Minutes – PS4 Review


Minutes™_20141030002215Minutes is yet another quality indie title that has found its way to PSN (both on PS4 and Vita) and it offers up some stylish dodge ’em up action with some sleek aesthetics.

As the name might suggest, each play session lasts sixty seconds and sees you controlling a small circle that you move around a single screen.  Lines and objects will move across the screen.  If they are the coloured, you need to get in their way and absorb them.  If they are black, they’ll damage you and so you need to stay away from them.

As you progress through the screens the game starts to evolve in terms of your options.  Before long you can shrink or expand.  Expanding adds risk but also doubles or triples your score.  Shrinking halves your scoring rate but makes it a lot easier to dodge things.  You’ll also unlock power-ups that can be used once per stage and these can help you avoid damage and increase scoring opportunities too.

Minutes™_20141030002144Each level has score targets and obviously you’ll need to take plenty of risks (and learn the stages) to hit the highest ones.  That risk vs. reward gameplay works really well and you’ll be revisiting earlier stages constantly as you earn new abilities in order to nab those score targets you previously missed.

There aren’t a ton of options on offer. Minutes really is just about sixty second chunks of the main game mode but beyond that there isn’t much else going on apart from a daily challenge which gives you unlimited practice opportunities but just one opportunity to post a score (much like OlliOlli).

MinutesThe steady progression of abilities, and the way you earn them, does add a level of addictiveness to the gameplay and despite the simplicity of the action on offer, Minutes is a great game to play.

The presentation is sleek but simple.  The game uses a minimalistic palette and simple graphics to good effect and the music compliments this look.  It may be a little too plain for some but we do appreciate how clean it looks which is important when the screen is absolutely full of lines ready to kill you.

Overall, Minutes isn’t quite as enjoyable and varied as the mighty Don’t Die, Mr Robot so Vita owners may want to go there but PS4 owners looking for pacifist fun would do well to check this game out.

Minutes
7 Overall
Pros
+ Simple, addictive gameplay. + Sleak visuals.
Cons
- Lacks variety - Can get very difficult indeed.
Summary
Minutes is a clever little cross-buy puzzler but it gets so difficult that it eventually stops being fun. It takes a while to get there though and for that time, it is very enjoyable.

About Richie

Rich is the editor of PlayStation Country. He likes his games lemony and low-budget with a lot of charm. This isn't his photo. That'll be Rik Mayall.

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