Thinking about Minute of Islands, I’m at a crossroads with myself. This is the kind of game I’d usually enjoy, but when it comes down to it, I’m not sure I did. Instead, I find that a mere day after playing, it’s already starting to slip my mind.
Minute of Islands reviewPublisher: MixtvisionDeveloper: Studio FizbinPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch
Minute of Island’s first impression certainly is striking, because it’s altogether more gloomy than what you’d expect based on its art style. As the narrator tells it, as a young woman named Mo, you wake up one morning to silence where there really should be noise – the noise of machines humming underground, powering the fans that keep the islands free of lethally toxic spores.
The first view you get of what’s powering the fan is a special moment, as you come face to face with a hulking giant, living underground, his only purpose seemingly that of running a crank like a hamster in a wheel. But the giant, one of a group of brothers, has tired, causing a toxic chain reaction of machine failures. Mo’s task as bearer of the omni switch, a sort of part mechanical, part magical admin master key, is to reroute emergency power to a number of different fans across her small archipelago and thus restore order.
Minute of Islands – Launch Trailer | PS4 Watch on YouTube
The gameplay revolves around getting to these fans in the first place. Minute of Islands is probably closest to a platformer, in that you sometimes actually jump from platform to platform, but mostly just try to find your way around in the 2D side-scrolling environments. These environments are beautiful, heaving with small details like the clutter of a thoroughly lived-in house or the dilapidated remains of a theme park.