Mostly in the GBC version. The Wonderswan doesn't really have that much. Odd really when KonamI's Beat Mania on the Wonderswan used music with loads of samples while their GBC versions sounded awful.
Thanks for posting this mark! I was about to buy the Saturn version because I've seen the controller very cheap ($35) but....... I can live without it !
Nice.. an arcade cab about controlling a train! I wish they had it here in venezuelan arcades, I really love train simulators and all kind of games about the subject. I didn't know there was a playstation version of Densha go, but I guess it was only available in japanese. Pretty good episode, thanks!!
Yeah, you'd be surprised just how many versions of Densha de Go there are over the series. Check out this wiki - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densha_de_Go! The Wiki is missing the Neo Geo Pocket Colour version though. That version was based upon Densha de Go 2. I actually own it. you can seea picture of it on my Neo pocket here - www.segagagadomain.com/miss/neogeopocket.htm Also a UA-cam video of it - ua-cam.com/video/Fn_jfXrqJ4Q/v-deo.html&spfreload=10
This is a great simulator game. The anime girl who randomly appears at times to talk to you is a nice touch. I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese trainee train drivers at the time used this game to help improve their stopping skills. lol Have you ever travelled on the Metro trains in Tokyo? I have and I noticed that the electronic announcement signs that appear when approaching a station is in both Japanese and English which is interesting. :)
Yes, I lived in Tokyo in the late 90's. Actually, I use the train every day now. The last two weeks I've been traveling on the Shinkansen every day :( I travel far but the inside of a Shinkansen is like an airplane. Very nice :)
What a bizarre game, one that I would love a go of actually. I'm a massive fan of the 1980s movie Runaway Train and always appreciate a game with trains in them, mainly GTA to be honest.
You may find driving along the train tracks in GTA-V more fun than this game. Then again this is so much of a geek simulation that it's actually good. I really enjoyed playing Densha De Go! 2 on the Dreamcast.
Retro Core I thought I had seen it before, it must have been in a magazine about the Dreamcast version (Or was that a Bus driving game??) as I was thinking about the Dreamcast when your video started..
I love my Sega Saturn but holy cow that was bad, thought you were playing it on a buggy emulator for a second ;) Played the arcade version of this on my first trip to Japan back in 1999, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I think You should play Densha de Go! on a real Saturn hardware, not an emulator ;) And if You want to know for sure how many frames per second the game has, capture the video in 60 fps and then play it frame by frame. Sometimes the game UI is updated every single frame (60 fps) while the game objects (like backgrounds or 3d objects) only every second frame (30 fps) :) Saturn games tend to do this trick.
Interesting one. The biggest game in Japan for years you say! Wow. They must REALLY love their trains then! Very quirky. As much as I love quirky Japanese stuff/games, I'd probably play this once or twice and never again :)
You wouldn't believe just how much the Japanese love their trains. I mean, not everyone in the country but I think it's safe to say there are more train geeks in Japan than the whole of Europe and US put together :)
Retro Core Blimey. I see on NHK the small trains going through communities and that homes and businesses sometimes integrate with them. I've even seen stops that are just hundreds of meters away from each other. A world away from the shit state of the uk service and infrastructure.
You said it. The UK train system is a joke. I remember buying tickets a week in advance to travel from Liverpool to London yet I had to stand up for 1 hour of the journey! Total joke! Tomorrow I will take the Shinkansen to work. Ride in luxury with proper reclining seats that fold back so far I can have a quality snooze in them. It's like being on a spacious plane!
Retro Core yep the train system here in the UK is a joke but it's kind of come to the point where we all get used to it and if we change it up all hell breaks loses.
Not really, I figured it out when I played the arcade version years ago. You will find that outside of RPG's that a lot of games can be imported and played without much issue. A lot of my Saturn games I have even have an English language selection which makes me laugh because they were never released outside of Japan to begin with. Import away (provided you know how to play them on your systems) and have fun!
