Apple Arcade - Mini Motorways (2019) [+]
Nov 07 2022
Mini Motorways is a sequel to Mini Metro. In Mini Metro you are building a transit system connecting stops in a city and the end result looks a bit like a New York subway map or a Bay Area Rapid Transit map.
Mini Motorways instead focuses on cars: there are homes and work places that randomly pop up and you build roads to connect them. Everything is by color: red homes for red work places, blue homes for blue work places, etc. The algorithm is simple; when a work place person is ready to go home the nearest available car (each home has two cars) goes and gets them.
Mini Metro placement variety is based on railway lines (each a different color), number of cars (each holding 6 passengers and you can switch cars between lines), tunnels (limited quantity, used to traverse rivers), and interchanges (very limited, I forgot the effect). Passengers pop up at any station and they will get off whenever a stop matches their shape.
Mini Motorways has road tiles and the map is grid based. You can place roads orthogonally or diagonally and you can rotate a home so that the entrance points orthogonally in a cardinal direction. Special tiles:
Bridge - to cross water
Tunnel - to cross mountains
Roundabout - to smooth out traffic. Roundabouts also save a few road tiles but can't be placed anywhere.
Traffic Light - to smooth out traffic and the lights are coordinated.
Freeway - connects two points with a non-stop road and freeway can cross water
There are cities with different layouts. Challenge modes which restrict special tiles (e.g. you get one freeway at start but never get any more) or change runtime effects (e.g. work places start out as circles which have double the employees). There is a daily challenge and a weekly challenge. There is an endless mode where work places can still get full but the game doesn't end like in normal mode. There is also an expert mode which I haven't tried yet.
Mini Motorways is a step up in complexity from Mini Metro but not a really complicated game. Nice graphics and a good touch interface (though the latest update doesn't seem to have a zoom in so it gets harder to draw roads as the city gets big). Good amount of variety making this a pretty fun game that can be played for a long time without becoming boring.
Mini Motorways instead focuses on cars: there are homes and work places that randomly pop up and you build roads to connect them. Everything is by color: red homes for red work places, blue homes for blue work places, etc. The algorithm is simple; when a work place person is ready to go home the nearest available car (each home has two cars) goes and gets them.
Mini Metro placement variety is based on railway lines (each a different color), number of cars (each holding 6 passengers and you can switch cars between lines), tunnels (limited quantity, used to traverse rivers), and interchanges (very limited, I forgot the effect). Passengers pop up at any station and they will get off whenever a stop matches their shape.
Mini Motorways has road tiles and the map is grid based. You can place roads orthogonally or diagonally and you can rotate a home so that the entrance points orthogonally in a cardinal direction. Special tiles:
Bridge - to cross water
Tunnel - to cross mountains
Roundabout - to smooth out traffic. Roundabouts also save a few road tiles but can't be placed anywhere.
Traffic Light - to smooth out traffic and the lights are coordinated.
Freeway - connects two points with a non-stop road and freeway can cross water
There are cities with different layouts. Challenge modes which restrict special tiles (e.g. you get one freeway at start but never get any more) or change runtime effects (e.g. work places start out as circles which have double the employees). There is a daily challenge and a weekly challenge. There is an endless mode where work places can still get full but the game doesn't end like in normal mode. There is also an expert mode which I haven't tried yet.
Mini Motorways is a step up in complexity from Mini Metro but not a really complicated game. Nice graphics and a good touch interface (though the latest update doesn't seem to have a zoom in so it gets harder to draw roads as the city gets big). Good amount of variety making this a pretty fun game that can be played for a long time without becoming boring.