The Aggie Awards – The Best Adventure Games of 2021

Best Writing – Drama: Minute of Islands

Uneasy hang the arms that wield an Omni Switch, as the saying goes. (Or something like that; we might be paraphrasing.) In Studio Fizbin’s Minute of Islands you play as Mo, a young woman living with her family on an island chain devastated by deadly fungal blooms, and it’s up to you and you alone to keep the toxic spores at bay with your magical multi-tool. You’re accompanied by an omniscient narrator who shares Mo’s thoughts, fears, and memories, immersing you further and further into her exhausted, obsessed, determined headspace so that each step of the journey feels personal and suffused with immense significance. The script powerfully conveys a rich, complex story about the depths of love, the immensity of heartbreak and the staggering costs that come from protecting what one holds dear. Those who join Mo on her quest won’t soon forget the experience, thanks in no small part to the strength of dramatic writing deserving of our Aggie Award.

Runners-Up:

The Forgotten City

Strangeland

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

Impostor Factory

Readers’ Choice: Strangeland

To pull off a story as surreal as Strangeland’s, you’re going to need a top-notch script that effectively communicates its enigmatic themes, and Wormwood Studios delivers once again. There are a variety of highly distinctive characters to interact with in the twisted carnival-like environs on the floating titular island, from the old man who has no eyes and speaks in riddles while musing philosophically, to an anthropomorphic furnace, to the joke-cracking giant clown head above the main circus tent. Even the ravens here talk. Then there’s the three Valkyries wearing oversized masks who refer to themselves as a Greek-style “chorus.” Many such elements blur the line between past and present, myth and reality, as the writing cleverly presents familiar symbols as physical manifestations of something much deeper and far more abnormal. It’s deliciously mind-blowing, and for ensuring that players will still be thinking about everything they’ve seen and heard long after they’re finished playing, Strangeland pairs its Best Story reader award with another for best dramatic writing.

Runners-Up:

The Forgotten City

Backbone

Life Is Strange: True Colors

Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo

Next up: Best Character… the envelope, please!