Game Review: Mini Motorways (Mobile)

From the makers of the excellent and addictive Mini Metro comes Mini Motorways, a road building game. One that hits most of the same notes as the developer’s earlier game but a few noticeable issues stop it being as fun and addictive.

Gameplay is super-simple. Connect buildings to houses via roads that you draw with your finger. The aim is to allow cars to drive from houses to buildings and once there, the vehicles collect pins increasing your score. Periodically more houses and buildings appear and you must connect them all up to your ever-growing road network. What begins as a simple 2 lane route will quickly evolve into a bustling metropolis where traffic management becomes key.

Challenge comes not just from having to find connections and ensure your roads aren’t overly busy but from using your limited road tiles efficiently. As well as the bonus items you get after a week of in-game time has passed. These can be massively useful for easing congestion and include bridges to get roads over water, motorways that go above roads and buildings and even traffic lights for busy junctions.

Although the latter is currently next to useless and actually causes more problems then it solves.

Mini Motorways is simply about setting the highest score possible on a number of pre-determined city maps. We have Los Angeles, Beijing, Tokyo, Dar es Salaam, Moscow and Munich. However, each attempt is unique as buildings and houses randomly appear.

As your city grows, it becomes tougher and tougher to manage the roads and the pins that appear above buildings increase. Should you not be able to get enough cars to the building to clear them, a timer will begin. Once full, the building shuts down and the game ends. Frustratingly, once that timer begins you might as well give up as reversing it is quite difficult. If you had such a low influx of cars to even get the timer started, chances are you’ll not have enough to stop it long-term. There’s just that air of inevitability once it starts.

The simple graphics, relaxing music and easy to understand gameplay makes Mini Motorways a winner of a game. However, if you’re coming to it after having played Mini Metro you’re likely to find it a lesser experience. One that’s still better than many games on the mobile market though.