DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE CUTENESS OF COSMIC EXPRESS. This space-themed-train-themed puzzle game about transporting aliens is HARD. Much like being on a real train, you will probably get very stressed and cry. Or is that just us?
Cosmic Express — previously known as 'Train Braining' — was conceptualised and prototyped on an actual train, and was even playtested on the same train, several years later, which is a fantastic bit of poetry.
Puzzle designer Alan Hazelden came up with the idea on the California Zephyr, an Amtrak train that goes from Chicago to San Francisco, and later joined forces with Benjamin Davis (A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build), Tyu (Toca Boca), Nick Dymond (Silt) and Maize Wallin (Wayward Strand) to polish up the protoype into an actual game.
Thus, Cosmic Express was born! Deceptively simple, like many puzzle games, but with a lot of depth and brow-furrowing difficulty, Cosmic Express is split into several different "galaxies", each with new mechanics and a handful of levels to solve, some with several different methods of solving them. There are over a hundred levels in total, and you will almost definitely not solve all of them without help.
Cosmic Express comes to the Switch eShop on the 2nd of September, so get train braining. Er, brain training. Train training? You know what we mean.
Comments (6)
I am loving the concept and the Futurama-like space domes. Different puzzle mechanics, but sort of like the Loco-Motion Intellivision game.
Trains in space? Finally. I’ve waited for a game where you can
See the constellation ride across the sky ~
@Ark is this a massively obtuse TMBG reference?
Looks really nice. If it's anything like an updated Loco-Motion (Intellivision) or The Train Game (Spectrum) I'll definitely bite.
@mr_benn I can do obtuser! @Ark I don't want to be first in line to see Mrs. Train. I expect that it doesn't matter to her, anyway.
Anyway, enough of that... this kind of reminds me of Conduct Together, a game that I both enjoyed and hated (and finished 100%). And that other "make train tracks as the train is moving" game on Switch that I didn't play because Conduct Together made me hate trains. But this one is in SPACE!!!
@kurtasbestos Wait a minute... [spoilers, maybe?] the last area of Conduct Together was also in space. It was also kind of anti-climatic, because the final non-space level was probably best level in the game. Still, this game looks like it could be fun. Or frustrating. Frunstrating!
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