves a great deal of attention for its experimentation with traditional genres and mechanics, but it never quite breaks free of feeling like a prototype. In many ways, this is the curse of the truly original title – breaking new ground brings a complex mix of expectations and frustrations. Minit is certainly worth its play time, but many may feel short changed by its deconstruction of the arcade adventure.

This is a refreshingly unique take on the old school swords and sorcery genre. The time trial aspect may turn some players off, but it's a challenge that is actually a joy to play.

Who wants to be a half-minute hero when you can last the whole sixty seconds? Thankfully, Minit gives you all the time you need to get things done.

Minit’s conceit is so simple and so straightforward, I thought I’d tire of it immediately. But I was dead wrong. What starts a little slow (and a bit frustrating) quickly turns into a fast-paced and rewarding experience that borrows as much from Super Meat Boy’s unrelenting speed as it does from early 2D Zelda’s gameplay.

There's lots to it, even if it's not the longest game. So many puzzles, challenges, collectibles and details to discover, along with fun chatter and nifty ideas. Sections seem impossible, then suddenly so possible, super-quickly, and whenever you're stuck somewhere there's always another unexplored direction to head in, or a previous area you may now be equipped to conquer. It's very charming, a lot of fun, and perhaps most importantly, executes its central conceit with deftness.

A great high-concept adventure that borrows liberally from old school Zeldas but has plenty of unique ideas of its own.

Many games have toyed with timer mechanics and putting players on the clock, but few games have made the constant pressure of a ticking clock as central to the experience as Minit. Developed by indie developers Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Jukio Kallio & Dominik Johann, and brought to us by publisher Devolver Digital, Minit is a curiously unique take on the adventure game format, and even after many hours playing it, I am still trying to decide whether its various parts have led to a gre...

Building a sense of urgency and putting pressure on the player to complete a task quickly is something video games have achieved across many genres and decades. Minit, a charming top-down adventure reminiscent of classic Zelda titles, takes this concept to an extreme by creatively confining your adventuring to 60-second intervals.

There is time to kill today.

A cute, cruel adventure where your character dies every sixty seconds.

I’m just nit-picking though. It’s always great to see a videogame try and do something different, and Minit does so with gusto: it takes a tried-and-tested formula and turns it on its head with one very simple mechanic. It makes a standard adventure game into a test of memory, of patience, of skill, and even though it’ll frustrate you, it’ll have you coming back for “just one minute” time and time again. It isn’t perfect, but considering that Minit was made by a team of just four, there’s plenty to be impressed with.

Minit is the adventure game distilled down to its purest and simplest form. Developed by a team of independent developers whose combined credits include Horizon: Zero Dawn, Celeste, and Nuclear Throne, this is a top-down, open world adventure game you play a minute at a time. It doesn't sound like it should work, but it somehow does through a mixture of a cleverly structured world and straightforward design.

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By contrasting a relatively-large adventure against a relatively-brief time frame, developers JW, Kitty, Jukio, and Dom found a unique piece of game design that’s incredibly effective. Everything about Minit should feel overwhelming. It doesn’t. Instead, everything feels attainable in due time. There’s this weird and perfect harmony about knowing you’re rushed and also not caring. It’s liberating. I could keep gushing about Minit but, given the source material, this review is already too long.

Take a minute to find out if this sixty second adventure from JW, Kitty, Jukio, and Dom and Devolver Digital is right for you.