Game: Mini Motorways
Genre: Strategy, Simulation
System: Steam (Also on Mobile)
Developer|Publisher: Dinosaur Polo Club | Stride PR
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: UK TBC | EU € TBC | USA $ TBC
Release Date: July 20th, 2021
Review code provided with many thanks to Stride PR
Draw the Roads
Mini Motorways is a strategic simulation game about designing a roadmap for a growing city. You need to keep the traffic flowing to its destination to rack up a high score. If you’re looking for that next Zen-like gaming experience this is the game for you.
Top-down View
You play the game by selecting a city, then entering a map with a top-down view. The aim of the game is to draw roads from coloured car depots to their matching colour coded destination. Things start out very simple with just a few depots and locations but as the game progresses different coloured cars and destinations appear. Soon you have a massive network of roads to manage. You can only lay a limited number of road pieces. You can collect more as you level up and also choose an upgrade like adding traffic lights, roundabouts, bridges and motorways.
All of which are designed to help make the traffic run a bit smoother and get cars to their destination faster. Deleting the road will replenish your pieces so you may find you need to change your road layout frequently to keep things moving. Roads can be placed horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The game ends if it takes too long for some of the cars to reach their destination. You are given a high score and you can either move on to try another city or opt to try again.
Click of the Mouse
The controls are very simple on the PC. Just use the mouse to move your cursor and place and delete the road with a click of the left or right mouse button. When you do have an upgrade you simply drag and drop it from the bottom of the screen. It’s a very simple pick up and play formula that players of any skill level can jump into and have some fun.
The graphics are nice and simple. In each city, you can choose from three environments like night and daytime. Cars and locations are nicely colour coded. The game feels like an entertaining version of Google maps, only you can actually see all the cars in motion. As you are managing the traffic a nice soothing soundtrack plays in the background. This is one traffic jam style game you really don’t mind being stuck in.
Traffic Zen
There is something very Zen about the whole experience. While more cars gradually flood the screen and you try to work out which roads to place and delete, I never felt stressed. The whole experience felt smooth and overall enjoyable. It’s one of those mobile style games where you intend to play for a short session and soon find you’ve played multiple times and it’s also dark outside.
With a simple design, it’s easy to pick up and play Mini Motorways over and over. There are also several cities to unlock and you can test your high score skills against the rest of the world if you want to feel depressed. I think I prefer just competing with myself. Levels are also randomly generated so even if you play the same city the appearance of new depots is always different.
Conclusion – A Mini Adventure
Mini Motorways is a relaxing game that’s ideal for those gaming sessions where you don’t want to think too much. Simple premise but highly addictive. This is a game about controlling traffic, only you won’t get hot and bothered like the real thing. Accessible and entertaining for everyone.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot
