Before I Forget
Before I Forget
Game
Game2021
Minute of Islands
Developer Studio Fizbin
Minute of Islands is a 2021 puzzle-platform game developed by Studio Fizbin and published by Mixtvision for MacOS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
210 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Oct 28, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
76
LovedLoved
142 positive · 44 negative
95% range 70–82%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 142 | 44 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 6 | 3 | 10 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 2 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
408 of 527 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
76% recommend · 146 yes, 45 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 191 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (788 of 1,020 positive).
Players praise the stunning hand-drawn art and atmospheric world. [1][2][3] Many find the story touching but the gameplay tedious and slow. [4][5][6] Some reviewers say the game feels more like an interactive story than a game. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [6]
This game hates you and doesn't respect your time by taking away your controls every other minute to make you wait a minute for a character to say 5 words, or the camera to slowly pan a few pixels, or watch a boat for 2 minutes, or instead of sprinting yourself, be forced to watch your character stumble for 2 minutes. Absolutely tedious.
- [1]
Minute of Islands has the foundation for a powerful story the stunning hand drawn art, the eerie and imaginative world, and a tone that constantly hints at something deeper. You can feel yourself wanting to fall in love with it. The atmosphere carries themes of responsibility, guilt, letting go, and holding on to the people who matter, and at times it comes close to being genuinely moving. However, the experience …
- [4]
This is tough to recommend. On one hand, it has extremely tedious game-play, clunky platforming and it's difficult to even identify what the core game-play loop is. On the other, it's a beautifully realized world, a touching story and art design that left me awe-struck. Near the end I found myself tearing up at how poignant it all was. If you're someone who can forgive lackluster game-play for good writing/dialogue, …
- [11]
Heartbreakingly sad. Bittersweet, and hauntingly beautiful. The game has moments of beauty, moments of fear, and painful moments. It does a good job making you feel the mix of emotions Mo is feeling. It can be painful to play at times. You feel disgusted with yourself at times, or impatient that things are taking too long, but it's what you are meant to feel to immerse yourself in the story. The game is visually …
- [2]
Tl;dr: story, art, music and voice-acting are fantastic and work together in a way few games manage. The "game" side feels superfluous, and calling it a "puzzle platformer" is something of a misnomer. Recommended with a caveat. PROS + stunningly beautiful hand-drawn art. Kept running back and forth to get a better look, and I took so many screenshots. The penultimate island, specifically, + mood is a perfect blend …
Summarised from 34 of the 218 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Minute of Islands sits at 76% positive across 186 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Critics, per Wikipedia
In a positive review for Rock Paper Shotgun, Alice Bell praised the themes of the story, "But for all its narrative bluntness, Minute Of Islands is an incredibly elegant game. Much more so than the most other indie games that are about death and grief and sadness and responsibility." Malindy Hetfeld, writing for Eurogamer, criticized Minute of Islands' gameplay, writing "Unfortunately, it feels just as unexciting to play... overall these sequences are so simple and so short that there isn't anything remotely rousing to the exercise." Pocket Tactics liked the soundtrack of the game, feeling it gave it a foreboding atmosphere, "Consisting mostly of eerie mechanical noises offset against the…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 210 · most liked firstMinute of Islands has the foundation for a powerful story the stunning hand drawn art, the eerie and imaginative world, and a tone that constantly hints at something deeper. You can feel yourself wanting to fall in love with it. The atmosphere carries themes of responsibility, guilt, letting go, and holding on to the people who matter, and at times it comes close to being genuinely moving. However, the experience ends just as it starts to build momentum. The world looks rich and full of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game hates you and doesn't respect your time by taking away your controls every other minute to make you wait a minute for a character to say 5 words, or the camera to slowly pan a few pixels, or watch a boat for 2 minutes, or instead of sprinting yourself, be forced to watch your character stumble for 2 minutes. Absolutely tedious.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Way way wayyyy too slow. Just for me, this pace was nearly unbearable. Literally every damned thing you do is excruciatingly slow. Not because of lagging or great graphics, but because the developers purposefully chose to make it this way
