Mini Metro - Game Review

In the previous blog post I talked about Humble Bundle and how it can enlighten you to a range of smaller games you may never have heard of, but are actually super fun to play. I had found Mini Metro on Steam and had it on my wish list but had not played it and to be honest I can't remember where I found it. So when I found it in the Humble Bundle I snapped it up. There are a few more games yet to play as well, but for now I have become addicted!!

The first time I loaded it, it went straight into a game and I had no idea what to do. however if you leave a map there is a tutorial plus a whole load of YouTube videos explaining and reviewing the game.

So the premise is that you are managing a train network to move passengers around. The stations are three basic shapes; circle, square and triangle, that must be connected for people to get around. To start with you have 3 coloured lines but you can choose these at the end of each week (runs Sunday to Sunday).

Some times you get a special shape appear (Star, Oval) and there will be one or two of these on screen as the stations keep appearing. Lines can only cross through stations, and after a while it gets very busy at one station with people waiting for the next train to take them to triangle however on that station people wanting to move to a Star have to transfer and this is where it gets problematic because if a station is too full then you lose.

There is an endless game mode, but at the moment there is a lot of fun in trying to trouble shoot where trains and carriages are and which lines they are most needed on. You do have a finite number of trains per line.

With some maps there are tunnels to cross water which is easy to start with but depending on how many lines you have and how many connections you need gets a real problem very quickly to start getting trains to outlying stations.

The problem with the game is when you fail, you don't want to give up. You think how can I do it better. Where can I improve?

There are a range of cities with their underground systems that offer different challenges and options. After providing a certain level of service (number of people moved) new cities will become available to try and get frustrated with.

It is a beautifully simple game, that looks like an underground tube map and plays perfectly. What I felt worked well is the music was relaxing but would change (or incidental music would happen) when you connected new stations, trains and things got hairy! It feels very fluid and you get lost in what you are trying to manage.

It is produced (from what I understand) by a New Zealand games studio and is a true classic indie game. Now is such a great time for people to find and try small and creative games outside of the main studios. Steam plays a massive part to this in terms of access to games you never knew existed. On my wish list at the moment I have mostly small games (because I have a computer that won't run some of the traditional intensive games) but I like this. I love discovering games like Mini Metro that are quick, fun and easy to pick up and get addicted to. With many of these games also now becoming PS+ and Xbox Live Arcade games.

I would suggest you try this game (and you can for free online here with no installation required). I warn you if you try it, that is it. You won't stop.

Humble Bundle - Website

I have to say that I don't always get time to play on the computer (or console) as I would like, or watch enough films worth mentioning. However something I thought would make a nice quick mention is a website.

I can't remember when I heard, or even how I heard about Humble Bundle but I am so glad I did. If you like older or indie games then this is the place for you. Well that's the reason I go there, however that's all they used to offer. You now get book bundles, at the time of writing there are 13 days left on the Manga Bundle. They offer mobile phone game bundles (I am not interested in mobile gaming, especially with the way the games have evolved into advert led, in game purchase ideas. I have my PSP still and there is a DS at home I can dig out if I want to play a game on the go).

Humble monthly is a subscription based model on more recent games. So for $12 (about £8) you get a package of games, that range in style tone and are usually always brilliant. I must admit that I don't subscribe. For the time being I just don't have time to play the games I have and another 10 games a month would not help this!

The Humble store is just a games shop with a decent price point on it. So it's worth a look if you are in the market for a new game.

The reason I wanted to write this is for the Humble Bundle section of the site. A range of games that you choose how much to pay for. You heard me correctly, you choose what to pay.

So for instance, this month there are 3 games Human Resource Machine, Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Directors Cut and A Boy and his Blob that you can pay any amount you like for (it's all done in dollars) so for $1 (£0.60) you get these three games. There are 3 more games, Mini Metro, Mushroom 11 and Towerfall Ascension that are available if you pay more than the average. So the longer you wait the higher the average. At the moment it is $5.01. Then finally there is a flat fee item of $10 to also get Evoland 2.

Some of the bundles I have bought in the past have also had artowork packs and sound tracks that you can download. Most games come with a Steam code so it is easy to activate. This month I gifted Mushroom 11 and Towerfall Ascension as I knew I would not get round to playing them, so I might as well share the love as the love only cost me about £3 to start with.

You can also set the sliders to choose where your money goes. So they are broken down between the developers, Charity and then the Humble tip.

It is really easy to do and although you can choose to only pay the minimum if you are on a tight budget, if you are feeling flush and generous then you can pay as much as you like for these games. After all they are worth it! Mini Metro this time round has already grabbed my attention and is just a wonderful game. I am not going to say any more than that for now as it deserves its own review in the not (hopefully) to distant future. 

For this bundle the top contributor has paid $70 for the bundle. 

Each month it changes and sometimes there will be nothing that interests you. The nice thing is I get an email reminder early on, I check and if I like it I buy it. My steam list of games is huge and I know I won't play half of these, that's why I like to gift a few of them to others through Reddit as it might make someone elses day. 

I might not be a top contributor to Humble Bundle, but one day I will save my money to make a purchase of more than the average price, as these guys are doing great work. After writing this I can see this might look like a paid advert, but I promise it's not. I write here because I love the things I write about and I hope that even if someone came knocking at the door asking me to write about something, I would always be truthful, not just write about it being nice because they asked me to. So the reason I chose Humble Bundle is because it allows me the chance to play some great little indie games in Steam for very few $£ which at the moment is really all I have time for or all I can afford. (This is also not meant as a bleeding heart, woo is me type post either.) 

So I will stop but just say I will keep looking and using this service because it allows me the chance to play games I would never normally have found.