Mini Metro 4+

The concept of mini metro is so simple that anyone can understand it in less time that it’ll take your next train to arrive. You drag metro lines between different types of stations, in order to allow passengers to move between them. If too many passengers are waiting, your stations overcrowd, ending the game. The process of organizing and rerouting your lines would be relentlessly addictive, but the polish of this app pushes it into a masterpiece.

The rails must take into account water, and the water layouts correspond to real world cities - from Hong Kong to San Francisco to London and the developer’s home of Auckland (which apparently has no real metro) the theming is top notch. Even better is how the UI is expertly crafted to resemble a real metro map, full of colorful lines and simplified shapes. Friends watching me play have asked whether air was seeing some kind of real time map of their city. It’s surreal.

For a casual gamer mini metro is unique in concept and fun. For the puzzle gamer it has depth and presents a gameplay mechanic unlike any other I’ve seen. Overall, a must have.

I bought this game because a lot of the reviews describe this as a puzzle solving game. It's not. There's nothing to "solve", all that happens is the number of stations grows at random and without limit until you can't handle them all, and then you lose. Then you play again and do the same thing. Sometimes you lose sooner and sometimes you lose later. That's it. All the different cities play the same, except the "more advanced" ones give you fewer resources to start with so you lose sooner. All the "achievements" just consist of "lose later than point X". Even the "daily challenge" is just "lose as late as you can today!"

Personally, I like actual puzzle games: they progress. If you fail a level, it's the same when you replay it so you can try a different strategy until you solve it. There is a sense of completion and achievement. This game has none of that. If you've played it for 5 minutes, you've seen everything you're ever going to see.

I will agree, at least, with those who have admired the graphics. The look of the game is a lot of fun if you're a transit buff like me. It's a pity the actual game play didn't live up to that.