We need a videogames version of:
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Densha de Go! 3 Tsuukin-hen
By the end of this week, I need to complete a presentation and a research essay for grad school. That doesn’t matter right now. All that matters are trains.
For those who don’t know, Densha de Go! is a bit like Outrun, but instead of trying to impress a blonde by driving fast, you’re trying to impress the general public by obeying speed limits, honking at construction workers, and stopping exactly where the line shows and not one centimeter over. Honking is the best. It feels like talking. It feels like I’m the train and the world was built for me.
Playing the game, I alternate between a serene state of contentment and a crushing feeling of incompetence. When the doors close and the bell rings, I’m gliding on air. I can see the workers go about their duty, the cars waiting patiently at crossings, and the fellow trains that pass by me. Then I approach the platform and my heart races. I think I slowed down enough on approach, but the distance meter is ticking down too fast. I slow down more and now I can count down out loud. Problem is, I’m already late and there are still 15 meters to cover. I speed up a little, but that’s also a miscalculation. I go over the target by 6 meters and now all of my mistakes have piled up on me. I lose.
I wish I was cool like @dylan. I wish I knew how to conduct a train. I think I’m getting closer to completing an entire run. I think I’m getting better. I think I could drive trains with enough practice. I nearly screamed the first time I stopped the train within one meter of the target. It felt so good! I can see why this series has lasted so long. I’m seriously considering buying a controller now. I cannot wait until we get to 2003 and I can drive trams around.
I think my number 1 post-quarantine dream is to ride a train again. I don’t know where I’ll be or where I’m going, but it’s going to be good to GO!
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holy shit i’ve only played the first ddg (and also the weird wonderswan game) and i didn’t know later games added nighttime and rain
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i have extreme love for the saturn version
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Even better, the sky changes over time, so a ride that begins in the dark of night ends as the sky brightens towards blue.
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The textures are wonderfully grainy. It’s like a moving Seurat painting.
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I’ve seriously been considering buying the Plug and Play for the controller (and because it’s based on the PS2 engine) even though I can’t read or understand the game and have never played one before.
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I can’t read much either, but it’s an arcade game with somewhat clear symbols telling you what to do. In two hours, I understood it well enough to know how to get a decent score. You should get it!
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It’s always so nice to see someone find the joy of these games. And I assure you I’m not that good at the games either lol. It really takes practice and familiarisation with both the track and the feel of each train, and I tend to get rusty really quickly. So give a single line a good amount of focus if you can!
For when you do get to 2003, this video teaches you all the extra mechanics you need to know to drive the trams (I’ve updated the op of the densha thread to include it too)
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people might also want to try attack pla-rail, which is toy train-themed, and it plays a lot like an easier kids version of densha de go
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This looks amazing.
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Zone of the Enders
Feel free to listen to this while reading:
Zone of the Enders and The Bouncer are brothers. They want to impress so much. In many ways, I am impressed. But they are not whole.
Zone of the Enders is presented as if it were a side project of Kojima’s. His name is largest title card in the credits. This is in spite of his rather small role in producing a game that shares much of its staff with Metal Gear Solid 2. Instead of lengthy, discursive dialogue, we get a straightforward, rather typical mech plotline. In a moment of horror, a boy is forced to pilot an experimental robot in order to save himself, and eventually everyone else. The script is so stilted and jarring that it’s a little entertaining. I was simply floored by one moment:
The boy pilot is mad at his superiors and says something like “You guys don’t care who dies. You didn’t care about the previous pilot who was supposed to fly this and you don’t care about me.” There’s a short break. Then the man responds “You idiot. That pilot was my best friend and the other commander’s boyfriend. We care more than anybody else.” Now that’s storytelling.
I’m charmed by the game’s ambition. The camera actually does a fair job of staying focused on the action even as you whizz around space hitting enemies with Dynasty Warriors-esque triple slash combos. I love how almost everything is coated in a phosphorescent blue. I love how your needle-pointed feet spark when they graze metallic floors. I’m even in love with how every battle you engage in permanently damages the space colony’s infrastructure, sometimes killing the few remaining civilians who are left. I don’t like being graded on it though. Grades are bad enough in school, please leave them out of my games.
