Mini Metro
reviews and complaints

Having no history with the desktop version of this game, I plunged right in with little understanding of the mechanics or controls. There is (AFAIK) no tutorial, no explanation, and the creators want the experience to be "intuitive."

The problem is, it's not. The rules of the game are obscure, and the controls even more so. It took me awhile to grasp the finer points of concept (maybe I'm just thick) but I still haven't figured out the controls. I still struggle to get the color of the line I want to extend right, and removing connections or tunnels seems possible but not repeatable. Today, I deleted a whole "line" and I have no idea how I did that!

Maybe this is just a function of the limited (compared to PC) controls of the touchscreen, but it can be very frustrating. I want to like this game - it's just the sort of cerebral puzzle game that I generally enjoy. But until the controls are fixed, I can't bear to play.

I own the Steam game and was blown away at the fact that a game about watching a train map could be fun and addicting. I played it almost daily in July, while others were playing Pokémon Go. I played it so much it got scary. I was making the top 10 for daily challenges. My record was 2 hours on normal mode on 1 game.

And then I see this game on the App Store. Without even stopping to think about thinking about it, I purchased the game (I actually got it gifted, but whatever) and I'm enjoying every detail. This game may just be better than the original. You can zoom in, you can cross lines, and change settings in the pause menu, like Minecraft.

I only played for about a half hour now and I am in love with this game already. It is worth every atom of copper of every penny of 5 dollars you will spend on this game. Give these developers a round of applause, get their name in the news, make these people known worldwide. I approve of this message.

Instead of a station randomly popping up and then becoming overcrowded if we ignore it by not connecting it with a line, the game map should change colors in regions that are densely populated with potential riders. (A light to dark red scale for example.) We should then have the ability to choose where to place stations and then connect them with transit lines. If the game map has too many heavily congested areas, then the game should end... not because ONE station is too crowded but because the entire city has a problem... thus the need for a mass transit system in the first place, right? Also, when adding a new line (from the weekly prizes) we should have to pull it from the left side of the screen, just like how we add a new locomotive, carriage or tunnel. I was trying to extend an existing line but because I had just earned a new line at the end of the previous week, I was forced to create this new line with my first move in the new week... NOT where I wanted it!

I found this game while looking for something that didn’t require hour of micromanaging, nor guilt for not playing, nor ads to have to tap through at randomly inopportune times. The basic colors and no frills graphics are great and allow you to focus on game play.

There are several modes of play and several basic maps of real places. The game starts off kind of slow, but can quickly spiral out of control if you don’t pay attention. I have only been playing for a day, but I love it. So far my average game lasts about 15-20 mins, which is perfect for the great quick little pocket game.

The developers have a mention of wanting people to help create a community to develop simple yet fun games. It makes me wish I knew how to program. But my hats off too them, and if they create other games in the simple yet fun genre I’m “all aboard”.

There was a PS3 game called Eden by Pixel Junk that has a similar feel. It would be incredible to see if this developer could make a game like it. Thanks so much for this awesome Mini Metro game, I’m loving it!

Pleasantly diverting and deceptively addicting, the game sneaks up on you and then you'll be hooked. The app needs a few tweaks to bring it up to a true 5-stars, but it's still so much fun to play as is. Just buy it, you'll like it. Trust me.

Tips for users: it took me awhile to figure out how to undo a station, at first I would backtrack from the end and erase multiple segments until I got to what I needed to change. Instead you need to grab the line right at that station and kinda swipe around it to unlink the station, it might take a few swipes until you get it right.

Notes for the developers: add ability to move/change interchanges in normal mode. In extreme mode, lines are permanent but you should still have the ability to "bend" them. Also extreme mode needs an "undo" function to erase your most recent move--too many times I end up creating a new line when I really wanted to extend an existing line. We need more cities! TokMoscow, Beijing, Mexico City, Washington DC, just to name a few. And please create an app for Windows Surface tablets!

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.

My wife and I have been playing Mini Metro for a week straight. We love playing the daily challenges and comparing scores.

