Time to Beat all 20 maps:
6 hours
Mini Metro, an indie game by
Dinosaur Polo Club, caught my attention when it released in 2015. Of
particular interest: a visually striking simplicity combined with a
bold color scheme. The question was, would the gameplay exhibit the
same mixture of simplicity and dazzling display?
In Mini Metro, the player is
charged with the management of a subway system in one of twenty real
world cities. Yet Mini Metro is not a management simulation
like SimCity, Dwarf Fortress, RollerCoaster Tycoon,
but a casual game containing no economy. Instead, each map is
composed of Stations and Waterways (which may be the only element
historically relevant to a city). Each map begins with three, black
outlined shapes, with a pure white center, and a grayish white
background, with river, bays, and oceans distinguished by a bright
blue area. These beginning shapes will always be a Circle, Square,
and Triangle. These shapes, and the others which will pop into
being, are Stations, which serve as both departure and destination.
Almost immediately, passengers appear.
They are depicted as solid black shapes (matching one of the
available stations), residing to the right of a station. Smaller
than the stations, the first six commuters wait patiently for a tram,
but the seventh and beyond are antsy. Every subsequent traveler
after the sixth bounce impatiently, like an adult in rush hour
traffic. In addition to this identifier, a overcrowded station
blinks a color countdown, lasting forty-five seconds, after which the
game ends in defeat.
To prevent this eventual outcome, the
player connects stations with subways, trolleys, trains, or other
rail based transportation. On most maps, the player begins with
access to three subways lines. These lines are vibrantly colored
which aids in the already intuitive design process. To use an
available subway line, the player clicks any station, and drags
through any stations they want to connect. Once a line is created,
Mini Metro will automatically assign a train to it if one is
in reserve.
Passengers need to be transported to a
station which matches their shape. Oddly, any particular shape (such
as a circle), doesn't care which particular station they reach, as
long as it matches their shape. Mini Metro uses three
common-ish shapes, Circle (the most common), Triangle (common), and
Square (uncommon). There are also seven unique shapes, Cross,
Pentagon, Teardrop, Star, Football, Diamond, and Rhombus. A map will
only contain one of each unique station. A train which passes
through a station with waiting passengers will pick up any which it
can drop off at their destination, or which it can move to an
interconnecting line to bring them closer to their final destination.
A basic train carries six passengers, but carriages can be attached,
which allow an additional six riders.
Maps start small, but as time passes
they expand, almost imperceptibly. Expansion introduces more
complicated waterways, and allows for expansive subway lines. Time
is measured by a clock in the upper right, with small type which
tracks the days of the week. Every Sunday the player is awarded a
free train and a choice of two rewards. These include: another
line, a carriage, an Interchange Station, and more tunnels. The
player is given a limited number of tunnels/bridges at the beginning
of each map. These are spent to cross Waterways, and without them,
the player must seek alternate routes.
The key gameplay revolves around the
expansion of the city, and a player's ability to adapt to the new and
unique stations. In addition to new stations, old stations may
transform into one of the unique shapes without warning. The player
has any number of tools which enable them to adjust. One can alter
any part of any line at any time, instantly. A station can be
removed from a railway line, or an entire line can be deleted and
reconstructed anew. There is no cost (because the game does not
include money), and Mini Metro can be paused, so no time is
lost. There are some downsides though. By the time one notices a
problem, a complete overhaul is too late. And while there is no
inherent penalty in a massive reorganization, there is one
underestimated issue. At the moment of the reorganization, all the
trains are carrying passengers along the tracks. Completely
readjusting the tracks, forces each train to dump its riders at the
next station, leaving a disordered, chaotic mess, which compounds the
congestion.
Another feature of Mini Metro is
it scoreboard which compares the player to their friends and the
community at large. I originally intended to try to beat my brother
on every map, but gave up at the six hour mark. Viewing the leader
boards, I'm astonished by the achievements of the best players, and
wonder what strategies they employ. Do they change their design
often, or rarely? Do they prefer (during the Sunday rewards) to
acquire lines or carriages (or a mixture)? I favored shorter lines
with fewer carriages, but maybe longer lines with many carriages is
better. Do better players design their subways in a grid, or by
regions leading to a central hub?
I have other questions, less related to
strategy. At the start, a player can only access three of the
twenty cities, and unlocks the others by delivering 500 passengers to
their destination. Are the later levels supposed to be more
difficult, or just different? And as relating to the historical
aspect: Are new stations randomly generated, or are maps
semi-predetermined based on real world features?
For anyone with the time and
inclination, Mini Metro also offers a multitude of stats in
its visually appealing, easy to digest style, displayed as graphs at
the conclusion of each map. Players can evaluate their performance
after a loss, or transition to Endless Mode, where losing is
impossible. Another mode prevents the player from altering their
tracks once laid down.
In conclusion, Mini Metro's
aesthetic matches perfectly with its mechanics. It's a delightful
game full of chime and flash, challenging but quick, and deep with
unanswerable strategic questions for such a simple game. One won't
have any difficulty beginning their first station, and though one may
decide that each map is unworthy of a second play-through, Mini
Metro contains enough momentum to carry the player to the final
destination.
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