Mini Motorways Review: An Addictive Little Road-maker

 

Of course, it starts in LA. Mini Motorways, finally came to Steam a week ago and it's hard to stop playing it. Just played another game before going to bed, last night. Why can't I make it to a thousand travelers in Beijing? Is the game telling me it's just that overpopulated or am I just not good yet? I've done it in Manila, Munich and Moscow, red-tinted, I might add. This addictive, easy-going, road-making game with tender bits of music from Disasterpeace is hard to stop playing.

From the, I need a t-shirt of, Dinosaur Polo Club, makers of Mini Metro, comes it's latest cute mobile
game, Mini Motorways. And mobile might be fine for the Apple Arcade version, but I meant it in the sense of making roads or rails for cars, trains and automobiles. 

In Mini Motorways you make roads from point A to B in a colorful world that looks like a board game of Google Maps. As time goes forward more points of different colors are needed to be connected. It of course grows more and more complex, just like the city of LA. Which, is known the world over for its traffic and huge highways; a perfect starting city for the game.

Different levels are different cities around the world and they all have their own look and maybe an iconic waterway. They wouldn't be that identifiable based on a real map, but each has it's own feel. More cities are to be added on over time, probably free of charge, like DPC's last game. Different locations have different problems like needing the upgrades of bridges or tunnels to get around or through or over. It was still nice to visit Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro and add as many motorways, and roundabouts before losing control.

 

You see the game spaces out time by having you set-up your roads in a week, really a few minutes. And every week you get a beneficial upgrade like traffic lights or a motorway. And if you're not British, you might think of motorway as just highway, which might confuse you, as it did me, for a second.

And this game doesn't want to confuse you. I haven't seen one (a game) give so many options to chill you out with night mode, colorblind mode and even turning off scene transitions, because there's some slight movement on screen when that happens.

Though, it looks like it would play nice on an Apple Phone or tablet, I like relaxing and trying to manage my streets on my PC. The cities with simple looks, look great on an HD monitor or TV. Cute car sounds connected with the bits and bops of Disasterpeace draw you in.

And yes, your city grows as the game goes on, like a zooming out a camera shot on a map.

 

It's hard to describe, but I would put it on par with building with Legos or making stuff in Minecraft; it's just fun to make roads. Seeing a colorful metropolis pop-up around you and having to be an Uber or Lyft  app and get cars places as fast as possible just gives you bliss.

 

Mini Motorways had me just jumping into game after game as they usually don't last that long. I just
wanted to see if a I could make my roads a little bit better or finally get the achievement for Zurich. Damn, you Zurich!

For hours of easy to get in an out of fun that doesn't requite Lego clean-up, I suggest grabbing the game and trying to get as many cars on the road as you can.

Get it on Steam

or Apple Arcade

*You can hear the game doesn't like it when you get rid of trees.

Game provided by publisher for review purposes