Minami Lane

The so-called 'management-sim' games don't really need to be very complex to be very entertaining. Just a few weeks ago I played Islanders: New Shores which is a good example of this. Fans of the genre can often cite recommendations aplenty because if you want to get away from the slightly overwhelming nature of titles like Cities, Frostpunk or Manor Lords and have something that just feels simple and cosy - then on the surface Minami Lane looks absolutely perfect. Unfortunately, the game's limitations and few missions also make it feel far too simple and short.

In Minami Lane you have to take care of a small street. Each day you can place a building and to get to the next mission you need to meet the objectives. Once you have placed the building, set prices in the shops, you start the day and watch the little figures run around. Then comes the evening where you get a detailed overview of what capital you raised and how satisfied the residents are overall. As an example, you can build a Ramen restaurant and decide how much of the ingredients should be in what is served. By clicking on a resident, you can see that they want more or less of something, for example, you adjust the recipe so that in the end everyone is happy and satisfied with both the price and the recipe. Similarly, you can build other buildings such as a bookshop and decide what types of books to sell, or a florist and decide what a bouquet should look like.

You can also place homes for both the younger and older people who populate the city, to increase the number of inhabitants. The tricky part is when, for example, the older people want something different from the younger ones, so you have to build two buildings and adjust them to make both age groups happy. You can also upgrade the beauty of the small street, which will make the residents happier or attract cats, which can be one of the sub-goals you need to complete to get to the next mission.

With clear menus and instructions, Minami Lane is very educational. Almost like one of those children's educational programmes that goes through clearly what to do and click on. Maybe not quite that simple, though, but for me it felt a bit like that. You also have some choices to change the colour and roof of buildings to vary the street a bit, but since all the buildings are lined up in a row, it becomes quite boring in terms of design.

The biggest problem I have with Minami Lane, however, is the limitation of only putting one building in place. Most of the time the money you have isn't enough for anything else anyway, but the gameplay loop itself becomes repetitive where you buy just one building, then you start the day, speeding up the game so that the day goes by faster. The fact that you can't do anything more once the day starts quickly becomes a big disadvantage. Because even if the residents whinge that they want more prawns in their ramen, I can't adjust anything until the day is over. The only thing I can do is pick up rubbish by clicking on it. It's too passive and even though the days aren't very long, you just sit there and twiddle your thumbs until the day is over. So I can place a single building, click that there should be another shrimp and then start a new day.

During this passive time, it becomes quite easy to sit and think what you could have done. For example, upgrading how cosy the city should be is done with a button on the buildings. It would be more fun if I could place trees, plants, lampposts, fences and other things. There is nothing in the environments I can customise or 'paint' freehand. The right side of the small street is a ready-made template. Here, I could instead be offered to take care of it while the days pass.

As I wrote at the beginning, it's not that a management game needs to be complex. But the genre has so many other things to offer that are simple and cosy in the same way that I think the developers behind Minami Lane want to offer. We have titles like Islanders, Townscaper, Cloud Gardens, Tiny Glade and more. Sure, they're not quite the same thing as this. But looking at those tiny streets in Minami Lane gets boring very quickly. Even though there are only five levels that are played through in somewhere around three hours.

Visually it is quite nice though. The design is cosy and there is quite cute movement in the city, especially towards the last missions. But since you like to set the game speed to the fastest for the day to flow, the characters mostly run around. Buildings and the environment look pretty cosy though, even if the colour scheme is rather pale. But the cosiness factor is still there.

Unfortunately, there's not really much more than that. There is of course a Sandbox mode where you can place buildings without goals or restrictions, but I would have liked more streets and the feeling of a small village rather than just a 'lane' as the title of course says it is about. If you are looking for something simple and cute, this might appeal to you and with a low price tag, some may still find it worth it. But since there are so many better alternatives, it was not for me.