Minute of Islands

Minutes of Islands is truly an impressive game, both visually and narratively. While its slow-burn nature might deter some players from experiencing what it has to offer, it's hard not to admit that it does what it does well.

75%Game Brain Score

story, graphics

gameplay, grinding

78% User Score Based on 482 reviews

Critic Score 50%Based on 12 reviews

Platforms

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About

Minute of Islands is a single player platformer game with a mystery theme. It was developed by Studio Fizbin and was released on June 13, 2021. It received neutral reviews from critics and mostly positive reviews from players.

Explore strange and wonderful islands and dark labyrinths below in this narrative puzzle platformer. Guide young mechanic Mo on her quest to repair a world on the brink of collapse. The powerful Omni Switch at your disposal may not be enough to fix the damage that hides beneath the surface...

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

+11

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78%

Audience ScoreBased on 482 reviews

story186 positive mentions

gameplay39 negative mentions

Stunning and unique hand-drawn art style with great attention to detail and atmosphere.
Emotionally engaging and deep story with well-executed narration and soundtrack.
Immersive worldbuilding with intriguing lore and character development.

Very slow and repetitive gameplay with minimal and simple puzzles and platforming.
Frequent unskippable cutscenes and animations take control away from the player and harm pacing.
Clunky controls, awkward platforming mechanics, and occasional bugs reduce enjoyment.

