Mini Metro is one of my favourite puzzle games. It’s the perfect balance of “easy to play” and “hard to master.” Mini Motorways is made by the same team at Dinosaur Polo Club and it’s just as hard to put down. At the moment, you can get it on Apple devices through Apple Arcade, but you’ll find it on PC and Mac via Steam later on as well.
What is Mini Motorways?
That’s a very good question. It’s best to explain it by explaining Mini Metro first. Mini Metro is a game that’s been out for quite some time on the same platforms. Your goal is to help transport people from one station to another.
The stations have different shapes, and each person has a shape station they want to go to. You manage the route for each line between stations, how many trains run on each line, and how many carriages are attached to each train. Essentially, it’s a really simple transport simulator turned into a puzzle game. Pretty cool, right?
Mini Motorways takes the basic idea, but changes it up a bit. Instead, you create a road network to help people who live in certain colour houses get to coloured buildings. I find this a lot more challenging. Rather than having people go from one specific point to another, people join and leave a road system at different points. You get traffic lights to help you out as well as motorways to link faraway parts of the city, but you’ll need to spend a lot more time planning.
Both games “end” similarly. In Mini Metro, your game ends if a station becomes overcrowded – that happens if you don’t transport enough passengers out of it. Mini Motorways ends if not enough people get to or from a building in a similar way. Basically, make sure to keep everyone moving! (Even if they’re tiny!)
Simple gameplay = great relaxing puzzle
Mini Metro’s gameplay is simple because you’re literally connecting two (or more) dots together with a line. Maybe you’re dragging a train onto a line or between lines. Rarely will you drag an interchange onto a station.
The gameplay for Mini Motorways is slightly more complex than Mini Metro. Not to the point that it’s harder because of it. I would compare it to drawing a Triangle as opposed to drawing a line.
In Mini Motorways, you have to build roads that can have junctions. The main difference is that you tap on the screen to enter “Road Building mode.” (I have no idea if that’s what it’s actually called, but we’ll go with it.) You tap on the screen (or click) and then a grid pops up. Then you can either build or destroy roads. This is about the only bit that’s more complex than Mini Metro, and it’s still really simple.
This is what makes both of these games really chill. You’re not needing to remember 3 or 4 different things you have to do to get one thing to happen. It doesn’t even feel like you have to remember anything. It’s pretty intuitive. I’ve been able to leave each game for about a week or so and then come back and know exactly how to play it again. I can barely do that with most games out there, and I have to start a new game if I’m playing Dark Souls.
A chill pass-time
One of the things I love the most about this game is the combination of it’s music and gameplay. The pace of the gameplay isn’t necessarily “fast.” It’s not slow by any means, but it’s at a manageable pace. The music matches as well, giving a very simple ambience with your gameplay. Even when things are going bad, the game overall feels very relaxing.
You can also choose between three colour palettes. I’m not sure if this changes the difficulty. My score stays the same between them so I’d assume not. I personally like using either the default or dark colours.
Game modes?
There is a difference that makes me recommend Mini Metro over Mini Motorways. Mini Metro has a few extra game modes that Mini Motorways misses out on. Mini Metro has a harder “Extreme” mode that prevents you from removing stations from lines. Essentially, it’s there to make you plan ahead a bit more. I can see why this isn’t in Mini Motorways, mainly because I can’t figure out how they would make it work as well. Mini Metro shows you where the next station will pop up a little bit before it does to help you plan in this mode. I’m not sure how that would work in Motorways.
With Mini Metro’s endless and creative modes, you don’t need to worry about overcrowding. In creative specifically, you can edit and place stations, too. If, like me, you just want to play creatively, you can do that in Mini Metro. I would love to do that with cities in Mini Motorways! I could make a lovely looking road layout. Or just gridlock everyone for the fun of it.
Should you get it?
Yes! Mini Motorways is still extremely fun! The only down-side is that it’s a bit less forgiving on it’s level of challenge, but if you spend time with it you’ll pick it up. It’s also still fun even when it’s difficult.
The music is brilliantly reactive and helps to keep you entertained. The visuals are clean and simple, but extremely pretty. The gameplay follows that clean and simple feel, but gives you a surprising amount of room to be creative.
Does Mini Motorways beat Mini Metro?
I would say that they complement each other, at least in Motorways’ current state. The goal in Mini Motorways is a bit harder to get. The gameplay is a lot less forgiving compared to Mini Metro’s standard gameplay. Maybe that’s a reference to public transit vs roads?
However, there are a lot of things better about Mini Motorways. I think it looks better. Yeah, the aesthetic of Mini Metro is that you’re building a transit Map, but having buildings and cars that look 3D driving along roads just looks a bit better.
If you can, get both! Else, Mini Metro is a great way to start out with this type of gameplay as the more accessible option. Yes, I’m saying that because I find it a bit easier.
