Minit

Release: 2018
Developer: Devolver Digital
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Genre: Action, Top-down, Puzzle
Gameplay Stats: 3 hours, 22/27 achievements

This is a really cute little game that looks a bit like the original Zelda. In that it's top down and the world is split into screens. The main conceit of the game is that you have only 60 seconds to live because you picked up a cursed sword. You have infinite lives, and can change your spawn position between a few different beds. In the spirit of not wasting time...

Visuals: You have to know what you're getting into here. This will not be the draw of the game for most people. The game is made of chunky pixels, I'm pretty sure the original Zelda looked better but that may be rose tinted glasses. The style of the game is pretty communicable for the most part. It was a little tough in some of the latter areas to figure out what some things were, but that had to do with things in the game becoming more complicated as well.

Audio: I didn't really like the soundtrack in this game. The sound effects were what you'd expect from a game with this kind of art style. I will say though, that I appreciated that the audio track didn't loop when you die, it continues like nothing happened. I think that was a really nice touch! When I was doing a cleanup before the final bit, I listened to podcasts and preferred the game that way.

Plot: The game revolves around trying to destroy the cursed sword that you picked up in the beginning. If you decide to explore a bit there are several small "quests" that can be solved, but with each life only taking 60 seconds, there's not much to be found here.

Gameplay: This game is pretty fun to play, like you'd expect. There is enough to do to keep you entertained for the whole 3 hour-or-so run time, but there's not much else going on here. I thought the game was pretty clever to have the 60 second lives like it did, it reminded me of a very distilled Majora's Mask. That being said, I think Majora's Mask did it better. Having a super limited time for each life meant that you couldn't really affect much change in the world.

This game was really neat. I don't know that I would go out of my way to recommend it, but I had a good time playing it when I did. Looking over my review criteria, it certainly doesn't seem like I liked the game, but I did. It did something novel for a relatively short period of time and didn't overstay its welcome. I think $10 is way more than this game was worth, at least to me, but I enjoyed my time with it nonetheless. [7/10]