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Summer 2001 Part 1
- Devil May Cry
- Everblue
- Forever Kingdom
- Gitaroo Man
- Hot Shots Golf 3
- Mister Mosquito
- Shadow Hearts
- Tetsu 1: Densha de Battle!
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highly recommend the second one if only because it explores the weightless mech combat fantasy a little more thoroughly and contains a climactic setpiece that caused my PS2 to smell like burning. it really delivers on the promise of the first game in spades
the dub is so a m a z i n g that my phone keeps correcting ‘dub’ to ‘fun’
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That reminds me of this anecdote: Kojima wanted game to emit blood smell • Eurogamer.net
I remember there was a time when ZOE 2 was considered one of the best looking games on the PS2. I’ve been frothing at the chance to send out volleys of missiles and tracers for decades now. I’d buy the gunpla if they weren’t sold out.
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I think it’s absurdly pretty, I wish ZOE had taken off just so we could have gotten more of yoji shinkawa’s becocked mech design
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Everblue
(sorry for the blurry captures. I’m playing in PCSX2 with blended interlacing. If I didn’t do that, the screen would vibrate and give me a major headache, so I hope this small headache is tolerable enough.)
Arika is now my favorite PS2 studio. Beautiful name: a jumble of “Akira” that nearly whispers “eureka.” That sort of thoughtfulness directed to quaint details drives the design of Everblue.
I wake up from a dream. In this dream, I had died, but I still feel pulled toward making my dream life real. I was diving; I had discovered something forgotten. I wake up to blue skies and people saying “hello.” The world on land is nice, but nothing feels as real as the cyan-dyed universe underwater.
Something is drawing me to Everblue.
My partner’s name is Marco. He watches me as I dive and manages to acquire tea and hats while I’m gone. We sell what we find, but we have no needs. There is a man who is also looking for treasure. We steal his tips and his equipment. We shrug when he complains.
I’m getting closer to what draws me to Everblue.
There is an old car on the street, maybe it still runs. There is a drunk sitting next to it. He is proud of his talents and asks me to give me any spirits I find underwater. I hand him whatever ancient gins, weizens, or stouts that had been casked in sunken ships. He gives me his tasting notes.
I’m nearly on top of what draws me to Everblue.
The ocean seems featureless if you are not looking, if you are not listening. Like a bat, I call out to the world. Sometimes, lost items call back. I’m living the dream I imagined when I saw a man with a metal detector comb the beach in Maine. I’m staring at the world of huge possibilities I had only glimpsed when I had dropped my watch into a lake and realized that there must be at least a dozen more watches like mine planted in the lakebed.
This is it. This is what draws me. There is an infinite world underwater, on land, in each person. It’s enough to just see a fraction and know a little more.
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how did i never know how beautiful this game was? fuck! gonna keep my eye out for a cheap copy.
thanks for playing everblue. there was this little blip of diving games around the turn of the millennium that trailed off (endless ocean and the ps3 aquanaut’s holiday being the end of it so far as i know) that was a neat phenomenon to discover, but not one i’ve taken the time to really check out. something about seeing environments (that though atypical, are grounded in reality) rendered via ps1/ps2 makes my brain buzz. like the ace combat games…the game itself is whatever but i love soaring over those polygonal landscapes dense with militarized infrastructure
maybe someone can vouch otherwise but i’ve beaten 5 of the 6 ps2 genki racing project games and the driving physics never ever felt good to me. it’s everything surrounding the driving that makes those games incredible. “you develop a bitter hatred for sous-chefs and convenience store workers” god yes, if you ever play the mountain racing ones they lose the free-roam-and-chill aspect but they gain in-game forums that all the racers post on.
i missed like a month of this thread so i rambled because i love this project that you’re doing. thanks for doing it!
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If you like that exploring underwater feel I really can’t recommend Subnautica enough. It’s not really the same thing, of course - not so much about chill vibes as struggling to survive - but it has lots of “my god, it’s full of stars” moments as you earn, piece by piece, the ability literally to dive deeper…
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i actually have it on a wishlist somewhere because one of the last times you posted about it i was really moved/swayed by what you had to say. the pure thrill of exploration seems to be about the only thing that could make muddling through a survival game worth it to me, so i’m cautiously excited to check it out!