Mini Motorways it is one of those titles that immediately caught the attention of one niche of enthusiastswho had already become fond of the very particular gameplay of Mini Metro, which united wisely management mechanics with other puzzle game mechanicswith a one-of-a-kind final result.
M.ini Motorways follows precisely in the footsteps of its predecessor, taking up the same concept, but carrying everything on the movements on the surface, rather than underground. In this case, therefore, our goal will be to create the streets of a city and not of metropolitan railways. Let’s see how the result is in our review.
In Mini Motorways it goes straight to the point
Mini Motorways does not present any story to the player but, on the contrary, it immediately puts it in front of the naked and raw gameplay. We do not have no narrative context that is the background to the purely playful part, but you simply start playing, from the very first moment.
It is clear, therefore, that Mini Motorways is all about gameplaysufficiently different from that of Mini Metro and therefore not limited to a more of the same. Building surface roads is indeed very different from what we have seen in the past and most importantly, the game mechanics are slightly different.
Each game is based on a few premises. In the map houses of a certain color spawnwith destinations of the same shade. Our job is to designing roads that can connect the former to the latter. If initially this is easy and immediate, as you progress through the game, homes and destinations of different colors and, accordingly, it will be necessary to create a real one road systemwhich can lead everyone to their respective colors.
Every destinationin fact, it accumulates gods symbolswhich normally come collected by machines that come to us. Accumulating too many, however, will create a timer above the corresponding place and, at running out of time will lead to game over. On the contrary, each symbol collected by the cars gives a point, which accumulates to the overall ones present in the upper right. Needless to say, Mini Motorways’ goal is to accumulate a certain number of these points.
Although described in this way it may seem simple, Mini Motorways gameplay hides many pitfalls. To begin with, the map in front of us is divided into squares and to “draw” the roads we must consume a “road card” for each one. It is therefore necessary to manage the limits, trying to design the various routes efficiently.
Some think to add further depth special cards, which allow you to build highways, bridges, roundabouts or traffic lights, all three useful tools to better manage traffic. From this point of view we have a small imbalance to the detriment of traffic lights, which are decidedly less useful than roundabouts.
Basic, Mini Motorways gameplay is all here. But don’t be fooled by the fact that there are few mechanics, as we are talking about a title capable of offer several interesting situations. Continuing in the games, in fact, we inevitably find ourselves managing an immense number of destinations, with a limited number of resources.
Once the cards available to us are finished, we must necessarily wait until the end of a week (in-game) to have more and, until then, we will have to make do with what we have available at that moment. It therefore happens to have situations in which spawn new destinations and it becomes necessary add new roadsonly to find that you don’t have enough resources and, consequently, have to rethink the structure of some previously designed roads.
Fortunately, in fact, it is possible destroy previously built roadsin order to earn the corresponding tiles, which can then be reused.
In practice, we are in front of one solid and fun formula, which takes full advantage of the few mechanics proposed, creating a pleasant mix between puzzle game and strategic. There are some flaws though. To begin with, the game system is based on a color system which sees us linking certain houses to certain destinations (for example red houses to red destinations).
The colors assigned at the start of the game, however, never change and, consequently, the same houses will always have to go in the same direction. This inevitably reduces the general complexity of the formula, as it leads to some situations in which the city is created a small closed systemsrather than as a large interconnected metropolis.
It happens, for example, to see houses of a certain color spawn near a destination and, as a result, the player could connect the two points without necessarily connecting the streets to the rest of the town, simplifying the management of general traffic. This, in Mini Metro, was avoided by the stations that housed different types of passengers and, therefore, prevented the player from becoming too “static” in his management.
We are therefore in front of one lower complexity than that seen in Mini Metro, which is also reflected here in the special tiles. Be clear, However, Mini Motorways remains an enjoyable and fun experienceespecially if you’ve already liked the predecessor and are looking for something different.
Finally, an honorable mention should be made to a small detail, or rather, to its absence. It often happens in the late stages of matches to call spawning new homes or destinationswithout this coming signaled clearly enough. The same goes for timers. Instead, a sort of More obvious audio or visual “clue”, who can immediately tell the player to be careful. A small detail, which however proves to be fundamental in the chaos of advanced games.
Beautiful to see
Mini Motorways boasts a respectable technical sector. Despite there are minimal animations and effects, in fact, the final result remains very pleasant. This is mainly thanks to the minimal artistic sector which, although less abstract than the one seen in Mini Metro, remains stylish and original.
The audio sector, on the other hand, is excellent, thanks to relaxing music and effects always suitable for various occasions. However, the aforementioned clearer audio clues would be needed, which would be functional to the gameplay