Railroad Maddness Review

Suddenly the App Store is filled to the brim with games like Fight Control.  Who would have ever thought that trying to keep track of different vehicles and get them to the right locations without crashing them would become the next big gaming genre?  Not me, that’s for sure.  But somehow it happened… and I’m a big fan.

The latest hat to be tossed into this ever-filling ring is “Railroad Madness” but F84.  Here you take on the role of a Train Yard Master.  Okay, I just made up that title.  I have now idea what you would be called in the game… let’s just move on.  Your job is to make sure that the passenger cars go where they’re supposed to go, and that the same can be said for the cargo cars.  Oh, and making sure that they don’t crash into each other will also keep you employed for a longer amount of time.

We all pretty much know the concept of games like this, but Railroad Madness tries to stand out from the pack with a different sort of presentation and control scheme.  It’s a move that both helps and hurts the game.

Your view is looking down on train yard.  From here you’ll see that someone did a really poor job laying out the tracks because they switch more often than a politician at election time.  But this is done for the games sake.  What you end up with is a hex like grid pattern of the trains to move on.

Trains enter from one of four tracks at the top of the screen and must exit on one of the four tracks at the end.  Two are for passenger cars and two for cargo.  The many switching points allow you to move your train to the right station while also keeping them from hitting the other trains.

The overall look of the game is very nice and the fact that trains have to move on pre-set tracks means that you can’t just “draw” the route you like can do for plane, boats, cars, etc..  This works nicely for the game and actually adds a lot more strategy and a frantic feel to the game.

This is one area where F84’s changes really help the game.  Trying to stay a step or two ahead of what’s happening instead of just being able to constantly re-draw a route really gives your brain a work out.  Once you get a few trains on the screen you’ll be constantly scanning and re-scanning the screen to make sure that you’re going to survive.

But while the idea of what Railroad Madness is great… the method of how to get there is not as great.

On the screen are little arrows at each switching point.  These tell you which way the train will go when it reaches that point.  Obviously you will need to switch these directions a lot through the game so you’d expect this to be easy to do… right?  Wrong.  To switch directions you have to tap the arrow until it faces the way you want to go.  This is done in a clockwise fashion so if you want to say move it one position to the left you’d have to make five taps to achieve your goal.  And in a game that gets this frantic that means you’re not going to make it in time quite often.  Or, worse yet, if you tap it one too many times you have to go through it again.

Railroad Madness could really be a stand out game if they just let you tap the arrow and then tap the direction (or track) you want it to point.  Simple.  I’m hoping that this is something the devs will take into consideration and fix in an update.

I felt like Zoolander!  I couldn’t turn to the left… I could only keep turning right until I was pointed left!

The other thing that gave me pause in the game is the online scoreboard.  More specifically having to register just to see it.  I guess over the years I’ve just grown weary of handing out information about myself.  Maybe it’s all the crap emails I get.  I’m not saying that Railroad Madness is going to send you spam, but I think they just could have given us the scores instead of requiring information from us to get it.

So here’s the final summation… Railroad Madness is a very addictive time management simulation that adds a few new wrinkles to the genre.  Unfortunately its control method sidetracks the whole experience (I was waiting to use that line).

But at a buck you’ll find more than enough fun and frustration (the good kind) to make it worth your while.  And if they fix the controls you’ll have one of the best apps in the genre.

The Good

Frantic Game Play That Can Be Quite Addictive
Simple Concept, Easy To Play
Visually Nice

The Bad

Hate The “Tapping” Control System
Not A Fan Of Having To Register To See Global Scores

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Tags: iPhone, Iphone Simulations, Iphone Trains, Simulation, Trains

Category: Games