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is...fine? It is extraordinarily pretty and the worldbuilding is interesting, but they seem uninterested in exploring the psychological aspect they introduce or the effect of the fungus on Mo (who pointedly never wears a mask and yet seems completely unaffected). I'm left wondering why they felt the need to make this a game. The interactive aspect drags down nearly every part of it, from the fungus visions to the abrupt ending to the shallow exploration of culture and psyche. Virtually…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is an intensely lore-heavy game with an incredible number of cut-scenes and non-interactive elements. The constant removal of player control is very annoying and just makes the game feel so extremely slow, on top of the sluggish commands and janky platformer elements. You'll cover each element of the path at least twice, which adds to the felling of slow progress. There are a couple of user-choice points, but otherwise it's entirely a follow-the-prompt game. Which is good, because the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Only made it past chapter 2 before I got tired with it. It is very slow. I understand having slow moments in a story, I understand wanting the player to linger on an emotion. But forcing the character to stand still, rather than letting the player decide o do so themselves to take it in is NOT the way to do it. When your game has no gameplay, basically no puzzle aspect, nothing to engage the player other than some decent visuals here and there and the story, then I want to progres the story.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolutely spectacular visually. This game looks absolutely beautiful, like a french animated movie or a comic book. The plot is okay, even if it's laid on thick at some points. The game play however, oh the game play. I haven't played in something so soul killing and mind numbing in a long time. It consist of walking from a narrator monologue to another monologue, during which the game is paused and you cannot move. The platforming is boring, badly made and all together unpleasant to go…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An impressive illustrated story attached to a tedious, simplistic game. Constant interruptions from the narrator bring the already slow action to a stop.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to love this game and kept coming back to it in the hope that I'd like it more if I was in the right mood, but it just doesn't work. It's like 75% cut scenes and player-restrictive animations and 25% actual play. It's absolutely maddening how much waiting this games expects of a player. Every time you go to a new island, there's a cut scene with voice over, and then there's an animation of your ship's dock unfolding where you can't move, and after you get off, there's another…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tl;dr: story, art, music and voice-acting are fantastic and work together in a way few games manage. The "game" side feels superfluous, and calling it a "puzzle platformer" is something of a misnomer. Recommended with a caveat. PROS + stunningly beautiful hand-drawn art. Kept running back and forth to get a better look, and I took so many screenshots. The penultimate island, specifically, + mood is a perfect blend of "oo, pretty" and "DEEPLY DISTURBING" that very few games meet (see again:…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay-wise, Minute of Islands falls under the umbrella of being slow and repetitive, which, as a flaw as it is, fits well with this game's theme on the topic of addiction, obsession, broken habits, main character syndrome, meeting high expectations, letting go, and self-isolation. You're probably surprised hearing this, as I was when I first understood the underlying subject matter it's going for, especially coming from a child-friendly-appearing game. In some aspects, the first 3 levels…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I normally don't write reviews, but considering the fact that many people give this game a not recommend status, I really wanted to push back with my own 'Recommend!!!' I think it is too harsh to write this game off because of the 'lacking' game play or too easy puzzles. These aspects are clearly not the main point of the game, they just serve as a tool for the developers to tell their story. Also the slow pace of the game was for sure meant as a choice. The player has to be patient and has to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Stories and romanticism, tales and destiny, sometimes you wish you were a hero but all you have is martyrdom. Its a cute game about letting go
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really liked this game a lot. It has beautiful surreal graphics, the story is fascinating. The big problem though is that there's no manual save! The autosave system is very bad, I found myself playing the same parts of the game that I had already finished over and over again. I eventually got so frustrated I simply gave up. Such a pity. I guess I'll just go watch a playthrough rather than waste my time any further.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is tough to recommend. On one hand, it has extremely tedious game-play, clunky platforming and it's difficult to even identify what the core game-play loop is. On the other, it's a beautifully realized world, a touching story and art design that left me awe-struck. Near the end I found myself tearing up at how poignant it all was. If you're someone who can forgive lackluster game-play for good writing/dialogue, world-building and sheer style, I can give this a recommend.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is my first review on Steam after owning and playing over 200 games. This game is so unappealing that I feel it is necessary to leave a review to try an dissuade anyone else from purchasing this game. I, like most people, I imagine, were drawn to this game by the hand drawn art style. It is very nice. It reminds me of a children's story book. That is the sole highlight of this game. Everything else is either pointless or outright not fun. You play as Mo. A, probably, teenage girl who…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →> Start game > Can't rebind keybinds > Close game Sorry devs, but this really inexcusable in the current age of gaming. I can't use the arrow keys. I'm sure you've got a decent game here, but if you won't let me experience it I can't recommend it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I’m Tim, a comic and video game artist from Berlin. Idid the art direction on titles like The Inner World 2 and Minute of Islands. I also do a lot of Magic the Gathering fan art.
