[General Discussion] The DENSHA DE GO!! Thread of Ultimate Nerdness

So I figured I haven't played enough titles of this super-awesome series for a full-fledged front page review and made a GENERAL DISCUSSION thread instead. Now I'm really curious as to how this will develop ...

I only recently started to tinker with DENSHA DE GO! Pocket for PSP and found it to be an extremely fun game. Who would have thought that a train simulator could ever be exciting? I mean, it's a train after all. It has throttle and brake controls - and moves on rails: thrilling.

Sadly I don't recall the reason for getting hooked to this game, or else I could tell you a funny story including stuff on the Internet and blackjack. Instead, I'm going to describe my first experience with DENSHA DE GO! Pocket. Trust me, it'll be very similar to yours if you ever decide to give it a try:

I'm starting my journey in the driver's cab of some Tokyo train line. I hear an announcement on the platform and wait for people boarding the train. There's a light indicating that I'm cleared for departure. I do this by releasing the brake and accelerating to the highest possible level of five quickly. A percentage indicator is meant to show the "efficiency" of my departure - or at least that's what I think, because everything is in Japanese, of course.

Now would be a good time to talk about graphics. They're good. That's all.

Shortly after leaving the station, I hit the 80 Km/h mark. That's the average speed for Tokyo city lines. A small diagram on the right side of the screen indicates stuff on the track ahead. Stuff like speed limits ... ohshiiiii, 50 Km/h restriction coming up in 300 ... 200 ... 100 meters! Time to see what the brake does. I'm new to this, so I yank it up to the fourth level (out of 10 or so). Needless to say, it's not doing much except for some squeaking of the wheels. Time to brake a little harder ... damn, passengers getting angry. How do I know? A cute little icon popped up showing a stickman falling over. Severe points deduction comin liek wut.

Well, at least I managed to get the speed down to 50 Km/h just in time. I'm now rolling through a typical Japanese suburb. OK, at least it looks suburban, but this is Tokyo ...

My next challenge seems to be some sort of timer countdown. Alright, let's figure this out: Two numbers on the screen, time of scheduled arrival and calculated time of actual arrival. Seems like I'm going too slow now, time to accelerate. I have to match the scheduled time exactly at the checkpoint, which is coming up in 500 meters. Should be no problem, but it's really hard trying to keep the right speed. Things are getting hectic: Accelerating a bit here, braking a bit there, keeping speed, accelerating slowly, braking a little, accelerating again ... gotcha! Seems I got it right, because a huge number lit by stars popped up in front of the screen. Stars around numbers are always good, right? Right!?

OK, time to take a deep breath. Destination station (or rather station of destiny) coming up. This is where DENSHA DE GO! gets really tough on you: How are you supposed to stop a train still going at 90 Km/h exactly at the scheduled time and allotted space only a few hundred meters ahead? If you brake too hard you'll end up crawling through the station wasting a lot of time, if you don't brake soon enough you'll shoot over the line and eventually have to brake so hard that the poor little stickman falls over again (you actually have a meter indicating the gravity level to avoid this, so watch it closely!).

In the end, I manage to miss the mark by 12 meters. This is terrible, as I'm about to discover later. I'm also 6 seconds late. Again, totally unacceptable for a Tokyo city train. A short summary shows my overall scores for this track section. They're horrible. Nevertheless, I'm motivated enough to continue playing and eventually manage to hit the magic +/- 0 cm mark exactly at the right time. Needless to say, this is almost impossible to do.

My simulated life as a train driver ends with some beautiful impressions of Tokyo's evening skyline. I love my job. And getting bonus points for honking the horn at workers waving at the train alongside the track.

So much for my first impressions. I've managed to snag a copy of DENSHA DE GO! FINAL for PS2, which incorporates all the different train lines in the various PSP games. If you're willing to give this game of ultimate nerdness a chance, I advise you to start with either this or the original arcade game available for PC and PS1. Note that some titles in the series incorporate real video footage sped up or slowed down to match your train's actual speed. In some newer games, DENSHA DE GO! refers to a specific game mode rather than the game itself, such as Railfan (be sure to check out the demo video!) for the PS3, featuring Chicago's Brown line. A Wii version featuring the Shinkansen EX has also been released along with a special controller.

All in all, playing DENSHA DE GO! is incredibly funny and offers a lot of depth despite the lack of interactive elements (all you really do is accelerate and brake). Besides, you're getting money for completing various tasks so you can unlock new trains and lines. Even though the train and line differences are very subtle, it's enough to keep you motivated for a long time. Just keep in mind that this is meant to be a realistic game with real-life trains. No going at insane speeds or derailing here.

As far as links are concerned, I'm sure most of you are capable of finding what you need, so I'm keeping this short:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densha_de_go
- http://www.taito.co.jp/game/popular/train.html
- http://ps2.ign.com/objects/675/675615.html

Feel free to discuss this series and your personal experiences with the game in this thread. I'd love to see people actually give this game a try and report back with their experiences and opinions. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable on all things DENSHA DE GO! by now, so questions of any sort are also welcome.

Oh and don't be afraid of the Japanese language in the game, it's really only required for conductor mode (where pretty much all you do is announce correct station names) and not needed to enjoy driving a train.

I couldn't really decide wether to tag this General or Multiplatform, but I went with General because this thread is meant to be an introduction to a classic game phenomenon rather than a serious discussion about different titles of a multiplatform series.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I had two chances to play this game. The first was on the Neo Geo Pocket Color version, which was enjoyable enough. My Japanese ability was next to zero at the time, so it took about fourty-five minutes before I got everything.

My second experience was on the Saturn, which was great. The graphics looked much better than the 16-but handheld (which still looked good for what it was). But even better, it came with this special train controller that you used to play the game. Pushing and pulling that lever was more fun than it should've been. Unfortunately, I had to part with it.

Hmm, now that you brought this up, I feel like playing it again.

I heard Taito ended the Densha De GO!! series (though a Wii version came out recently, so that can't be true), but continued with Railfan for the PS3. It looks amazing, but seems like it's meant mostly for Train Otaku.

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To be honest, I'd rather have 3D graphics instead of real video footage in my Densha simulator. I also like the simplistic arcade feeling of Densha de Go! over the realistic approach they seem to be taking with Railfan.

Oh, I wanted to add that the four separate Densha de Go! Pocket games released each contain a single line from Densha de Go! Final: Chuo, Tokaido, Yamanote and Osaka Loop. I'm still missing the latter two, so if anyone manages to find a Torrent for Yamanote and Osaka Loop Pocket for PSP, be sure to drop me a line!

If you're new to the series and have a PS2 or PC, you should definitely start out with Densha de Go! Final. It's probably the most polished and easy to learn of all the Densha titles.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I enjoyed reading that adventure. =) I've always wanted to play one of these and I don't really know why. It would be especially awesome playing a portable version while on the train. The closest I've gotten is X-Treme Express on PS2 I guess, but that's more about ramming opponents off the track and unlocking novelty trains like giant radioactive cats.

I imagine the versions that use real footage instead of 3D environments would be a lot less fun, especially if you decided to mess around and go slower or faster than you're supposed to. Which I would. Because I'd be the train master!

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I haven't tried this (it doesn't look all that interesting, honestly) but you'll be pleased to know there's now an english site dedicated to the series.

http://www.densha-de-go.com/

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Densha de (densha de)
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GO! GO! GO! GO!

Yeah, I've never played it, but it might be interesting to mess around with. That song was pretty rad, though.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?