A Tale of Two Tanukis: Minami Lane Review
All images are from Minami Lane by Doot, Blibloop, Zakku, Seaven Studio, and Wholesome Games
In the same way that tanukis of legend are masters of disguise, Minami Lane is a gorgeous puzzle game masquerading as a city builder about constructing adorable Japanese streets. You’ll need to juggle both your finances and the aesthetics of your neighborhood in order to attract more people who will spend more money so you can buy more boba cafes. The various scenarios challenge you to accomplish a checklist of quotas over a set number of days or with a strict limit on your building count.
It’s the smallest functional version of those games with City and Tycoon in their titles. In those games, whether you were building a zoo or a theme park empire, you could highlight patrons to gain access to their inner thoughts and make subtle tweaks to your business model based on their feedback.
Boy howdy, I sure am in the mood for some popcorn.
These lines are too long.
Where is the bathroom?
You get the idea.
This insight is one of the tools at your disposal here, as well. You can tap into a steady stream of residents (both young and old–each of which have their own unique tastes that need to be accounted for) that will provide hints to fine-tune ramen menus and karaoke offerings. There’s still some trial and error involved but the challenge deadlines are lenient enough that you’ll have time to find that perfect balance of noodles, pork, and shrimp.
A quick note–if you have younger gamers in your life that might be interested in this (and I imagine they could easily fall in love with helping you find the hidden tanukis and trash to pick up), even with its looming threat of failed objectives, the loop here isn’t as intimidating as it sounds. You can slow the game speed to a full pause at any time (more experienced players will be laying on the fast forward button to progress to their next paycheck). Even when my tiny street began to stretch into a medium-sized street, I had no issue zooming in and out and making selections with an Xbox controller–though if you have the option to play with a mouse, MInami Lane was clearly designed with one in mind.
Minami Lane’s fatal flaw is it needs more of everything. I finished all five missions with their optional objectives, on my first try, in just over three hours. It desperately could have used that carrot on a stick of unlocking new buildings–or even new colors for said buildings. Every player will have seen everything the game has on offer over those handful of missions. The soundtrack is sparse, and while it’s upbeat and fits, there’s no getting around the fact that it’s only two songs (hilariously, the soundtrack on YouTube lists three tracks but two are duplicates). There is a sandbox mode available from the main menu–but given the limited selection of shops and color combinations, it will only take 20 minutes to craft your “perfect” street and leave you with little reason to return…
…but it’s five dollars ($3.49 on Steam at the time of this writing)...
…and it’s on Game Pass…
And that price point coupled with its cozy gameplay makes it an easy recommendation from me. I usually hold the opinion that when the worst thing I can say about a title is I’m hungry for more of it, it’s probably pretty good.
Minami Lane is very cute. Just don’t expect much beyond that.
70/100