I feel bad giving it a lower score when I was so obsessed with this game at the start, but after the first 10 maps or so it all started to feel the same, with no variations in mechanics. The maps themselves change, but they all look fairly similar and have exactly the same elements — stations, lines and tunnels. This super minimalistic approach to gameplay has its appeal of course! But for me personally, I would've wanted something just a little more to make the maps feel different from each other. But still, I quite liked this little game, and I loved it during the first 2-3 hours or so! Don't be like me and set out with a goal to clear all the maps, take things slow and do a map now and then and I think you'll have a pretty good time!

As a kid, I was absolutely obsessed with subways. Whenever my family and I traveled to a new city, my immediate fixation was not the city’s many attractions but rather the intricate infrastructure linking all these various locales. While my family handled the destinations, I handled everything in-between. I wanted to know the most efficient way to get from point A to B, if there were any loopholes or special conditions necessitating an off-the-beaten-path itinerary, and most of all, I kept tabs on any planned changes regarding the evolving transportation so I could make notes of where to adjust and prioritize for future trips. I never realized it back then, but there was a certain satisfaction to memorizing every station and optimal route and running the simulations in my head that eventually led me down the path of engineering.

Mini Metro is essentially my childhood fascination with subways conceptualized as a video game. It’s super easy to pick up thanks to its minimalist design and intuitive controls; passengers are depicted with geometric symbols headed to corresponding symbolic destinations, distinctly colored subway lines are constructed by dragging your mouse between stops, and you can easily manipulate existing lines without disrupting progress by simply clicking and dragging sections of a line to new stops. At the same time, it can quickly become challenging, but this skill ceiling feels fairly approachable because the game is less about memorizing specific formulas and more about understanding implicit guidelines. For example, having a line that hits every stop in the area sounds appealing, but what’s less appealing is how much more time is subsequently spent traveling and loading/unloading passengers; you can at least somewhat account for this by toggling specific stations as “no-stop” to create express lines. The AI is fairly predictable and will always calculate the shortest path to the corresponding destination, but this also means that there’s real potential for them to overload the capacity of certain stations while in-transit between different lines. Alongside this, the game is great at organically iterating upon its basic formula to escalate difficulty by introducing more stops, altering the shape of stops to create more unique passengers and necessitate different routes, and increase the system’s load with more passengers while forcing the player to juggle their already limited number of lines, cars/carriages, and tunnels/bridges as also dictated with newly unlocked maps. At its core, it’s a game that’s great at subtly teaching players how to recognize bottlenecks and micromanage individual elements to fully understand how minor changes can quickly ripple across the fully intertwined system.

My only real nitpicks are that picking apart subway loops can get a bit annoying since you can only fiddle with one exposed end at a time while in loop form; it’s a minor complaint considering that you can pause the game at any time to more carefully reconstruct lines, but adding extra steps to reconstruct common subway loops is fairly noticeable considering Mini Metro’s elegant interface. Also, I do wish that there was a way to construct slightly longer paths along rivers instead of automatically building across them between certain junctions and using up my already limited supply of tunnels and bridges. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that this last gripe is mostly personal, and I think this game absolutely delivers upon its premise with precise execution. With so many different maps and daily challenges to boot, there’s plenty of content to exhaust within the game, and if one finds the basic experience too stressful or is more interested in sheer experimentation, then they can simply turn to endless and creative modes instead. For an accessible yet deceptively deep management game that gives great bang for your buck, I’d say Mini Metro is a fantastic entry point into the world of optimization simulators that more than holds its own against its more daunting peers.

Titul, který mistrně balancuje na hraně logické a dopravně budovatelské hry. Bere si totiž to nejlepší z obou. Máte z toho tedy ve výsledku hned dvojí radost; jednak z rozlousknutí zapeklitého logického oříšku (a že to v pozdějších fázích je sakra zapeklitý logický rychlík) a v druhém plánu se záhy přistihnete, jak nehledáte tu nejschůdnější cestu, ale takovou která šlape jak po másle i z "dopravního" hlediska. Pokud máte nutkavou potřebu se v budovatelských strategiích piplat s každým detailem čistě pro osobní potěchu nad dobře odvedenou prací a nespokojíte se s prostým vyřešením problému, tak dobře víte o čem mluvím.

Map je tak akorát, nabídka režimů dostačující a výzev je habaděj. Jediný výraznější zádrhel je podíl náhody. Zatímco to, že stanice vyskakují nahodile příliš nevadí, tak nabídka bonusů na konci úspěšně završeného týdne hraje zásadní roli. Jakkoli byste třeba potřebovali tunely, tak se vám klidně stane, že několik týdnů až měsíců ne a ne přijít. A jindy chodí týden co týden.

I přesto však vynikající a návyková záležitost. Tedy pokud překousnete fakt, že chtě nechtě jde "pouze" o hříčku, která stylem hraní sedne spíše na tablety během cest MHD než na nějaké dlouhé vysedávání u PC.

Fantastic minimalist puzzle game. Your objective is to get passengers from one metro stop to another. You "fail" the level when one stop becomes full.You build as you go and it becomes more difficult the longer you play. There are options to play free mode and competitive.

I appreciate the fact I can pause the game and give myself some time to think. I have played other puzzle games that are similar but without a pause option; they quickly become stressful. This was more mellow. I am a designer, so I'm a sucker for the minimal design in the game.