Each day is a new challenge. Yes, the cities are similar, but they each offer a unique challenge that keeps us coming back. I love that the bullet trains are only available in the Japanese maps I've played, for example.

The game is really easy to pick up. You draw a line from one station to the next. Each station is a different shape, some triangles, some squares, some circles, and more exotic shapes. Each passenger is going to a specific shape destination. It is difficult to figure out how to balance adding lines, trains, and carriages to keep your passengers happy and the stations from overcrowding.

Love it!

People talk about frustrating controls. There isn't a tutorial beyond "drag your finger from this shape to that shape," but really there's not much more to it than that. If you want to undo a station, that did take me a bit to learn, though. You have to "unwind" from one of the ends to remove a line from a station.

If you play in "Extreme" mode, though, you can't move the trains or lines around, which does make it a lot more difficult to plan your lines.

Mini Metro on iOS has the potential to be a great game. Unfortunately, in version 1.0, it’s not there yet.

THE GOOD

Gorgeous visuals. Satisfying sound effects. Relaxing ambient music. I appreciate the consideration for color blind and night users.

THE BAD

There are some major issues that spring up. It’s mostly the controls. For example, when I want to remove a metro line from a station, it’s an exercise in frustration. I try various gestures that seem intuitive to me, until it finally works (seemingly randomly). Occasionally, when I try to move a line, I move the wrong line. And so on.

The issues with the controls are probably partly a result of my 2nd area of concern: the tutorial. The tutorial isn’t robust. Some functions were not explained at all.

Finally, when I take a snapshot of my map when I lose, the station that lead to my metro’s demise is not emphasized. This makes the snapshot feature almost useless to me. Maybe highlight this station red?

I understand this is only version 1.0, which is why I’m giving 4 stars. It would be great if the next version of Mini Metro has improved controls. I know buried inside the botched controls is great game design. I will await further improvements to decide if I should continue playing.

Pros:
This game is a soothing, simple, incredibly clean, and thought-provoking puzzle game. It is absolutely perfect for a 15 minute commute on the, well, subway and really uses different real-life subway systems that allow for replayability. What is especially cool is how each map has unique challenges (Hong Kong metro has packed stations, Paris super dense) and opportunities (Osaka has the shinkansen, SanFran allows for more bridges). This makes each map have its own flare and actually reflects reality.

Cons:

While the User Interface is absolutely gorgeous and easy to move, the tutorial is not. I guess it's more of a "figure it out" kind of teaching...

While each map has a unique feature, rivers are really the only true wildcard here. The devs should think about more features to add to the maps to make each one more unique (Central Park in NYC, Ferry routes in Auckland, underground pedestrian walkways in between stations, population clusters in São Paulo, etc.). That would make the game even more replayable.

The map choices are initially numerous, but I hope they keep adding more cities. Maybe the devs can also allow for randomized maps..?

Result:

4/5. GREAT game and I highly recommend it! I fully expect more features to be added, and will ANXIOUSLY wait for them!

I'm updating my original review after a month of playing and the latest developer update. I've definitely found this game pleasingly addictive :)

After the latest update I've noticed that Osaka is very frequently the daily challenge and this is a bit weird? Maybe a bug? - Developer has responded (thanks!) and I think it may have been a fluke as the normal assorted city challenges have resumed

Other then that some possible areas of improvement:

1. If there's a trick to removing a mid-line station I haven't figured it out. Every once in a while I can pull the line away from a station and remove the station. But more often then not I have to undo a whole chain of stations to get to the one I want to remove.

2. Make it easier in general to select the line you're trying to edit/reconfigure. I find it hard to grab the end of a line especially when a lot of lines are running through the same station.

3. It could be fun to add more special trains like the Osaka Shinkansen to some of the other cities. Not necessarily high speed but maybe other specialities? Other sizes/seat capacities within the same city?

4. Other music options. I do like the zen feeling of the current soundtrack. But it could be fun to have different soundtracks for the different cities.

