I played the WonderSwan version and while this is far from the "ideal Densha de Go experience" it is very charming to see an attempt at cramming a train simulation game into a tiny 16-bit handheld. The simple black-and-white pixelated visuals look more like an empty, post-apocalyptic wasteland than 1990s Japan, but that only adds to the charm. The real problem is the limited screen space, which means you don't get a lot of the info you need to have in a game like this, like a minimap or a consistent speed limit display. As such, and considering there's no English patch for this version (or for any DDG games outside of Densha de Go! 64 and Densha de Go! Final, of course) it is very difficult. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at Final, to an extent, but I can barely make it to the next station without losing a big chunk of my allotted time in this version. Having to memorize what each warning means so you can react to them in time is hard enough but it's also pretty much impossible to stop properly at stations with how little info the game gives you. I guess that comes with the territory considering the first two DDG games were originally arcade games that were later ported to consoles. It makes sense why this is a lot more challenging and more reliant on repetition and memorization than Final is, but outside of the novelty appeal here I definitely prefer these games to be simulators first and arcade games second.

Reviewed on Apr 07, 2024


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