Don't feel bad if you never heard of Taito's Densha de Go! series before; as video games go, it's the kind of series that comes to mind when one wants to give examples of what a niche title is. Train enthusiasts however will know all about the series whose name translates to "Go By Train!". Like most of Taito's franchises it began in the arcades with several entries of the game featuring faithful reproductions of many of Japan's iconic trains and railways, with the cabinets replicating the dashboard of the train engine, featuring pressure gauges for both throttle and braking. As the virtual train conductors it was your job to keep the train running on time and under the speed limits while sounding off the horn before bridges and crossings.
With the 3D revolution on home consoles came the home ports of the franchise, with unique controllers that mimicked their bigger, original arcade counterparts. The Nintendo 64 was blessed with Densha de Go! 64 in 1999, a game we rather enjoyed. It is unique in the system's library because it was one of two titles that supported the Voice Recognition Unit, a feat shared with Hey You, Pikachu!. If you knew your Japanese correctly, you could shout to the microphone numbers that would allow you train to adjust its speed on the fly. Mind you, both the VRU and the conductor controller where not mandatory to fully enjoy the game, so even a loose cart will deliver the full experience at home.
Being such a unique and niche series, none of the games ever made it to the West officially - at least until a couple of days ago when Zoinkity and mikeryan released a complete, unnoficial English localization patch. We were cautious at first since this could be an elaborate April Fool's prank but upon further investigation we were gifted with an incredible and extensive translation project that no only makes all the text into English but also changes the VRU to support English! You read that right, if you happen to have that illusive N64 peripheral, you can now shout the your desired train's speed in English and the game will act accordingly. Purists of the series need fear not since all the voices remain in Japanese, part of the game's original charm. Tremendous fan effort here, one that might not only shine some new light into this series but also help western Nintendo 64 owners hunt down all of the game's many, illusive Easter Eggs.
Do you like trains? Are you a fan of the series? Would you like to see a modern Densha de Go on your Switch or 3DS? Shout your instructions in the comments section.
[source romhacking.net]
Comments 11
Nice gameplay...
Square Enix owns Taito, and they have done nothing with any of the Taito intellectual properties ever since Space Invaders Infinity Gene!
@AlphaJaguar
So, Taito was bought by SquareEnix ?
Well...
There was some Taito games like Puzzle Bobble, Minna no series for NDS (Minna no Conveni, Minna no Doubutsuen, etc)...
@AlphaJaguar Wait... how about "Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours" ?
If you enjoy this game, seek out the Game Center CX episode where Arino takes on the PS1 version. It is hilarious and one of my favorite episodes of the show.
So funny to think people haven't heard of this. As a Saturn owner at the time, I turned to imports to get the most out of the system. Densha de Go felt like it was everywhere back then, with coverage of the game, its special controller, crazy portable versions.
Nice to see an N64 game translated for a change. Its usually NES or SNES titles that get translated more (Which is understandable).
Maybe someday all under 400 N64 games on the system will be in English Daydreams
@sdelfin To be fair, that was a train game twenty years and several console generations ago. I have trouble getting 3DS owners to believe that there are over 10 train titles on the eShop right now. Everyone forgets train games, sadly.
Yeah, these games are fantastic. And this loose cart goes for very little online. Good stuff.
@Shiryu Surprisingly, that game wasn't published by Square Enix for some bizzare reason.
Wish a translation team would take on Giftpia or Captain Rainbow.
Neat to see this. Will load it up in my Everdrive and check it out.
I wish we'd see NTSC conversions of F1 Racing Championship and F1 World Grand Prix II next.
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