If you’re a motorist in south-west England, chances are you’ve met (or at least heard of) Swindon’s Magic Wheel. It was a monstrous combination of five roundabouts mixed together, and as far as I could see it served no purpose other than to terrify mountain bikers across the country. I’m not kidding. In 2009 it was named the scariest crossroads In England, after London’s equally large roundabout at Marble Arch, the M8 interchanges in central Glasgow and Birmingham’s Gravelly Hills, are affectionately known as Spaghetti Junction.
It’s the kind of urban planning nightmare that I try to avoid when I build my road network in Small car road, the great sequel to the minimalist transport sim Mini subway, but its new Challenge City update puts all four of these real-world asphalt atrocities to shame. In this new mode, each city has a bunch of new rules and conditions that you’ll need to follow, and after playing its first version this week, there’s a really quirky challenge. It not only limits the number of paving bricks at your disposal, but also benefits you, wait for it, infinite traffic roundabout.
I really feel for people driving in Mini Motorways’ ant-like small cars. Yes, the game’s building regulations mean you can’t lump all 5+ roundabouts into the same space as Swindon’s evil ‘magic’, but if I was driving in one of the this city – check out my Beijing attempt below – I think I just got out of my car there and got out and walked.
However, while having to drive on these roads is traumatic, it is certainly fun to create them while working within these new constraints. This is literally a full game version of what’s been going on in Mini Motorways’ daily and weekly challenges since launch, adding extra modifiers to the map to enhance the quality. quantity. Currently, most cities have one to three different challenges available (including the most recent addition, Wellington), and each challenge has one to three conditions attached. These include things like straight lines that require twice as many paving bricks to build (and the opposite of diagonal tiles) or cannot be built on trees, for example, while others are more spacious, providing gives you unlimited traffic lights or unlimited bridges. Naturally, the latter often comes with some drawbacks, such as turning all destinations into busy, circular skyscrapers or adopting a constant, never-ending rush hour. . Or maybe you’ll get twice as many builders at the end of each week, but all of them will be a complete mystery.
The list goes on and on. There are even a few that forbid you from using its typical motorways, such as Moscow’s All About Intersions challenge, while others give you loads of motorways from scratch, but cut the number in half. the amount of paving bricks you are given each week. Crucially, they’re not just randomly assigned rules, designed to make each city super tough. Instead, each challenge has been specifically designed to fit the map in question, and it definitely affects how I approach them.
What scares me the most is the Dubai Wild Card challenge, which gives you one of each upgrade at the start, but then makes all subsequent weekly picks a mystery. and throws the Unzoned rule into the mix, which means all homes and destinations can appear anywhere they please. Those colorful, rough zoned neighborhoods have always been a major prop for me during the early hours of my usual Mini Highway run, and the thought of starting a new city with maximum chaos. From the very beginning it gave me absolute shivers.
But I’m eager to try, and perhaps more importantly, see how my pitiful efforts (so far) compare to those of my fellow Small Motorcyclists, as each Challenge City mode comes with its own leaderboard just like the regular maps. The developers of Dinosaur Polo Club have also improved their color display options in this update, and will be adding new achievements and seasonal photo frames for the upcoming holiday season.
At the time of writing, the free Challenge City update is still only ‘coming out’ for Mini Motorways, but it’s well worth returning if you already own it. Also, if you have not yet experienced the fun of this Best RPS Best, you can go ahead and embrace it right now on Sauna for £7.19 / €8.19 / $10.