Looking forward to future updates. :)

The game design is really nice, but after playing a while you see the limits of the over simplified logic behind the game play.

You expect to design a metro system for a somewhat real city. What you get instead is a chaotic random growth of stations and passengers with no real or discernible pattern like you would get in a city.

Stations pop up randomly, all stations seem to have the same importance on the line (in a real city the station close to a stadium is different than a station close to a quiet neighborhood or shopping mall). As another reviewer noted too, you would expect stops in the center of the city to be more dense and crowded, it is not necessarily the case.

Lines cannot branch (split in 2) but can only loop or be end to end.

Also new lines have only 1 train to begin with. I am not aware of any city that opens a new subway line with just one train running up and down. They always get 2 going back and forth.

And you need to wait a while to discover which station will randomly become your bottleneck on a line, before you can do anything about it. And don’t expect that bottleneck to be downtown or at a junction with 2 or more lines. Sometimes a random stop on a line becomes suddenly busy anywhere on the map.

If there is a simulation running to differentiate between rush hour and weekends and less busy times, it is not really discernible as the clock runs too fast and doesn’t really show if you are in a busy rush hour time (mornings) or not.

If you are looking for a game, it is great. If you are looking for a metro subway system simulator, you will be disappointed.

If a more realistic game mode to address the concerns above were added, I’d give it 5 stars. As it is, it gets quickly boring and mostly annoying as you cannot really plan your system as you would expect to be doing in a subway system for a growing city.

The not so great:
I find this game hard to play. The tutorial leaves a lot for you to figure out on your own. I’ve been playing for a week and I still have questions. Just know you may have to watch a few YouTube videos before it makes sense.

Also you control everything with touch. Like you have to be able to select a tiny line among many on your iPhone screen!

I really wish there were buttons like I could click the blue line and the game would know I’m only trying to move the blue line. Sometimes I’ll accidentally a move a locomotive and I don’t even know where it came from to put it back. I spend 1/4 of my time on this game trying to fix something I didn’t mean to do. Can I get an undo button!? I also wish when I paused my locomotives would illuminate do I can see where they are. I may be the only one who has this issue but I can’t remember where I put anything

I get that the game is supposed to have this simple effortless minimalistic vibe. And I dig that. But it makes this game super frustrating.

However I find this game hard to play. The tutorial leave a lot for you to figure out on your own. I’ve been playing for several days and I still have questions. Just know you may have to watch a few YouTube videos before it makes sense.

Also you control everything with touch. I really wish there were buttons like I could click the blue line and the game would know I’m only trying to move the blue line. Sometimes I’ll accidentally a move a locomotive and I don’t even know where it came from to put it back. I spend 1/4 of my time on this game trying to fix something I didn’t mean to do.

What I love:
The concept of this game is great. It keeps me entertained for hours but it’s not mindless. My brain is truly involved!

Overall: I get that the game is supposed to have this simple effortless minimalistic vibe. And I dig that. But it makes this game super frustrating. I don’t regret my purchase but it’s not something I would recommend to my friends because I don’t think this is a very user friendly game.

At first I really hated this game. There is no tutorial and it's not intuitive how to play even after multiple rounds. Why do developers assume you'll know how to play their games? Why is this becoming so common?

I've never lived in a town with a metro system so I kept thinking the shapes must mean something about the station's size. Nope! I didn't realize the tiny shapes at the stations were supposed to be passengers, I thought they were badges of some sort. I didn't know you can remove segments of the tracks (you never do in real life) so I was just adding to them making increasingly terrible lines. I also didn't realize there was a pause button since its hidden in the clock. So here I am frantically trying to add tracks to the lines not really getting why I'm loosing.

Frustrated and confused I go to YouTube to watch a third party video tutorial. I can't explain how much easier it is after understanding what's going on. It's weird that they just don't have a tutorial built into the game. So I docked a star for it.

Once I understood how to play, I've been playing nonstop. It's incredibly fun and a great quick puzzle to do while taking a break or when you just have a few minutes.

