Work Avoidance Wednesday: Mini Metro

I always have fun finding games for us to play in our browsers during the week. However, I must warn you about this one – it has already stolen far too many hours from my life. I just can’t stop playing it, so you may avoid more work than you originally intend to.

Mini Metro is a minimalistic subway layout game. It starts off small with only three unconnected stations. You must draw routes between the stations to connect them with subways lines. The rest is automated – trains go as quickly as they can and commuters decide which trains to board and where to make transfers. However, with a constantly growing city, it’s up to you to figure out how best to expand the transportation system.

As you complete each week, you are awarded with a new locomotive and you can choose one other upgrade. Will you get a new carriage so each train can carry more people? What about a new line so that things can more more quickly? Or do you need to get more tunnels so that more of your lines can cross the river?

Of course, as you play you learn the mechanics and come up with new strategies. Considering that this browser-based version of the game (yes, it does require the unity player for your browser) is just a small portion of the full game that’s available on Steam, I can’t even imagine how many hours I’d sink into that. Just check out the trailer.

What is the best score that you can manage? Does it all fall apart when the hospital node appears, or do you struggle to keep things running when the population seems to surge around day 25?

Last Updated: March 4, 2015