neutral · AI labelView post →Absolutely excellent, intricate, hand-drawn aesthetic and environments in the vein of Adventure Time meets Hollow Knight. Fantastic voice acting with little cringe or camp. The time and talent it took to create this must have been staggering. Awe and wonder games (with thin puzzle gameplay mechanics) typically need consistent pacing and an interesting story or theme to justify the person spending time on it. Unfortunately that is not here. They built a very slow and very easy puzzle…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Visual novel disguised as something you think you might be able to play
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This has got to be one of the slowest pacing game i've ever played... i don't even know if you can consider it a game, more like moving comic book. I understand that not all games have to be fast paced or full of action, but by god, this game is so obnoxiously slow it's almost insulting. every few step you're interrupted by a useless slow-pan cutscene showing something (for a good 4-5 seconds) a couple a meters in front of you, or showing you an area you're going to tread literally a few…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🌊 A Beautiful, Atmospheric Journey Minute of Islands is one of those games that, rather than trying to entertain you with complex gameplay, wants to pull you into its world. What caught my attention from the very beginning was the atmosphere and art style . The world is beautiful, but at the same time it has this strange feeling of loneliness and sadness. The environments and music work really well with the story and make you feel like you're walking through a world that is slowly…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Started Minute of Islands. Love the art style 💜 Appreciate the content warning too. Somehow I always buy cute-looking games that have heavy themes 💀 I think this can be categorized as a puzzle platformer.
positive · AI labelView post →Complete slog to play, developer has zero respect for the players time. Once you play through the first area you've played all the gameplay there is. I wanted to see the all the unique art and story dialog the game had but I missed a memory, or it just didn't show up, and there is no way to replay a section. So you're locked out of the very limited amount of content there is.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is pretty tough to recommend, but I'd give it a 5/10. This is a story game, the puzzles and platforming are secondary. Really, they're only there to be a break from the walking simulator the main part of this game is. Not a criticism, just saying that if you're looking for interesting platforming or puzzles, you won't find them. The story of this game is wonderful, the art style is really impressive too. It surrounds themes of death, life, work, family, and insecurity. I'd say it's worth…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game seems pretty and starts a bit intriguing. You want to know what happens, but if you play on pc, the controls are weird, and sometimes wont listen. There are also way to long cutscenes where nothing happens and it makes it boring to play and dread getting on the boat. I quit before finishing it because the story seems jumbled up and the "spirit world" is tedious work because of slow mechanics. If this however were to change in an update, I might be open to play it again.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The story was great and the art is beautifull but...The mechanics were a little off, and the tasks were repetative and time consuming. Over all fine game that you can finish in 3 to 5 hours but 2 of them will be filler quest making you wait on a clif-hanger for the story.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The art style was initially what inspired me to play this game and I'm not at all disappointed. The art, character design combined with the music and the story was wonderful as it all unfolded before my eyes. I love that the message of the game is that sometimes letting go of something you fought so hard for is okay and the most healthy outcome for oneself. Leaving the beloved past in the past being a right step toward freedom, even if it hurts. Great subject matter that is relatable (as well…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game, the art work, soundtrack and story are well executed, just keep in mind that the gameplay feels more like an interactive narration than anything else, i am completely ok with that, as it makes for a relaxing and laid back experience, if you expect a platformer full of action, challenging puzzles and complex mechanics.. this is not it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The art style is probably the only thing good about this game for me. I didn't enjoy the rest. The gameplay was weak and too slow. If it was a bit faster you'd probably just fly through the game. The puzzle scenes were just so boring. Again, I think they were only there just to add more time to the game. Everything is very repetitive and there is no imagination to the puzzles. The story also didn't click with me. I guess, judging by the reviews, there are plenty of people who liked the game.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is for you if you are looking for something: - slow/story paced - narrative focused, less puzzle and minimal platformery gameplay - beautiful visuals and sound combo - like dogs When in doubt, wait for a sale. I highly enjoyed it, though not all was perfect. It also ran well on my system and I didn't encounter any bugs.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Smushi Come Home! It’s very wholesome and it made me cry ;^; another game I really like where the atmosphere makes you feel tiny is Minute of Islands. It’s set in a post apocalyptic world but the art style is really pretty and it also made my cry 😭
