‘Minami Lane’ Guides the Growth of a Pleasant Street

Minami Lane is a cozy, wholesome management game where you are making people happy to live on the street you designed.

Finding more cozy games is exactly what I want to do on these long, sunny summer days. Minami Lane caught my eye – a wholesome management game where you get the chance to design a Japanese-inspired street, picking out the houses and shops and upgrading them to fulfil a bunch of different quests that the specific street is interested in.

There are two phases as you play through the game; building and then seeing the reaction from the people. You start each of the five chapters by getting your objectives. These might include attracting cats to your road, moving in more young people, or even just having a specific building added to the street. With these in mind, you can start building your street.

You only can place one building during each of the constructions phases, but you can manage any of the buildings you have already placed or upgrade them. Management allows you to change the prices of the different shop items, stock new items, or even customise items. Boba tea, for example, can have different amounts of cream or tea in it. If you select customers after they have left the boba tea place (or hire a shop surveyor and read the data) you can create the perfect tea for the age group in your street.

Upgrades in Minami Lane are involve deciding if an area will be more beautiful, which will give your street people more satisfaction or they will add in more people. Some buildings require a specific amount of people to live in the town or a specific amount of satisfaction, as well as having the cash to create them as well.

Once your street has been built up, you can then start the day. People will start going into your shops and emerging from their homes. You can wave hello to the people on bicycles, pet the cats, and pick up trash for some bonus cash, along with finding a hidden item each round. There is a way to speed up the day although it’s easier to miss things when it’s moving quickly. And you’ll want to see what people think about the shops you have.

At the end of the day, you will get a bunch of statistics on how you are doing with your goals, how the shops are faring, and how much money you have made. There are a bunch of different little chapters that have a cute and wholesome feel to them. Eventually, you start to see random events delivered by a newspaper to switch things up.

It’s fun balancing stuff that the elders and the youngsters want while creating a street that feels bustling and busy. Minami Lane is just a fantastic cozy game that I finished in about three hours and didn’t want to stop playing!

Minami Lane is available now on the Nintendo eShop, Microsoft Store, and Steam.

About The Author

Jupiter Hadley

Jupiter is a prolific indie game journalist, writing for Metro UK, Big Boss Battle, AlphaBetaGamer, and many more, all with a focus on smaller indie gems. She covers thousands of game jams and indie games on her YouTube channel, letting every game have a moment in the spotlight. She runs indiegamejams.com, a calendar of all of the game jams going on in the world, judges many jams and events.