Minami Lane Review (Skull One)
I kind of waffled back and forth on what kind of review to give this but ultimately decided that I can't really recommend it.
It is very cute, and there is a decent foundation at the core of this game but it is very, very short. I know the game is only $5 USD, and I bought it during a sale for $4 USD but there are only FIVE MISSIONS/LEVELS. You can probably finish the whole game and experience all the "content" in the 2 hour return window.
Normally this isn't an issue for me because I enjoy sandbox type games where I can make my own fun but you can't really do that here since there is SO LITTLE to customize. You can only build on ONE SIDE of the road, and only in ONE DIRECTION. There's only about a dozen different buildings and only a handful of colors; the colors you see in those previews are it. The shades are basically from the 70's era - just red, brown, yellow and green. You can't make anything White, Black, Purple, Blue, etc. You can also only change the roof and nothing else. The sample gameplay pictures are very pretty, but ultimately everyone's lane will end up looking very samey because there is so little variety to choose from with the options. Also, NPCs have very limited interactions with themselves and environment.
There really isn't much of a gameplay loop either other than "watch NPCs walk around, read their requests, adjust sliders accordingly.
I saw someone in the discussion threads ask if the devs were planning on adding more content and it doesn't seem like that will be the case or if they did it would be minimal which is why I can't really leave a positive review. I know I'm definitely going against the grain here and I honestly wanted to like it but there just isn't much for players to engage with.
It's fine for people who just want to have something "aesthetically pleasing" to look at but for players than actually want to engage with gameplay, I think it falls a little short. It really is more like a demo rather than a full featured game sadly.