I don’t mean disrespect for Apple Arcade subscribers here but there is a growing trend that very good games appear on the service, largely ignored by the majority who are not part of it, and then enjoyed by everyone else for the first time like brand new games when they end up on other platforms.
I wrote about one of them last month, Lego: The Builder’s Journeyand today I am writing about someone else Mini highways. The continuation of Mini subway, a game I find with horror is now seven years old, Mini highways It first appeared in 2019 through Apple’s subscription service, but has now also appeared on Steam, which means I can play it and enjoy every second of it.
Gita wrote about the game back in 2019 when she played it on the phone, and while everything she said about how terrible cars are is still very true, I still love this game for the same reasons I fell in love with Mini subway.
As well as Mini subway it wasn’t really about trains, mini highways weren’t also really about cars. Sure, there are superficial allusions to how roads work, but it takes about four seconds to know that this isn’t a serious simulation of city planning.
The theme is the excuse to hit us with what this series does best: elegantly escalating puzzle challenges that in most cases would quickly become annoying if they weren’t wrapped in the coolest visuals and interfaces available can imagine.
Just check out this trailer. Anyone who has ever lived in an Autostadt knows that a large motorway construction is hell on earth, and anyone who has ever had to drive to work knows that traffic jams are also hell on earth, just on smaller space.
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Here, however, the reality of the simulated is withdrawn to such an extent that huge, busy intersections are represented by beautifully minimalist traffic lights and motorways are brought to life simply by dragging them over a map.
There is still pressure here, as with every game of Mini highways it’s about building the right roads fast enough to meet the rising demand – if not, it’s game over – but every time I failed I just said, ‘Ah, well, that was it nice, let’s do that again. “.
However, the game’s challenges never feel unfair, or stressful, they are only there because you know that this is a game that gets a little more difficult the longer you play, and that there will inevitably come a point where it all becomes too much and the game is over, no matter how Your planning and construction speed went well.
And when that happens that’s cool, you can just slide to another city – there’s plenty to choose from, each with regional color palettes and a rough approximation of their surroundings – and try again.
Mini highways is now available on Steam, and is also coming to Nintendo Switch in 2022.
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