story
469 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
58%
2%
The story of "Minute of Islands" is widely praised for its emotional depth, compelling themes of trauma, responsibility, and environmental collapse, as well as its beautiful, hand-drawn art and evocative narration. While it offers a touching, bittersweet narrative set in a unique, atmospheric world, the story is mostly linear with limited player agency and sometimes feels slow-paced or incomplete, leaving some lore unexplored. Overall, it is considered a strong narrative experience that appeals mainly to players who prioritize story and atmosphere over gameplay complexity.
- “Minute of Islands is a masterclass in meaningful storytelling.”
- “The hand drawn world is gorgeous; colorful yet somber, the atmosphere is apocalyptic, brooding and melancholic. The story of a herculean task and the confrontations between zeal, neglect, delusion and self-imposed-sacrifice is quite an emotional rollercoaster, while competently written.”
- “The narrative storytelling and breathtaking artwork and music pulled on my heart strings throughout the entire game and made me tear up in so many places.”
- “Over all fine game that you can finish in 3 to 5 hours but 2 of those hours will be filler quests making you wait on a cliffhanger for the story.”
- “The story makes it look like there are places where there should be choices, however the storywriter decided that it has to be only one way and railroaded the development into a linear experience.”
- “This, combined with the pacing, made it so that as I was progressing through the story, the feeling of grief for Mo and what she was going through was overshadowed by a feeling of "OMG, can we hurry the f up already??"”
graphics
225 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
57%
41%
2%
The game features a stunning, hand-drawn art style often compared to "Adventure Time" with a unique, surreal, and sometimes grotesque aesthetic that greatly enhances its atmosphere and emotional impact. While the visuals are widely praised for their originality, beauty, and detailed world-building, some find the graphics simplistic or challenging to navigate, and the emphasis on art sometimes overshadows gameplay. Overall, the graphics are considered the game's standout feature and primary appeal.
- “Absolutely excellent, intricate, hand-drawn aesthetic and environments in the vein of Adventure Time meets Hollow Knight.”
- “Incredibly imaginative visuals, beautiful hand-drawn landscapes and an intriguing setting full of mystique and fantasy.”
- “The visuals are gorgeous, and establish a strong tone.”
- “It's unclear if this is due to lack of budget to arrange someone who can create graphical assets properly, or lack of talent.”
- “Regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is very low, beneath what PC gamers have come to expect in this era of cutting edge photorealistic 3D graphics.”
- “While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality.”
gameplay
212 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
70%
18%
The gameplay in Minute of Islands is minimalistic, slow-paced, and largely repetitive, often described as a walking simulator with light puzzles and basic platforming that lacks challenge or variety. While the mechanics can feel clunky and tedious, the simplicity allows players to focus on the game's strong narrative, atmosphere, and captivating art style. This experience suits those prioritizing story and mood over engaging or complex gameplay, but may disappoint players seeking deeper or more dynamic game mechanics.
- “I really enjoyed learning the "issues" of the world throughout gameplay and not right up front; it kept me wanting to get to each new chapter.”
- “Overall, I recommend this game to fans of emotionally deep stories and calm, unhurried gameplay.”
- “The gameplay is simple and relaxing.”
- “The mechanics were slightly off, and the tasks were repetitive, which I would even be okay with if they weren't so time consuming.”
- “Instead of supporting the narrative, it becomes repetitive slow traversal, simple puzzles, and a lot of interactions that feel like busywork rather than meaningful mechanics.”
- “They built a very slow and very easy puzzle platforming game with repetitive and long action transition sequences, insane amounts of needless backtracking and a game mechanic that resorts to QTEs basically.”
music
103 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
55%
42%
3%
The music in the game is consistently praised for its beautiful, atmospheric, and emotional qualities, perfectly complementing the unique art style and narrative. It is often described as subtle, immersive, and fitting the mood, enhancing the overall storytelling experience. Some users noted occasional technical issues with music overlapping, but the soundtrack remains a standout aspect that deeply enriches the game's ambiance.
- “The music is amazing, hitting story beats whenever you reach certain areas or events happen—highly recommend playing with headphones.”
- “In this state Mo must wake herself up by remembering the order of musical notes and then find them and play them in the correct order.”
- “The soundtrack is arguably one of the best parts of the game with many moving moments when the story calls for them, but still giving you time to breathe in between.”
- “I did encounter one almost-unforgivable flaw which would have prompted me to quit and leave a bad review, had I not found the solution very quickly in the discussions section here: a bug where an uplifting music theme keeps playing on loop and over other music and sounds, creating a cacophony and totally breaking immersion.”
- “- Music overlapping / one piece of the OST playing over another (I've received personal confirmation from the devs that this issue is being worked on): this is hands down my biggest pet peeve, since it ruined some of the grander moments for me.”
- “I had to restart the game a few times, and turn off the music completely, which is particularly disappointing, because the music really builds the aesthetic of the game.”
emotional
78 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers a deeply emotional and melancholic experience, driven by a touching story about trauma, loss, and self-discovery, complemented by beautiful hand-drawn art and an immersive soundtrack. Its calm, contemplative pace allows players to connect intimately with the protagonist's inner struggles, though some find the gameplay simplistic or occasionally slow. Overall, it’s praised as a heartfelt, memorable narrative journey that resonates strongly with those seeking emotional depth in indie games.
- “A calm but emotionally charged voiceover follows Mo throughout her journey, illuminating her internal struggles, questioning her motives, and revealing memories of her family and past.”
- “The art does not just serve the narrative—it becomes the narrative, revealing emotional truths Mo herself cannot speak aloud.”
- “The hand-drawn world is gorgeous; colorful yet somber, the atmosphere is apocalyptic, brooding and melancholic. The story of a herculean task and the confrontations between zeal, neglect, delusion, and self-imposed sacrifice is an emotional rollercoaster, while competently written.”
