When you think of a piece of medium purposefully crafted to be part of a charity event, you immediately imagine it to be crap. That terrible “We Are the World” song comes to mind. I don’t think I have ever seen a video game created with charity in mind, but I’m glad that Devolver Digital pioneered this concept. Especially since the game in question, Minit Fun Racer, ended up being pretty good.

Remember Minit? That was a little gem published by Devolver a few years ago, in which you had one minute to explore the world around you before dying and respawning, in a quasi Majora’s Mask or Groundhog Day kind of way. It featured humourous characters and an ultra minimalistic, completely monochromatic art style, which was adorable, but a bit tedious to look at after a while. Minit Fun Racer takes what worked (and a bit of what didn’t) from that game and adapts it into a mix between an auto-runner and old school Excitebike.

Minit Fun Racer is really boring at first. You only have ten seconds to collect coins before you eventually die, meaning that you’ll barely be able to make any progress. Anyone with a very small attention span will quit the game after two or three runs, but there’s a catch: the in-game store. Coins allow you to buy upgrades for your bike, including a helmet that allows you to endure one hit, an accelerator, and most importantly, the item that you will NEED to buy in order to properly enjoy the game as a whole: the ability to increase your time limit by one second whenever you pick up a coin.

The more you play, the more coins you’ll acquire, the more upgrades you’ll afford, and the easier the game will become. Soon enough, the game will go from a ten-second loop to a proper auto-runner with a challenging difficulty curve. You’ll be able to leave the first environment, an urban landscape during rush hour, and proceed to a desert, then a wasteland, and so on.

The game is a mere minutes long, but it does offer a surprising amount of bang for the three dollars the developers are asking for. Besides the initial batch of items at your disposal, you can buy a VIP card that will give you access to even better (and more expensive) items, giving you more incentive to keep playing it for even longer. There are also some well-hidden “sidequests”, such as being able to steal a pizza from a delivery boy and performing the actual delivery yourself. There are loads of achievements as well. If you’re a completionist, you’ll be surprised with the amount of meaningful content included in here.

On a technical scale, Minit Fun Racer is identical to its older brother. It’s still monochromatic, but it’s a bit more detailed this time around. The soundtrack follows the same style as the one in Minit: short but fun synth tunes. Although, there are less songs in here, due to the game being even shorter than its predecessor. Finally, the controls are simple and responsive, despite the occasional framerate problems, which is a weird thing coming from a game that can possibly be played on an Intellivision.

Despite its minuscule size and scope, Minit Fun Racer is definitely not that kind of cheap shovelware that floods the Steam Marketplace on a daily basis. It’s a surprisingly addictive auto-runner with a very fun gameplay loop and an excellent progression system. Considering its really small price tag, that would already be enough for me to recommend it. Being a game whose sales will be perpetually directed to charity is just a tasty icing on top of an already delicious cake.

 

Graphics: 5.0 It’s the same minimalistic art style featured in Minit, but with a bit more detail in its assets.	Gameplay: 8.5 It’s a bit of an auto runner, a bit of Excitebike, and a bit of a race against time. The controls are simple, the progression system is surprisingly robust, and the gameplay loop is addicting.
Sound: 7.0 Minit Fun Racer also features fun synth-heavy tunes in its soundtrack, just like its predecessor, but its bite-sized nature means there are less songs included in the package.	Fun Factor: 9.0 Despite its minuscule size and scope, Minit Fun Racer is a surprisingly addictive auto-runner with some interesting ideas. Being a product released for charity is just an icing on top of an already tasty cake.
Final Verdict: 7.5

Minit Fun Racer is available now on PC.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of Minit Fun Racer was provided by the publisher.