Densha de Go - a niche train driving game that’s more fun that you might think!

Many years ago when I owned a Sony PSP I tracked down on eBay from a seller in Hong Kong a copy of the massively popular (in Japan anyway) train driving game, Densha de Go!, and that was where my love for the game began.  Because the PSP is region free it played perfectly and handily for me English instructions were provided giving details of all the controls too.  The basic objective of the game is to drive a suburban train on various different lines around Tokyo, however you must stick to the advertised speed limits, sound your horn and dim your lights (Japanese politeness) for passing trains, make sure you keep to time and most importantly time your braking on arrival at a station to stop at the correct point, the PSP version looked great and I had an absolute blast playing it. The series was released on many different machines including Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS and WonderSwan to name but a few.

After I sold my PSP and the game I thought my Densha playing days were over, then last year a Switch version was released in Japan which I managed to purchase thanks to Play Asia and I’m very glad I did as it’s every bit as good as the PSP version I enjoyed! You begin the game with just two trains and two lines but more can be unlocked through the Mission mode which carries various objectives which have to be completed, if you achieve a decent enough ranking you unlock more trains and lines to drive on, a freeplay mode is also available where, as with the PSP version you have to stick to the speed limit, sound your horn, dim your lights, keep to time and time your braking perfectly at stations.

The game being in Japanese is not a major issue and it’s pretty self-explanatory although an excellent English translation guide is available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1up2i8Iyv-_imCq7S_UTIUItQTdcaJhLc3AFpvdv361M/edit

As you can see from the screenshot at the top of this post the game looks great and is a lot more fun and entertaining than you’d think a train driving game would be, it’s a strangely Zen-like and calming experience and one I’m glad I discovered all those years ago!

For added realism a dedicated Switch controller for the game is available in Japan, I hope at some point to get hold of this as it would definitely add to the fun!