It certainly needs the time, but doesn’t always feel like it is earned. There were times where the story dragged on a bit in between game-play moments. We get a lot of flashbacks and narrative moments that give us insight into her dark life. I won’t go into spoilers too much as the narrative is pretty key to what the game has to offer, but basically Mo’s role as a hero is a lonely one. Mo then journeys out to get these air purifiers working again to save her island. It turns out giants usually make the air filters work on the island but they have mysteriously stopped doing their job. Minute of Islands has Mo waking and going up to the surface on her island to find the place is filled with a toxin as the island decays. This immediately led me into thinking the game would be a nice chill adventure. It has that weird Adventure Time design style but with a totally unique looking world. The first thing you will notice is the absolutely cracking art style and animation. Minute of Islands was not what I expected. A game like Spec Ops The Line was an early example where you thought you were in for a dumb generic shooter but that ending changed your whole experience. You are a hero, you do hero things, and overcoming everything in your way is totally fine no matter what you do. Most of the time they hit the same beats. After several attempts of trying to figure out what the issue was, it seemed I was only allowed to land on the edge of the platform for it to count as a successful attempt.I love it when a game subverts your expectations. I timed it perfectly and managed to make Mo land in the middle of the platform, but the game deemed this improper and deliberately stopped me from achieving my goal. Not wanting to miss my jump, I decided to do a running jump. In a couple of instances, I made an attempt to jump onto a platform about a meter or two wide. The same issue extends to jumping onto platforms. The only way to solve these “issues” is to climb either at a specific point or use the particular method the game wants you to use. But once in a while, you get to a platform that, for some reason, refuses to acknowledge your attempt to climb it even though it is clearly smaller than other platforms you have climbed up in the past. Nine times out of ten, you are able to climb up platforms with ne’er an issue. What is now becoming the norm in games, climbable platforms are marked for your convenience, and this time around, they are marked with slime. So to say it is unique is an understatement.
The art style can best be described as a cross between Adventure Time and Rick and Morty. Whilst it’s easy to understand in general terms where your next objective is, getting there is where the battle lies. It is needed to fix just about everything that is broken in this world, and at any point, you can press the R2 button, and it will point you in the general direction of your next objective. As the name implies, it is a tool that only does everything. As you travel the four islands trying to revive the creatures, you are accompanied by your omnitool. For the most part, the game is a platformer. It is a shame then that the gameplay does not fully match the world-building done by the audio and writing.
The soothing music helps to bring to the foreground the emotions the writing and world-building so eloquently portrays. The soundtrack accompanies the writing with great aplomb. The duality of her personality makes her a very intriguing character whilst there is no dialog in the game per se, Megan Gay’s narration tied with the smart writing brings the characters to life with a level of complexity that is a credit to the game. She is brave (reckless), caring (demeaning to others), and resourceful (hypocritical).
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