Mini Motorways
Mini Motorways is a puzzle strategy game released by the New Zealand studio Dinosaur Polo Club.[1] It is a follow-up to their 2015 video game Mini Metro. The game tasks the player with creating a network of roads to connect coloured houses to buildings. Through the use of upgrades such as traffic lights, roundabouts, and motorways, the player aims to build an efficient network, allowing cars to reach their destination before the timer runs out.
Mini Motorways
- Date
- 2019
- Publisher
- Dinosaur Polo Club
- Language
- English
- Genre
- strategy video game · simulation video game · puzzle video game
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Mini Motorways is a puzzle strategy game released by the New Zealand studio Dinosaur Polo Club.[1] It is a follow-up to their 2015 video game Mini Metro. The game tasks the player with creating a network of roads to connect coloured houses to buildings. Through the use of upgrades such as traffic lights, roundabouts, and motorways, the player aims to build an efficient network, allowing cars to reach their destination before the timer runs out.
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Mini Motorways's genres are puzzle video game, simulation video game and strategy video game. It is in English. It received Independent Games Festival Audience Award.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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In this article
Gameplay
Gameplay
The game was released on Apple Arcade in September 2019,[2] Windows and macOS via Steam in July 2021,[3] and on Nintendo Switch in May 2022.[4]
The game plays similarly to Mini Metro, its predecessor, except it involves following a grid-like system to build road networks instead of rail networks.[5] The game consists of drawing roads to link houses (which contain cars) to buildings of identical colours (red to red, yellow to yellow, etc.).[6] New buildings and houses appear randomly as the game progresses. The buildings have pins which the cars of the correct colour must collect. The score is the number of pins that have been collected.[7] If too many pins accumulate on a building (seven for square buildings and ten for circular buildings), a timer is set as a warning. Once a building's timer is full, the game is over. Vehicles reaching the destination will reduce the progression of the timer slightly, and once the number of pins on the building drops back within capacity, the timer will deplete by itself, after which it will split back up into standard pins. Vehicles will prioritise buildings with timers to help deal with them. After each week, the player may choose between two upgrade choices, which could include special tools. Both choices will always provide extra road tiles, and one choice will always provide a special tool. Sometimes one of the choices will just be extra road tiles. Special tools include: • Bridges and Tunnels - A stretch of road across water or through a mountain, respectively. Only one is used for a stretch of road across an obstacle, no matter how long the road is.[8] • Traffic Lights - Alternates the flow of traffic. • Roundabout - A 3x3 circle of one-way road (no road tiles needed to build) to help improve efficiency of an intersection. • Motorway - A singular stretch of road that links point A directly to point B, passing over everything, with the exception of mountains, on its way. The player can shift the Motorway's route (without affecting gameplay) by dragging its shield, allowing the player to see what's going on below it. If a special tool is deleted, it returns to the inventory once all existing traffic has completed their journey (or takes an alternative route). Traffic lights and the ends of motorways[9] can be moved without having to delete and reposition them.
Maps
Maps
As of June 2026, the game features playable maps of 25 cities, with new cities added periodically via game updates:[10] • Los Angeles • Beijing • Tokyo • London • Mumbai (unlockable) • New York City (unlockable) • Dar es Salaam • Moscow • Munich • Zurich • Manila • Rio de Janeiro • Dubai • Mexico City • Wellington • Warsaw • Chiang Mai • Lisbon • Busan • Reykjavík • Vancouver • Cairns • Copenhagen[11] • Hong Kong • Cape Town • Istanbul On April 17, 2023, Dinosaur Polo Club announced a voting contest, where players were able to vote which among the 30 Mini Metro maps would be added to Mini Motorways. The voting ended on May 8, after which the winner was announced to be New York City. With the release of the "Miniversary Update" in July 2023, and the addition of New York City, London and Mumbai, trains and train stations were included in the game as a crossover from Mini Metro.[12]
History of the object
Dated record
History of the object
The full dated record · 2 entries
2019
Mini Motorways published.
