LET’S PLAY
Train games on the right track
For some, the sight of a station will instantly trigger thoughts of work and a tedious daily commute. For others, the train signifies romance, adventure and raw power.
Whether you're a bit of a trainspotter with a love for the locomotive or you just reckon you could do a better job of organising the underground network than the people currently in charge, these games are engineered to satisfy your desire to take control of the carriages.
Conduct This!
This game just has three basic controls: start, stop and switch rails. The objective may be simple – shuttling commuters around – but it soon becomes challenging.
With serpentine tracks and the ever increasing possibility of collision, it feels as though your passengers may well reach their final destination – but not in the way they had hoped.
As levels pass, the environments become more interesting and picturesque, with sunsets over villages and snowscapes at dawn.
Paper Train: Traffic
Playing this will fill you with a sense of nostalgia. Paper Train: Traffic's animations have a hand-drawn, pen and ink look. Set against a backdrop of graph paper, the artwork is reminiscent of (very detailed) doodles in an old school notebook.
While still a track-switching game, Paper Train: Traffic also has a Speed Mode, in which one second the old steam engines are chugging away, the next they’re flying along like light rail. Use this option to score maximum points (as long as you don't crash).
Tiny Rails
A departure from the track-switcher genre, Tiny Rails is more of a business simulation game that requires you to think about more than just whether the trains will arrive on time without derailing.
With graphics that hark back to the 16-bit days, the game's impressive rail network extends right across North America. Your aim is to expand your railroad business, but, if you like, you can also just ride the rails and enjoy the scenery.
Infinite Train
In the world of rail-based games, Infinite Train is an oddity. Its small trains don’t glide across the tracks, but jerk forward while your view jolts around with them.
That’s not even the strangest thing about this train. As you progress, it can transform into all sorts of strange things that you wouldn't expect to see on a track – a pirate ship, for example, or a piece of sushi. Infinite Train is an absurd, but charming game that's perfect for when you want to switch to a less-traditional set of tracks.