Sometimes, all you want is to relax by walking along a beautiful street with parks, cats and bubble tea shops. And this is exactly what Minami Lane is, a small management and puzzle game in which the player basically has to be in charge of building a beautiful, quiet and attractive street for cats and neighbors.
Minami Lane, developed only by two people – the French couple Doot and Blibloop, as they present themselves on Steam –, comes first through the eyes. It is a moving illustration in which the most important thing is that everything is beautiful. Everything happens on a street inspired by Japanese cities and the player can build and manage buildings to meet the needs of the neighbors.
It is what is known as a wholesome video game, a word used to label those games that leave your heart warm, those perfect experiences for a Sunday afternoon next to the stove and with a good cup of tea. Music also pursues the same objective and helps transport you to this haven of peace and tranquility.
But this does not mean that Minami Lane is without challenges and challenges. The game is structured by levels with main and secondary objectives. Each level starts with a street that has to be fixed or expanded to be prettier and attract more neighbors. Although the objectives are usually to build a flower shop, attract more cats and pet them, or get the ideal ramen recipe for the town’s young people.
The playable loop is more like a puzzle game than a management one: you build a new building – let’s say a bookstore, for example –, the neighbors tell you what they think and you modify the offer and the price to satisfy them. You have to do this at the beginning of each day because, once the day begins, you can no longer modify anything. So the goal ends up being to find the perfect balance between the ideal product and the right price. Although you must do it in a limited number of days, here is the challenge.
All this without forgetting the beauty and appeal of the street. The game allows you to customize the shape and color of buildings and add decorations to make them more beautiful and attractive. It is important to take everything into account because, as more neighbors arrive, it is more difficult to keep the street nice and quiet.
Don’t expect a difficult game. The challenges serve more to guide the player and make them think a little before acting, than to set a complicated challenge. Also, Minami Lane is a small game that can be finished in an afternoon. While I was playing it I couldn’t stop thinking about Unpacking, the moving game that I fell in love with in 2021.
So for 3.99 euros (that’s what the game costs on Steam) it’s hard not to recommend Minami Lane. Furthermore, 2024 has begun with a great crisis in the video game industry and with thousands of layoffs, so it is important to look for those small havens of peace that allow us to escape and support small independent developers.