In the tutorial I watched, the guy was playing the desktop version which appeared much easier. Even with small hands on a iPhone 6s the controls are so tiny that I can't grab the handles to move the tracks or cars. Every time I try to grab the end of a track and pull it, it ends up grabbing another line and connects it where I wanted my other track to go. Then I have to redo both tracks completely. Forget about trying to move carriages and place them on a specific train! Ugh! I docked another star for this because it's unbelievably frustrating.

I can't imagine playing this on a screen smaller than a iPhone 6s. I honestly don't think it would be enjoyable.

The game has SO much potential to be amazing. All they need to do is add 1. A intro tutorial 2. A zoom button and 3. An undo button and the game would easily be 5 stars! I'm going to stick with it because it's so fun and hope that the updates will fix the issues. Great game overall if you can get past the touch control issues.

2nd Update - 7/3 - The developer obviously has heart for this game yet the problems I keep encountering seem to indicate it's not going in the right direction. The gist: this is merely a way to spend a few minutes. No skill needed. The better I understand it, the better it gets at throwing passengers at ridiculously random stations in crazy numbers so that I lose earlier. Interchanges aren't registering, passengers are pre-assigned (meaning, if an empty 3 car train approaches a bulging station it will simply pass that station if the AI has already assigned these passengers to another train -> game over) and line connections are way too tricky. Playing in endless mode is just silly. This may be a game for the coder but not for the player. Waste of time and way too unrealistic.

Updated as of 5/16 - I just got a message from the developer addressing my main concern - exponential increase in passenger numbers: "I think we've managed address the issue where the number of passengers increase super rapidly. We found a bug that was causing passenger spawn levels to increase by a huge amount which we have now fixed in the latest update."

Looking forward to playing the game again.

Previous Review Below
The kinds of upgrades the developer pushed thru since I purchased it are eerily similar to other games I used to be excited about: of the demolishing kind. The reason I say this is: the better I get, the more unexpectedly large numbers of "passengers" the AI throws at me. The conditions to play in "extreme" seem to be, except for one city, impossible to meet.
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Original review below
While minimetro is definitely an enjoyable game, the few shortcomings that it still has even after having been updated make me hesitant giving it 5 stars. The spirit of each city represented in the game give it appeal. In that light, New York and Paris are disappointedly lacking in execution. Both primarily because the number of bridges/tunnels and other assets awarded simply doesn't match the speed at which passenger traffic increases. Secondly, in terms of NYC, it's like the developers didn't even look at the real subway map. The only train to New Jersey is Path. No subway to the left (West) of Manhattan! Not so in this game where you get plenty of opportunity to develop a network on both sides of Manhattan. If at least these two issues were addressed I'd enjoy spending time with MiniMetro a lot more.

I'm so excited that my favorite game is finally on iOS!

Pros: Absolutely beautiful, Zen-peaceful, super fun.

Cons: Could be more intuitive to learn. No "Zen mode" yet. Hopefully they will add features soon to equal the desktop version.

Here are some tips and stuff they don't tell you:

Passengers are shaped like the station they want to go to. Triangle passengers want to go to triangle stations, square passengers need to go to square stations, and so on.

Once a passenger finds a station that's the right shape, they will get off the train and be happy. A triangle-shaped passenger doesn't need to go to any particular triangle station-- the first one that comes along will be fine.

Different kinds of stations generate different numbers of passengers. Circle stations generate the most passengers. Square stations generate the least but are the most popular destination. Triangle stations are in the middle.

Occasionally, circle stations will transform into "special" shapes (gen, plus sign, etc.) These are rare stations that are hard to plan for because there's only one of each and lots of people will want to go there.

Passengers don't mind transferring between trains. At all. If the type of station they need is on the same train, but there is another station closer that requires a transfer, they will transfer.

Tunnels: If you go over 2 bodies of water, but there are no stations in between, you will use only one tunnel.

Add a new station on an existing line: Tap and hold the line in between two stations. Drag it to the new station.

Remove a station from an existing line: Tap and hold the line in between the station you want to remove and another one. Drag your finger OVER the station you want to remove.