positive · AI labelView post →"Minute of Islands" is a very beautiful German indie game with a soul. The hand-drawn art is straight form the most beautiful modern comics, if you know what I mean. But don't get fooled, it is a pretty dark and personal story. The voice acting is superb, it tells the story and effectively conveys the emotions of the protagonist. (Why no German Full Audio in a German game? At least add it out of principle. Pride & representation where?) - The biopunk setting and style are overlooked. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Well; I was one of the people that bought Minute Of Islands when it came out. Nice game - mournful tone, but beautiful in places. Bit of a "walking simulator" disguised as a platform game, though - not much replay value, I don't think. What does surprise me is that Fizbin had hundreds of employees to lose, however. MoI had a really "art school indie" feel to it - I'd have guessed at more like ten employees having played through it. Gris (by Nomada) is the kind of *art platformer" that I'd…
neutral · AI labelView post →The visuals are very pretty, I kinda like the overall theme. But it is slow, slooooow, painfully slow.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A toxic egocentric brat with feather falling boots on a quest to safe a spore ridden world, inhabited by ugly heroes; followed by an axolotlqesque mammalia. An artistic addition to your trauma showcase; comes in multicoloured spores and fleshy pink carcasses.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →forces you to use arrow keys
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Saw a decent interpretation of the story in one of the discussion threads so I'll keep my gripes there to myself. Visuals are nice, but the gameplay is awful. Jumping down from platforms tends to require being in a very specific spot, which often is unnecessarily strict, and there are a lot of repetitive animations and 'cutscenes' that constantly slow things to a crawl.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the unique dystopian story with art style cartoon.if u bored and depressed can fill ur soul even more darker energy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The story was just OK. But the gameplay was awful.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🇬🇧 English first | 🇺🇦 Українська нижче 🇺🇦 ⬇️ From the very beginning, the game warns you that it will touch on heavy themes — and that warning is absolutely justified. I really liked how the developers contrast the bright, colorful surface levels of the islands with the dark, gloomy, sometimes even unsettling underground areas. This contrast feels like a reflection of different sides of the protagonist’s mindset and inner thoughts. If you also take the hidden rooms in those underground…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slow as hell. the art style is captivating but the game has NO gameplay, the platforming is hell and the "puzzles" are fake and boring. a real missed opportunity would had worked better as a comicbook
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game's style reminds me a lot of Adventure Time which was initially why I purchased it. I'm really glad I did. The pacing of the game gets you absorbed in it's lore. The narrator's story telling really grips at Mo's (Main characters) feelings all throughout. I highly suggest getting this game as not only is it visually appealing but also captivating with it's immersive music and story.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While the gameplay itself is a bit tedious, the art and the story more than make up for it. It's evident how much love and thought was put into this game. <3
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →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. Not for those looking for fast paced action or mind-bending challenges. The narration is great and the artwork is cute. The pacing of the game is made to encourage you to slow down and appreciate the little visual details. Some reviewers found this aggravating, but I find it cozy and relaxing especially after a long day. I'm curious if the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Heartbreakingly sad. Bittersweet, and hauntingly beautiful. The game has moments of beauty, moments of fear, and painful moments. It does a good job making you feel the mix of emotions Mo is feeling. It can be painful to play at times. You feel disgusted with yourself at times, or impatient that things are taking too long, but it's what you are meant to feel to immerse yourself in the story. The game is visually stunning and well-animated. The music is beautiful. The worldbuilding feels…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →beautiful art, story and soundtrack. can be a bit glitchy and unintuitive at times but 100% worth playing
