Minit Only Gives You a Minute Before You Die
It sounds like a simple concept: you only have 60 seconds before you die. It’s a hard and fast rule with no forgiveness. At first glance, Minit seems like an homage to classic adventure games like The Legend of Zelda from the NES with the grid-like map and minimal sprites, but dying every minute creates a unique constant challenge to the whole exploration mechanic. Every simple task feels like a race to the finish, especially in the last few seconds when the clock audibly ticks down to your demise.
Like a good puzzle game should, Minit explains the mechanics of how things interact in the world through the principle of “show, not tell.” Players are presented with all of the tools to solve an obstacle and must quickly figure out how to overcome it. If you should die before surmounting your first obstacle, you take your accumulated knowledge and attack the problem again. It’s also good to know that there are checkpoints strewn about the map so you don’t need to rush through every obstacle after a reset. Speaking of which, I would call it a reset rather than a respawn since the map returns to its original state except for any special items you may have collected.
I certainly don’t want to spoil any of the fun surprises and interactions that could be deep within the game, so I’ll simply say that when you check out the full game be sure to go over every object with a fine-tooth comb. While what we played was only a demo, it was obvious the developers intend to put many hidden secrets into the final product so Minit will surely deserve a couple hundred playthroughs. They are only a minute long, after all.