2019
Mini Motorways is recorded as published in 2019.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- New Zealand
Reception
Mini Motorways received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 87% of critics. Nathan Reinauer from TouchArcade praised the game's soundtrack and minimalistic art style, both similar to Mini Metro. Pocket Gamer liked the accessibility options, saying that the colourblind mode was a "nice touch", while criticising the frantic pace of gameplay. Eurogamer enjoyed the soundtrack, describing it as "a chilled tumbler of pips and muttering hums and clicks and whistles and honks". VG247 thought that the game was well designed to avoid frustrating the player, "There's an intricate, impossible-feeling balance to this game; it is fiendishly difficult and filled with tactical nuance... and yet it is also joyously mellow". Rock Paper Shotgun felt the audio design was informative, singling out the car horns as a helpful sound, "Cues like this help alert you to potential problems in your network, but also let you keep a calm head, and I rarely felt stressed or overwhelmed when my cities went awry".[25] The traffic light upgrade was criticised for its lack of usefulness in gameplay, often making the traffic worse.[26]
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Notes ==== References ==== External links
Notes ==== References ==== External links
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Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Homepage - Dinosaur Polo Club. Dinosaur Polo Club.
- 2.Phillips, Tom. Mini Motorways is the new game from the maker of Mini Metro. Eurogamer. 17 September 2019.
- 3.Wales, Matt. Mini Motorways' acclaimed minimalist road-building strategy comes to Steam in July. Eurogamer. May 24, 2021.
- 4.Mini Motorways gets surprise release on Switch. Nintendo Everything. 2022-05-11.
- 5.Gregson-Wood, Stephen. Mini Motorways is a management game where you have to create road networks that's available on Apple Arcade. Pocket Gamer. Steel Media Ltd. 18 September 2019.
- 6.Donlan, Christian. Mini Motorways is the gloriously organic sequel to Mini Metro. Eurogamer. 23 September 2019.
- 7.Fisher, Carl 'The Disc'. Game Review: Mini Motorways (Mobile). Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life. 15 December 2019.
- 8.These are two separate upgrades in game.
- 9.Before a move is completed and available at the new location, all pre-existing traffic using the original motorway location must finish their journey.
- 10.Dinosaur Polo Club "Down Under" update. X (formerly Twitter).
- 11.Cichacki, Shaun. 'Mini Motorways' Goes to Denmark With the 'Spires and Tires' Update, and It's Pure Serenity (Hands-on Impressions). Vice. March 31, 2025.
- 12.Solomon, Ruby. The Miniversary Update is Out Now: Available for Mini Metro & Mini Motorways!. Dinosaur Polo Club. 2023-07-24.
- 13.Mini Motorways for iPhone/iPad Reviews. Metacritic.
- 14.Mini Motorways for PC Reviews. Metacritic.
- 15.Mini Motorways for Switch Reviews. Metacritic.
- 16.OpenCritic. Mini Motorways.
- 17.Donlan, Christian. Mini Motorways review - a city builder that balances precision and beauty. Eurogamer. 22 July 2021.
- 18.Shea, Brian. Mini Motorways Review. Game Informer. GameStop Corp. 23 May 2022.
- 19.Reed, Simon. Switch Review Round-Up – Mighty Goose, Mini Motorways, Kao the Kangaroo, and more. Gamezebo. 17 July 2022.
- 20.Rairdin, John. Mini Motorways (Switch) Review. Nintendo World Report. 16 May 2022.
- 21.Ng Dellosa, Catherine. Mini Motorways review - "Warning: objects may appear less chill than they seem". Pocket Gamer. Steel Media Ltd. 10 December 2021.
- 22.Reinauer, Nathan. Apple Arcade: 'Mini Motorways' Review – More Micro Management. TouchArcade. 30 September 2019.
- 23.Musgrave, Shaun. SwitchArcade Round-Up: Reviews Featuring 'Mini Motorways' & 'Cotton Fantasy', Plus the Latest Releases and Sales. TouchArcade. 17 May 2022.
- 24.Donaldson, Alex. Mini Motorways review: a sublime and brilliant time-waster. VG247. 2 September 2021.
- 25.Castle, Katharine. Mini Motorways review: life in the fast lane. Rock Paper Shotgun. 19 July 2021.
- 26.Chaffin, Bryan. Apple Arcade: Mini Motorways Is an Addictive Puzzle Game I Can't Stop Playing. The Mac Observer. 24 September 2019.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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