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a tough one to review; Minute of Islands is among a category of indie games that is remarkably beautiful and deep AND is held back simply by being a game rather than a show in several spots. If you're feeling moody and reflective and can tolerate a slower paced game with some janky parts, I recommend it. If you're someone that is looking to play a well-polished, smooth-playing indie game, I'd recommend watching a Let's Play; there are some immensely clever symbolism and themes that left…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Everything in this game is painfully slow. From the animations to the story. 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. Found myself constantly jumping instead of going down because I wasn't hitting the spot quite right. They also make you walk back to the starting point because going from A to B isn't bad enough. The story just sounded very random to me. I played for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is no replayability in this game. You can’t select individual chapters, so after finishing the game, so the only way to revisit previous locations is too start game from beginning. It’s quite shameful, because this game has some lovely scenery, and this game is discouraging you from visiting back to those beautiful locations. Also, if you want to collect all the memories (the only collectibles in the game, and necessary for getting the platinum), you need to do a hard re-start, which…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has a great soundtrack and a hauntingly beautiful art style and that's about it. Unfortunately, I was constantly irritated with the amount of times the controls are taken from me. The cutscenes and narrating are too frequent and way too slow that you have to wait 8 business days before you can proceed to the next task. But what frustrates me the most are the cutscenes that slowly pans the camera to show you the next area that has zero information in it... If you are a completionist,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great visuals and audio. Unfortunately the game itself is too irritating to play. Frequent narrated cutscenes is how this game tells a story so every time narrator speaks you'll have to put your controller down and wait until she finishes speaking. Add to that zero information cutscenes that show you the next place you're going to anyway. The amount of times controls are taken away from you is just criminal. The environments in this are such (and this seems by intention weirdly enough) that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Are you experiencing a strange frozen screen showing that you’ve reached Chapter 3 for no reason when launching the game for the first time? I figured it out by changing both the display language and the apps language to American English. I’m not sure if this method works on other operating systems, but it works like a charm on Windows. Edit: I made a mistake in the explanation... sorry! The change has to be done through the Windows system language, not the game or Steam language. Sorry.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mo, you have been so brave. But true courage isn't just about enduring and fighting on. Sometimes, the greatest courage is admitting that you're tired, that this burden is too heavy for you to carry alone. You don't have to be 'the only one'. You don't have to prove anything to anyone. Your family doesn't need a perfect hero. They just want you to come home, to live, and to be part of them. Allow yourself to rest. Allow yourself to receive help. And allow yourself to forgive yourself for the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Picked this one up because the artstyle reminded me of Adventure Time but upon playing it the world reminded me of AT too. Not as weird and wild as that show but there is so much mystery and intrigue over how the world works, how it ended up this way, that kind of thing. Something terrible happened and over the course of the game you slowly start piecing together what that something is. I honestly feel like I only learned about a small fraction of a giant world and I'd love it if the developers…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →not much in terms of gameplay, but the art is very nice so I enjoyed playing it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really love the narration, I think the graphics are very weird and unique and the story is both sad and motivating to move through the gameplay. I don't necessarily like the use of the keyboard buttons to control the character, but it's also fine. Would highly recommend this game!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game with an interesting story! Still piecing together the story as I go along which is fun. Art of the game is beautiful. If you like games that have clear objectives and give you direction, this is for you. If you like to explore on your own and have your own agenda, this game is not for you
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Second game of 2025 - Minute of Islands 🏝 I was pulled in immediately by the art, the gameplay is very approachable (platformer for people who are bad at platformers), and I loved the rather bleak story. I would have enjoyed it more if the PC was a little less sad, but that's nitpicking. 4.5/5
positive · AI labelView post →A visually and emotionally stunning game. I was drawn to it largely because of the art and loved it's uniquely beautiful yet confronting style throughout, but I didn't expect this game to touch my heart in the ways it did. Can't recommend it enough!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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