atmosphere
62 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
68%
27%
5%
"Minute of Islands" delivers a richly unique and immersive atmosphere characterized by melancholic, brooding, and apocalyptic tones, enhanced by striking hand-drawn art, eerie sound design, and a gentle yet compelling narration. The game’s slow pace and meditative world-building create an emotionally moving experience that emphasizes story and mood over challenging gameplay, making it a standout choice for players who appreciate atmospheric, story-driven indie games.
- “The narrator’s gentle delivery contrasts with the unsettling atmospheric soundscape—echoing machinery, whistling wind, distant creaking, dripping pipes, and the murmur of buried giants.”
- “The hand drawn world is gorgeous; colorful yet somber, the atmosphere is apocalyptic, brooding and melancholic, the story of a herculean task and the confrontations between zeal, neglect, delusion and self-imposed sacrifice is an emotional rollercoaster, while competently written.”
- “This game is oozing atmosphere from every pore and the world-building leaves you hungering to know more.”
- “If atmosphere and art are what you are looking for, Minute of Islands delivers; however, the gameplay, including puzzles which are usually as straightforward as 'do thing and then other thing happens' or the platforming, was deeply disappointing.”
- “There is simply not enough variety to keep you interested in the gameplay, and only the detailed art, the beautiful soundtrack, as well as the overall atmosphere keep you going—definitely not the puzzles or platforming.”
- “Somewhat shallow gameplay, but atmosphere, visuals, and story are impeccable.”
grinding
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is widely described as tedious and slow, with frustratingly clunky controls, repetitive platforming, and frequent backtracking that disrupts gameplay flow. Despite this, many players find the artistic visuals and rich story compelling enough to endure the monotonous mechanics. Overall, the grinding element often hampers the experience but is somewhat offset by the game's narrative and aesthetic strengths.
- “On one hand, it has extremely tedious gameplay, clunky platforming and it's difficult to even identify what the core gameplay loop is.”
- “The game consists of constantly going from point A to B with most of it being climbing, which is one of the worst aspects of the game; it was quite frustrating and tedious.”
- “In all the bits underground, I found it extremely tedious that every time Mo crawled through a tunnel she spent a few seconds at the far end cautiously stepping out and brushing her dress off etc. That was probably meant to be a cute mannerism, but unfortunately after the first time it just ends up interrupting the flow of the player-controlled movement, and so it took me out of my feeling of immersion every single time.”
stability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game exhibits multiple stability issues, including visual glitches, problematic jump mechanics, and animation bugs that necessitate frequent save reloads. These bugs, combined with slow-paced and linear gameplay, result in a frustrating experience marked by frequent interruptions and performance hiccups.
- “Only criticisms I have right now are minor visual glitches with asset layering, the 'visions' felt very slightly tedious even the first run, and on the second run I had issues with the jump mechanics and ledge hit boxes acting up.”
- “There are also some glitches with the shimmying animation, one of which made me reload a save to fix.”
- “I really tried playing this but I simply can't because of the amount of interruptions, you know when you are using Windows and the mouse freezes?”
character development
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game features strong character development highlighted by appealing and well-crafted character designs that complement the art style and story. While the visuals are charming and initially cute, the narrative unfolds with darker themes, adding depth to the characters. Overall, the character design and development are praised for their visual appeal and contribution to the story's atmosphere.
- “The art, character design combined with the music and the story was wonderful as it all unfolded before my eyes.”
- “Really good sound and level design, and, as a graphic artist myself, I absolutely loved the art style this game went for and the character design of choice.”
- “Also, don't be fooled by the 'cute' art character design, this game gets pretty dark.”
optimization
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
40%
The game is poorly optimized on some systems, leading to constant stuttering, graphical glitches, and finicky character movement, despite running well on the Steam Deck and other high-performance setups. This impacts the overall experience despite strong narration and story moments.
- “As an aside, Steam Deck performance is great.”
- “The story itself is okay, a bit blunt and clumsy at points, but it has some poignant moments and presents some interesting ideas through the narrator (who starts out flat but improves in performance throughout the game).”
- “I was especially impressed by the narrator — Megan Gay delivers an outstanding performance that genuinely held my attention throughout the game.”
- “It's a shame that the game suffers from constant stuttering, objects appearing in front of other objects when they're actually behind, and finicky character movement.”
- “Unfortunately, the game is poorly optimized and the graphics stutter on my system, even though it handles other high-performance games without problems.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is primarily dark and integrated into a slow-paced, narrative-driven experience. It adds a subtle, witty tone without being overwhelming, complementing the storytelling and light puzzle elements.
- “I'm only a few hours in and my impression is that this is a slow paced interactive story, heavy on narrative, with dark humor and light puzzle elements.”

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50%Critics’ scoreBased on 12 critic reviews

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3h Median play time

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Frequently Asked Questions

Minute of Islands is a platformer game with mystery theme.

Minute of Islands is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5 and others.

On average players spend around 3 hours playing Minute of Islands.

Minute of Islands was released on June 13, 2021.

Minute of Islands was developed by Studio Fizbin.

Minute of Islands has received neutral reviews from players and neutral reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its gameplay.

Minute of Islands is a single player game.

Similar games include Forgotton Anne, RiME, Inmost, Call of the Sea, The First Tree and others.

Minute of Islands

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Minutes with Mo — Minute of Islands Review