Densha de Go! forum reopens….

Before I knew about A-Train I discovered another, pretty unique, Japanese train-themed game called Densha de Go!

The community for DDG was friendly and more established than it seems to be for our beloved A-Train (perhaps due, in part, to the pick-up-and-play-ability of the game – quite literally you can get the hang of it in minutes).

So I got hold of a copy, really, really enjoyed it, and lurked around the Densha de Go! forum occasionally. Then (I think this is what happened) some chancer bought the domain name that Butch had been using and made his own – completely crap – DDG site. Butch was rather irritated by this and disappeared in a cloud of red mist. The forum slowly died. Read more »

Boku wa Plarail Untenshi – Nintendo DS

Every so often I consider the purchase of a Nintendo DS because I really like the quirky Japanese titles. Obviously anything that’s quirky and train-related really interests me. Last year I realised A-Train DS was available. This year, this month, in fact, there’s this new Boku wa Plarail Untenshi.

This is an example of a gaming staple in Japan: the train driving simulator. As you might have guessed from the title “Plarail” indicates this is a toy train simulator (“plarail” being an example of the of the Japanese tendency to create new “Japanese-English” words by combining elements of both languages into a new word that doesn’t exist in English. Other examples include:  “remocon” remote control, and “persocon” personal computer. In this case “pla-” refers to “plastic”).

Anyway, I literally just discovered this game during a browsing session and have only the most basic of information at the moment. It has echoes of an old favourite of mine, Densha de Go! since you’re placed in the driver’s seat of either a toy shinkansen or steam locomotive and need to pick up little playmobile-like people. A second player can join in to deal with passenger boarding, run the windscreen wipers or use other controls.

Release schedualled for 05.01.2010 – that’s next Tuesday!

What do you think?