Seller: Dinosaur Polo Club

Platform: iOS 8.0+

Size: 113 MB

Price: $5

In Mini Metro you build an abstract rail system to move people around. Each map starts with three locations and you draw lines to connect them. Once a rail line is drawn a train moves back and forth along it (or in a circle if you connect locations in a circle). People appear randomly and the train picks them up and delivers them to their destinations. More locations pop up so you're constantly adding to the rail system.

Each location is marked with a symbol and there are three common symbols: square which is often only one at start and very few even later on, triangles are more common, and circles are most common especially out in the fringes. Later on unique symbols pop up (or a common symbol changes into a unique symbol). Unique in that there will only ever be one star, or crescent, or half circle, etc on the map.

When people show up they appear as little black symbols which matches their destination. Little black squares want to go to a square location. In general it seems like they'll get off at the first matching location a train stops at, though sometimes I saw people go to a different matching location.

This being a commuter rail system eventually people will have to switch trains to reach their destination. Each location can only hold so many people so sometimes a location is a good candidate to upgrade to a hub which can hold more people (though I rarely do this and would rather get other upgrades).

At the end of each week you get two upgrades. The first is always a train. The second is one of:

1. *Rail - can start a new rail line (each map has a maximum number of rail lines)
   

2. *Carriage - can be attached to a train to double it's capacity (why not use more trains? A rail line can only have four trains on it).
   

3. *Tunnel - to cross rivers. All maps have a river, sometimes more.
   

4. *Hub - to promote a location into a hub.
   

5. *Fast train - I think the Tokyo map has a fast train.
   

There are three game modes:

1. *Normal - when a location gets too many people a timer for that location starts. If congestion is not relieved before the timer runs out the game is over.
   

2. *Endless - game can never end. Instead try to get as many people traveling as possible. As you hit milestones you get three or four upgrades.
   

3. *Extreme - like normal but more so.
   

There are also daily challenges.

There are 18 maps, each based on a city in the world, with the surrounding area. For example San Francisco is the north east of SF plus a bit into Marin county and a good portion of Oakland centered on the Bay Bridge.

The game plays smoothly and it can be pretty relaxing watching the trains moving around. You can drag trains from one rail line to another and move carriage cars around. The graphics are clean with the look of a transit map. Sounds are subdued traffic-like noises.

Overall it's a neat unique game.