Mini Metro

Immaculately done minimal puzzle game, that makes a good timewaster every now and then. Also a good demonstration that I'm no good at planning rail transport links.

Got the minimum achievement for every station in the game so I feel I've 'completed' the base game and I have mixed feelings.

The game is very addictive and aesthetically pleasing on a basic level, but I don't think it quite achieves the core concept: emulating Harry Beck's iconic metro map design that now every city in the world effectively copies in gameplay form.

Regardless of the aesthetic the game is a neat and fun little train management game. There's a satisfaction to be found and strategy, I definitely improved over the course of the 15 or 20 hours I sunk into the thing and that was gratifying.

I think what would truly elevate this game is if the most efficient way to play this game was to create the most aesthetically pleasing map. Not as in, literally making the game a de facto map design simulator, but if by proxy the most optimal gameplay produced what could genuinely resemble a metro map for a city.

One way it could have done this was more incentive to really have one or a few 'central' stations, but the game really emphasized a balance that doesn't exist in real life cities. There are heavily populated areas and lightly populated ones, and I think the game could have benefited from that.

I think the game ultimately leans too hard into the 'mini'. A slight departure from minimalism, a tiny bit more added complexity, could have gone a long way.

Been playing this game over the past few weeks, and I've got to say, this is the kind of game design that I absolutely adore and aspire to be able to employ in the future. There isn't much to this game, only a few core mechanics, and the game never really develops much past this core, but it's this elegance and simplicity that makes the game work as well as it does, being very intuitive and easy to both understand and pick up. Each mechanic of the game is constructed perfectly to provide the player a constant sense of feeling as if everything is just slightly too inefficient, which makes each reward you get at the end of a week feel like an absolute godsend, just to send them back into a state of constantly attempting to improves their train networks to get ahead of the curve. Giving the players a bit of choice for each upgrade is also condusive to giving the player some agency and has a twofold benefit of providing multiple deviations in strategy, while also forcing players to step out of their comfort zones if the game doesn't give them what they wanted to see. The extra replay-value this provides cannot be understated and is a big part of the reason why this game is so successful at what it does, and is absolutely essential to this sort of game.

Another benefit of the simplicity of this is the way it can make even small changes feel absolutely massive, which makes the potential amount of engaging content that this has between its variety of maps feel gigantic and meaningful. With just a slightly different layout of where the player needs to add tunnels, the game ends up making the make feel significantly different as time goes on and the player is made to juggle so many different lines and stations that even the smallest adjustment matters. This is further heightened by the unique properties some of the maps have, whether it's adding a different, faster train that the player can place or being given more carriages to attach to smaller trains, making division of these resources even more crucial than before. The sound design is another element of the game that's absolutely perfect, with it never failing to be relaxing while also contributing to the feedback it gives the player. This is done by having each event, whether it's another station appearing or passenger being delivered have its own note that's played to the rhythm of the music, making the various happenings of the game essentially form the game's soundtrack, which is really clever in its own right and also executed amazingly here, both sounding good and having a significant role in gameplay. Ultimately it's the perfect balancing and fine-tuning of the few mechanics Mini Metro has combined with smatterings of meaningful variety that make this one of the best little time management games I've played, getting the absolute most out of such elegant simplicity. A must play for those who like the sorts of games that are low-commitment and easy to pick up and play with some thinking required on the player's end.

I remember checking out the one level demo on the dev's website a few years back and playing a couple hours straight of it. Since then I've picked it up on both the Play Store and Steam, going for and nailing the highscores of friends in dedicated sessions and playing it in late night discord chat parties for hours.

It's an extremely simple game concept. The nodes will spawn passengers that must be taken to alternate nodes corresponding with the passengers shape. Connect them. Really fucking simple. However, there's an underlying complexity that you'll soon discover when playing. Longer routes mean longer train times to different nodes. Some node shapes spawn in surplus, others in rarity. Loops can be created instead of lines. Extra trains, tunnels, bridges, and passenger cars can be added to boost their efficiency. It's both a game that can be flicked on and played in passivity like the lot of simple puzzle games, and can also can be played in an intensive session with a dedicated struggling towards a score and achievement.

It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest puzzle games out there. Definitely worth checking out for anybody interested in it.

Very relaxing and simple game. Easy to learn, difficult to master. Fantastic aesthetic, pleasing visual design and the audio design is spot-on. These guys know how to use minimalism to great effect. Only criticism is that there is not much variation in the gameplay, but when the foundation is so rock solid that may not be such a bad thing.