My impressions of PS1 TRL: The Rail Loaders....

[dave4shmups]

I got this game in the mail today, through a trade on gametz.com

I'm not sure if I would even describe it as a shmup, but here goes the description anyhow:

The game is vertically scrolling ("native" Tate, so to speak), and you play a fairy-type character inside of a locomotive, which fires bubbles. Enemies are traped, and, without your having to run through them, dispatched in these bubbles that you shoot out. You are on train tracks the whole time, and can back up, when needed-at times you must hit switches in order to go a different direction. You have a timer at the top of the screen, but the stages are all fairly short. You also have speed and power meters, one on top of the other. Firing a shot will slow you down, and your power meter will go down the faster you fire shots. Dissapointingly, you have no sort of power blast when the meter is fully charged.

There are speed and shot power-ups, but, for the most part, these seem to make little difference. You are never underpowered, but the game barely runs at 30FPS. Bosses are strange, from a cliff face, to a large tree, and you simply fire bubbles at them.

The graphics are sprite-based, and get the job done; they aren't groundbreaking, but neither are they gorgeous.

So, to sum up-I'm REALLY glad I didn't pay for this game! There are worse PS1 shooters out there, Philosoma comes to mind), but make a wide pass on this game. I'll probably keep it, unless there's someone I can find on gametz.com who wants it.

Oh, and I apologize for the lack of screens or gameplay footage, but I could find no screenshots of this game online, nor do I have the means with which to record gameplay footage.

[sideshow]

This is one of the PS1 shooters that I'm looking for. Nice to know that it does exist. I'm interested in dealing for it.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

As a rule of thumb, I never buy a game that I can't get reliable information on. If a game is good, no matter how obscure it is, I'm bound to find several sites covering it. There's no such thing as a hidden gem. I wonder why you keep trying these obscure mediocre games. It can't be that you like to do it.

[dave4shmups]

As a rule of thumb, I never buy a game that I can't get reliable information on. If a game is good, no matter how obscure it is, I'm bound to find several sites covering it. There's no such thing as a hidden gem. I wonder why you keep trying these obscure mediocre games. It can't be that you like to do it.

Well, all I saw was one sentence dismissing it here:

http://www.digitpress.com/archives/didy ... shmups.htm

ONE sentence dissing a game is hardly enough information to go by. Even EGM can do better then that, with their uber-short reviews. Besides, I figured that once I'd played Philosoma, there was only one way to go, in terms of quality!

I would like to let everyone who might be interested in this game know that I have already agreed to trade it for Wolf Fang-a shmup that, as everyone knows, I've been interested in getting a hold of for a VERY long time. I will post impressions of that once I've played it.

[Ceph]

Thanks for the info, I had been wondering about TRL.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B000 ... e&n=637394

Doesn't seem to be rare/valuable in Japan - probably because it's not very good.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Well, all I saw was one sentence dismissing it here:

http://www.digitpress.com/archives/didy ... shmups.htm

ONE sentence dissing a game is hardly enough information to go by. Even EGM can do better then that, with their uber-short reviews.

If a game was dismissed with a sentence containing "horrid," I wouldn't even consider buying the game. A sentence can convey a lot. For example, "it sucks so much I didn't bother writing more than a sentence," "it is horrid (explicitly said)," and "stay at least 10 meter away." Anyways, you're just illustrating my point. Don't ever buy a game when all the information you can find on it is a sentence. Especially a sentence with the word "horrid."

Besides, I figured that once I'd played Philosoma, there was only one way to go, in terms of quality!

The lackluster way?

[dave4shmups]

Well, all I saw was one sentence dismissing it here:

http://www.digitpress.com/archives/didy ... shmups.htm

ONE sentence dissing a game is hardly enough information to go by. Even EGM can do better then that, with their uber-short reviews.

If a game was dismissed with a sentence containing "horrid," I wouldn't even consider buying the game. A sentence can convey a lot. For example, "it sucks so much I didn't bother writing more than a sentence," "it is horrid (explicitly said)," and "stay at least 10 meter away." Anyways, you're just illustrating my point. Don't ever buy a game when all the information you can find on it is a sentence. Especially a sentence with the word "horrid."

Besides, I figured that once I'd played Philosoma, there was only one way to go, in terms of quality!

The lackluster way?

No, up! Or did you not read what I said about the game being better then Philosoma? Whatever, I'm through arguing about this-one sentence is not sufficient for me personally. People on this site, in the past, have griped that I don't contribute, but why should I when I just get put on the stand for it?

[undamned]

Don't listen to UFO. I think he likes to mess w/ people too much sometimes.
-ud

[CIT]

Hmm, thanks for the review. I always wondered about this game, and was considering picking it up to give it a spin, but I guess you've spared me having to do that. ^^

From time to time I also enjoy buying some obscure game that nobody has ever heard of just to try it out. Most of the time the games suck of course, but it's all about that "sense of discovery". I've discovered half-decent crap like Calcolo that way too.

[sideshow]

Obscurity is fun!