Extend a line: tap and hold the "T" at the end of the line. Drag your finger over the new station(s).

Create a loop: Just extend the line back around to the first station.

Reduce a line: Tap and hold the "T" at the end of the line. Drag your finger over the station you want to remove.

Move a train: Drag the train to any other line. Note: You can't have more than 4 locomotives per line.

Basic strategies:

I try not to have more than two circle stations in a row. Even if it looks funny, having a good "flow" can make up for a lack of resources.

Whenever a "special" shape pops up, make sure ALL nearby lines go to that station. Otherwise you will have passengers piling up at transfer stations.

If a station is about to fill up, there are a couple temporary fixes you can do:

1. If a train is on the way, temporarily reduce the line so that the full station is at the end of the line. This way you can be sure the train will pick up all possible passengers. Once they're on their way, you can extend the line again.

2. If you have a line available, temporarily create a new line starting at the full station. Then delete it once the passengers are picked up.

3. Add a locomotive near the full station. Make sure it's going the right direction.

4. If there is a train on the way but it's full, add a carriage to it.

5. Temporarily extend the end of a nearby line to the full station.

6. As a last resort, if you have an Interchange available you can use that. But you can't undo this.

iCloud support. Please. I use iPhone and iPad with the same account

For 4.99 this game only has 20 levels, I finished in under an hour.

This game is ridiculously unclear. I wish I had not spent 5 dollars on such a bizarre, unexplained game.

Fun game, used to enjoy the daily challenge but it hasn't worked for a few weeks, so I wonder if this apps been abandoned

I must be stupid because I'm drawing lines and then I can't and then I have to wait to draw more lines? Just nit getting the enjoyment part.

if i pause the game and lock the screen, the app crashes once i unlock it. happens every time lost all my progress twice.

please update asap. thanks!

It’s a waste of money and is crappy. Nothing like it, yes, but doesn’t mean it’s a good game. It’s boring and so many other games are better and don’t cost money

After this last update it auto selects the language of the region you are in. Now my game is in Korean and I use English. Can you at least give us a language option. Thank you.

Was a great game. I really enjoyed doing the daily challenge. Now that that feature has stopped working (iOS 14.5?), I’m really not interested in the game anymore. Fix it, bring it back.

I really like the strategy, but probably not worth $5. I would like it more if the leaderboard and daily challenges work, but they don’t and there is apparently no initiative to fix them.

This game is pretty I guess, but there's no objective. You don't know what's going on when or why. Random lines are added arbitrarily and there's no guidance. Also controls are difficult.

My friend introduced me to this app and he said the dollar was "worth it". I thought this would be like mini city or something but NOPE it's just squares, circles, and frustrating! I didn't see the endless mode until the station died because it held a couple of shapes! I will admit it was me who didn't look at the vid or pics

There's like nothing to this game, you start it and it's basically over in about 10 minutes and then u just sit there and watch it do the same thing, you can't keep building and new stops quit popping up and then u just restart and do the same thing...why are there no challenges or goals to meet? You can't change maps, you can't do anything but play for 10 minutes and restart. Really mad I spent 5 bucks on what should be a .99 cent game.

I really hate this game. Probably my biggest frustration comes with the games AI. When a station starts filling up, trains will still unreliably skip the station. Even if I extend the line to incorporate the same shape of station that riders are going to! I'll even move trains from other tracks and it won't matter. I've seen other complaints about the same frustration. What's my motivation to play a game that fundamentally doesn't provide you with the resources to address a "crisis"? Garbage game.

This isn't really a simulation game, it's more of a very basic puzzle game. The object isn't to construct a functional subway system, but to move shapes from one side of the map to the other.

The controls are so poorly implemented that you'll constantly be making errors, creating a new line when you intend to move an existing line, etc. And the interface is so basic that it can be diff to tell how many trains you have on a line, and what they're carrying.

The editors choice label seems to be given out not on gameplay merit, but on aesthetics, or maybe some back room deal with the developers.