In this pensive, tense, philosophical simulator game, you take on the role of an administrator for LACMTA, saddled with the Sisyphean task of transforming the LA Metro Rail system (complete with Red, Blue, and Gold Lines) into something resembling function. As you make vain attempts to connect the sprawling, godless, pockmarked concrete commuter hellscapes that appear throughout the map, you begin to ponder the nature of your futile quest. The system will fail, and it will fail because this city, uniquely even among US cities, was built for and enabled by the car. And as climate crisis continues to make for searing summers and flooded winters, the car, and the oil and natural gas lurking beneath the city that enable the car, slowly destroy the city. These forces are high above your head, but they will not take the blame when the system collapses. The game makes the powerful, deliberate choice not to remind you that, when you do fail, they will give the money you could have used to Elon Musk to dig a tunnel under Dodger Stadium. It is a shadow that lurks over the game. I have no qualms calling this grand work of art the Papers, Please of the capitalist West.

NES release:
Amazing game and one of my absolute favorite platformers. Early example of tight, near-perfect level design and finely tuned challenge.

Results:
- 1CC (One Continue Clear) twice on the US version
- Best Score: 231900