Review: Minami Lane is a bite-sized delight from start to finish

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I booted up Minami Lane for the first time. I was both surprised and delighted to find that it was more or less a city-building game with missions. I’m going to carbon date myself by saying that this reminds me, very loosely, of playing Pharoah – an isometric city-builder – as a child and I adore Minami Lane for being a cutesy reminder of it. 

What’s the deal with Minami Lane?

Minami Lane is a single street where you build up one building at a time. The aesthetic is very Japanese inspired right down to the onsens, konbinis, and ramen shops that you can build. I haven’t fully completed the game, but there appear to be five levels.

Each level has its own mission that varies from the one before. So, while you’re starting on the same principle of building up Minami Lane, your priorities are going to be different every time.

In most city-building games with missions, the missions are different but are built along the same path. Build up the city, have happy residents, keep the village fed, etc. Minami Lane veers off on that a bit.

Your first mission, you’re managing a ramen shop and a boba shop. Your goal is to just cater to your customers until you hit the right conditions.

In the second mission, you’re managing a ramen shop and a bookstore with no boba shop in sight. The things that you have access to build vary at each level. In this mission, it’s not about sales, but rather about catering to the tastes of your individual clients; namely the elderly and the young.

The third mission puts things further into a tailspin because it adds a recycling center that lets you get rid of buildings and change up the colors whenever you want. Not only that, but your mission is to lure cats to your street which requires specific conditions to be met.

Every mission has required expectations and optional ones. Sometimes you have to do things in a certain amount of time, others you have to do it with only a set amount of buildings. You’re really too busy trying to figure out how to establish the right conditions in every challenge to be bored.

Honestly, my only qualm with Minami Lane is that it isn’t longer.

The graphics are adorable, the music is sweet, and I have a mighty need to conquer more lanes.

I really enjoyed figuring out the balance of building housing, parks, and businesses. It was fun to stock the different shops with the various items and find the right combinations to please my villagers. Hell, I even had fun picking up the garbage – especially the daily trash that turned into a hidden tanuki.

I wish I had more to say about Minami Lane because I wish there had been more to it. Then again, the old adage is to “leave them wanting more” and this game definitely delivered on that. I can honestly say this game was a delight and, unless you just absolutely loathe mission-based city-builders, I can’t imagine anyone would dislike Minami Lane.

If you’d like to give Minami Lane a try, you can find it on Steam or Nintendo Switch for $4.99. Otherwise, you can check out the review we did on Necro Story.