Mini Motorways is a strategy simulation game developed by Dinosaur Polo Club. This city-building game challenges players to design a bustling city purely by focusing on urban roads. Here, you will redesign your roads to place motorways that connect every part of your metropolis. 

Mini Motorways will remind metro heads of yet another game from this developer called Mini Metro. Only this time, instead of subways, this game will take place above the ground. Moreover, this game is an evolution of the minimalist transport simulator. Although, its gameplay is rather plain and lacks the replayability that its predecessor offers. 

How do you play the game?

Mini Motorways has simple yet engaging gameplay. As mentioned, your goal is to connect the houses, shops, office buildings, and warehouses with roads. To do so, you only have to click and drag the road to your desired location. However, there are limited road tiles that you can use, although you can delete and replace them anytime. With this, you need a strategy to keep your roads network optimized. 

As you design your roads, cars will travel from houses to various destinations.  A countdown begins when the cars run out of roads, which will eventually trigger a game over. If you manage to succeed in the weekly challenge, you will get one of the two randomly selected rewards. These rewards can be useful items, such as roundabouts, traffic lights,  motorways, and of course, additional road tiles. 

Unfortunately, the game lacks long-term replayability. Unlike Mini Metro, which has years’ worth of content updates, this game only comes with 11 levels. Moreover, it does not have sandbox modes or the option to save maps locally. The levels also become repetitive and do not provide enough variety. Sure, there are daily challenges to break the monotony, but it’s still not enough to convince players to pick up the game again. 

A birthday celebration

In honor of the Mini franchise’s 10th anniversary, Mini Motorways brings players with three popular maps from Mini Metro — namely the London, Mumbai, and New York City maps. The game will also introduce an all-new building type, which would be the train stations. When plotting out other roads and pathways, you’ll have to keep these new buildings and your newly constructed railway tracks and pre-existing railways in mind.

Introducing … creative mode

The game announced the long-awaited Creative Mode during the Future Games Show Live. This new mode grants players endless freedom, allowing them to change building colors, pivot or delete destinations, and access nearly unlimited upgrades. Developers are eager to see the innovative designs players will create, as this highly requested feature aims to encourage player creativity across all platforms.

Is the game good?

Mini Motorways is a good title to try if you are looking for a casual game. It offers simple gameplay, superb visuals, and an enthralling soundtrack. However, true to its name, the game is a little too mini. Its map lacks mechanical variety and has no additional gameplay modes. The levels are also repetitive and tend to become boring. Overall, it does not reach the same height as its predecessor.