MINIT

The devs chose a gimmick, and I think they did about as good of a job as possible at building a game around it. Unfortunately, the gimmick is inherently flawed for 2 reasons.
By default, it limits the size of the world. You can only move so far in one minute. The devs "cheated" by adding checkpoints, which I think was the right call, but this defeats the original purpose just a little.
It discourages exploration. This game rewards you for exploring or even just waiting in a certain spot sometimes. But dying is annoying, which makes me less likely to want to engage with the world in that way.
That said, the gimmick is more good than it is bad. It adds tension and difficulty, while making it feel more exciting to reach new areas or find helpful items. It also adds some mystery to the world, and makes room for some really funny jokes. It's also just... unique. Which makes it refreshing. Plus, adding a hard mode was genius, it's surprisingly fun to try and go fast once you know the basic layout of the map. Good game.

For people like me, who might wonder if Minit is stressful because of the time limit: It's not. I wanted to start with that, because for how small this game is, it was still oddly intimidating to me and I held off on it for a long time because of it. Minit is actually pretty kind with its time limit, and really, it's pretty interesting how much can fit inside a minute.

That doesn't mean that the game is without problems though, including the gimmick. If I would point out the one problem I have with it, I would say that it wastes your time. I'm not talking about the run-backs either, that's accounted for pretty well by the game. No, I'm talking about the puzzles that don't look like puzzles, the areas that look like a puzzle when they're just gear checks and the "puzzles" that are just about getting lucky and running into the solution/right spot on the map.

Essentially, this game has a lot of stuff in it that require you to throw crap on the wall to see what sticks. It feels like the developer got insecure about the length halfway through the game and decided to just omit proper signposts for half the content instead of making more complex puzzles.

And that's annoying, because I think the core of Minit is solid! It has a good rate of progression, clever environmental features and the gimmick creates an addictive tempo. There is some freedom in how your progression develops as well, which means that different players can have very different experiences. I liked the items and the way they function, the quirky environments, the small secrets; and when the game clicks, it feels pretty great.

That's why I'm recommending the game. It's short, I know some have finished a first playthrough in an hour and change. I think that's an outlier, but who can say? It's also not as good as many other games that play around with time, like The Sexy Brutale. But it's also not a bad game and does do enough things differently that it justifies its own existence, in my opinion.

If there's a sale and it looks interesting to you, then Minit is not a bad pick up. Otherwise, I would probably look elsewhere.

An interesting case study on how level design can be constrained by a time limit (and a roguelite game loop). The game was short, sweet and fun, inspired by old 2D Zelda games. The 1 bit pixel art was neat and easily readable. Overall, it is an indie game with a clearly defined scope and it achieves perfectly what it tries.

Minit is charming as most indie titles are. Its world is kinda whacky and kooky and being part of it for a little bit does feel special. Being a short game is actually a really good thing since spending any more time than I did would have definitely started to weigh on my patience a bit too much. I always appreciate when games try new things valiantly and so the gimmick of doing one run that lasts one minute (hehe Minit, I just got it now) is very refreshing. It does start to get very draggy after the shine of the new gimmick wears off. In a way the game is perfect as is, but in other ways it's kinda frustrating.
Overall, not a bad way of spending two hours.

Despite a weird start up behavior with launching two instances, one in a micro window and one minimized this game was absolutely great.
After convincing it to start and full screen properly, I was able to 100% it in one go with no more technical issues.
Great gameplay, nice idea, I absolutely enjoyed it. Thank you.

I played a demo of this forever ago, got confused, and quit. Fast forward to now, and I absolutely adore this game. The gimmick of only having 'one minute' each loop can be frustrating occasionally, but fits perfectly into Minit's few hour playtime to beat. I strongly believe if this game was any longer, I would not enjoy it nearly as much. Great little game! 7.5/10

8/10, recommended to get on a sale. Its an interesting adventure-puzzle game that you'll likely beat in one sitting. While the core game is fun, there are a few optional puzzles that don't make much sense to solve, even with the hints given to you by the game. Some achievements are also difficult to find without a guide because they are hidden and don't have very clear clues to lead you to them.
Clear the game once by yourself, then go and get a guide to do the rest, if you feel like it.