This isn’t to say one who doesn’t enjoy the game is somehow inferior to those who do. Loco Mania is the kind of title which will just touch a nerve the wrong way for some, and give that nerve a warm, fuzzy feeling for others. Err…moving along. The way a Loco Mania level plays out is thus: trains appear from various tunnels and directions on a fixed landscape map (which gets progressively larger) at certain points as the level progresses. So, the trains are sitting ready to move into a maze of tracks, switches and stations. Flick that red light into a green one and you begin the action.
Floating above each train are icons which represent the stations at which you'll need to stop at, and the final exit track. It's a simple matter of surveying the area and picking out the corresponding icons around the landscape, then figuring out how to get your train to the correct stations and away. The problem is, things go slightly pear-shaped as multiple trains all want to get going at the same time. It becomes a mad rush of flicking track switches, reversing directions and changing lights to make sure you don’t get a bunch of trains stuck with no immediately apparent way to remedy the cluster. It’s akin to untangling a pile of fishing line or Christmas lights – heaps of fun. No wait, what’s the word? Tedious.
Here comes Big Red.
Organising the trains is not so much fun, but if you manage to get everything running smoothly, it gives an immense sense of satisfaction. Unfortunately, beyond pretty much the first level, problems are unavoidable. This is probably the main detriment to the game – frustrating difficulty. It isn’t a case of “I don’t know how to solve this puzzle” – which would actually make you think - it's more, “I can see clearly how to solve this puzzle, yet a bunch of crap (i.e, more trains) keep getting dumped in my way, making me have to backtrack after planning a brilliant set of moves”. If, for example, three trains are ready to go, the process would be to check out the area, view the required destinations, and set them all off at timed points, to impressively manage a flawless journey which was carefully planned. Making the planning of these journeys and increasing track and destination complexity would have been the best way to increase difficulty – instead of simply shoving obstacles in your way as you try to carry out the journey.
The maps become progressively larger, but this isn’t necessarily a good thing. Eventually you'll have several trains all chugging along around the world, so the camera must be constantly changing to check all the progress. Nothing flows very well, which is exactly what a puzzle game should do. Being simple and addictive should be the main goal, which is why the realistic graphical style is probably not suited for this type of game. A train simulator to be sure – but perhaps a more compact, stylized game world which allows puzzle gameplay without the restrictions of realistically-sized landscapes would have been more appropriate.
Foggy day in London Town.
And, to add insult to injury – the graphics aren’t good, at all. Well, at least not when compared with pretty much anything over the last five years. This is offset by the fact that Loco Mania is a budget title made by a small team – but expecting a little more than empty, lifeless environments isn’t too much. So really, we have the large landscapes, which make the game more frustrating – and they don’t even look good. What I mentioned earlier, about puzzle games being sometimes exempt from classic technological judgment – doesn’t work when you try to make a game look better than it needs to. This subsequently makes the below-par graphics stand out even more. No points for trying.
The game modes are all pretty simple. Time Attack has you attempting to clear each map in as fast a time as possible – and then players can submit their scores online. Checkpoint is the reverse – time is ticking down and you must continue to successfully send trains on their way to keep the game going. Everything plays exactly the same, and success is always dependent on how fast you can manage the system. All modes are played on the same dozen maps.
After all this criticism, surely there's something to shout about, right? Yes – some players will be so content with the atmosphere and style of puzzling it will keep them entertained for hours. Unfortunately, there isn’t really much of a way to figure out if this is your type of game until you play it. The brilliant yet poorly-executed premise, the mediocre graphics, and the surprisingly relaxing music - all meld together to make a pretty strange game. Maybe it’s only for pretty strange people.
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