Mini Motorways
| Mini Motorways | |
|---|---|
| File:Mini Motorways icon.png | |
| Developer(s) | Dinosaur Polo Club |
| Platform(s) | iOS (Apple Arcade), Steam |
| Release | iOS 19 September 2019 Steam 20 July 2021 |
Mini Motorways is a puzzle strategy game released by New Zealand[1] studio Dinosaur Polo Club. It is the studio's follow-up to their 2015 video game Mini Metro. The game tasks the player with creating roads to connect coloured houses to buildings.
The game was released on Apple Arcade in September 2019[2] and on the Steam store in July 2021.[3] It is also planned for release on the Nintendo Switch in early 2022.[4]
Gameplay
The game plays similarly to Mini Metro, its predecessor, except it involves building roads instead of rail networks.[5] The game consists of drawing roads to link houses (which contain cars) to buildings of identical colours (red to red, yellow to yellow, etc.).[6][7] New buildings and houses appear randomly as the game progresses.[7] The buildings have pins which the cars of the correct color must collect. The score is the number of pins that have been collected.[8] If too many pins accumulate on a building (seven for square buildings and ten for circular buildings), a timer is set. Once a building's timer is full, the game is over.[8] Vehicles reaching the destination will reduce the progression of the timer slightly, and if the number of pins on the building is not greater than capacity, the timer will deplete by itself. If the timer is reduced completely, it will split back up into standard pins. Vehicles will prioritize buildings with timers to help deal with them.
After each week, the player may choose between two upgrade choices, which could include special tools.[6] Both choices will always provide extra road tiles, and one choice will always provide a special tool. Sometimes one of the choices will just be road tiles. Special tools include:
- Bridges and Tunnels - Build a road across water or through a mountain, respectively. Only one is used for a stretch of road across an obstacle, no matter how long that stretch is. These are separate upgrades, but are so identical that they share an entry on this page.
- Traffic Lights - Alternates the flow of traffic. [quantify]
- Roundabout - A 3x3 circle of one-way road (no road tiles needed to build) to help improve efficiency of an intersection.
- Motorway - A singular stretch of road that links point A directly to point B, passing over everything, with the exception of mountains, on its way. The player can shift the Motorway's route (without affecting gameplay) by dragging its shield, allowing the player to see what's going on below it.
If a special tool is deleted, it returns to the inventory. Traffic lights, roundabouts, and the ends of motorways can be moved without having to delete and re-place them.
Reviews
Mini Motorways received generally positive reviews. Nathan Reinauer from TouchArcade praised the game's soundtrack and minimalistic art style, both similar to Mini Metro.[6]
The traffic light upgrade was criticized for its lack of usefulness in gameplay, often making the traffic worse.[6][9]
References
- ^ https://dinopoloclub.com/
- ^ "Mini Motorways". Metacritic. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ "Mini Motorways". Metacritic. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ "Apple Arcade's Mini Motorways Is Cruising Onto Switch Next Year". Nintendo Life. 24 May 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ Gregson-Wood, Stephen. "Mini Motorways is a management game where you have to create road networks that's available on Apple Arcade". www.pocketgamer.com. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Apple Arcade: 'Mini Motorways' Review - More Micro Management". TouchArcade. 30 September 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ a b Donlan, Christian (23 September 2019). "Mini Motorways is the gloriously organic sequel to Mini Metro". Eurogamer. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ a b Fisher, Carl 'The Disc' (15 December 2019). "Game Review: Mini Motorways (Mobile)". Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ "Apple Arcade: Mini Motorways Is an Addictive Puzzle Game I Can't Stop Playing". The Mac Observer. 24 September 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2021.