I downloaded the GameBoy version, might have actually tried to buy a copy if I could figure out how to play it. I don't know Japanese though, and even if I figured out what to do, the novelty would probably wear off pretty quick. Makes me want to play a train simulator again, I've got a few old ones lying around.
Great video! You forgot to include the Windows port of the game. I don't blame you though, it isn't the most popular of the ports. But, the game did have a graphic uplift and a few "extended" levels. At least for the first Densha de Go! game, that is.
+Retro Core I just finished playing that version & came to see some reviews of it, and game play. My Japanese friend handed me a copy of it. It's pretty cool....
The N64 got a version of this too. This is one of those games I'd like to try and I'd want the custom controller, but it would probably just end up in my pile of stuff that is just too big at the minute.
There is a Densha de Go game on the N64 but it's different than this one. Thats why it wasn't featured. There's also a Densha de Go game on Dreamcast but again it's a different game.
@@RetroCore oh you'd probably like it. There's also interesting segments in between trying to complete a game like visiting arcades and various segments that change season to season like matching taglines up to their games. There's a reason it's been on 22 seasons
I've been curious about this game ever since Arino from Game Center CX did an episode challenging the PS1 version but I was intimidated to try because my Japanese skills isn't up to snuff. I'm still learning but I guess I can still give it a go even if I don't understand all the kanji and spoken phrases going on.
Great show! Last summer, I invested in getting this game and the controller for the Saturn. Then I discovered how crappy it looks as compared to the Playstation. Naturally the Playstation handles 3D graphics better than the Saturn, but I believe the sub-par graphics is due to the port being handled by Takara rather than Taito themselves. Video games are not really one of Takara's strong points. They ought to just stick to transforming robots. The train tracks seem to flicker underneath the ground textures in the Saturn version is terrible-looking. However, the frame rate is smooth, and the gameplay is pretty nice. You really get an understanding of how to brake at the right times, when to sound the horn before entering tunnels and rounding turns, getting a feel for the momentum of the train, etc. Plus it's fun making that whining woman fly onto the floor when you brake too hard!
It's ok but it could have looked so much better. The frame rate is always dropping on it and that version also has graphical issues with the texture mapping. It is a good game. I played it A LOT! But it could have been so much better.
This proves my theory of only Japanese like Japanese exclusives, only Americans like American exclusives, and only Europeans like European exclusives. That rule follows around 90% of the region exclusives.
I remember seeing screeshots of a game like this one being announced for the ps3 back in the days. I'm surprised that Train Simulator isn't the top selling game in japan
nope that isn't it. the Railfan is all full motion videos. I swear I saw a game pretty similar to Densha de Go but completly 3d. I also remember it featuring a third person view similar to Train Simulator. Going to lurk for it, see if I can find it. Unless it was cancelled I'm certain that I saw screenshots of a game like this one for the PS3
I dont see the ngpc version here... That was the best handheld densha de go version... Edit: now i can see this is about the first densha de go,please cover densha de go 2 so you can compare all 3 handheld versions of this game (gbc,ws and ngpc)
I wish I understood Japanese. I know you can learn to play this game without it, but I imagine you miss out on a lot of the little touches if you only know English. Plus, there are so many other games that never got a release outside of Japan. I actually tried to use online translators to take screenshots from a game, OCR them to Kanji(?) and then translate that into English. Naturally it didn't work at all. I tried it on text where I already knew what the option did so that I could get an idea of whether the translation made any sense. It translated the text for the options menu into something like "Flowers". :(
Hmm, learning enough Japanese to understand the kanimanner in this game would take an awful long time. I've lived in Japan for 19 year yet I can't read everything here.
I've thought about trying to learn Japanese, but people say it's probably the hardest language for foreigners to learn. It's just that there are so many games that I can't figure out. Like the PS1 game Mobile Suit Gundam - Perfect One Year War. I figured out the basics of moving around the map and attacking, but there are still a bunch of icons that I don't know what they do, and the later levels have tons of option screens which don't do anything immediately obvious. Then there are all the 3D Gundam and Macross games. Some people say that you don't need to know Japanese to play them, but how am I supposed to know what to do in the missions? Do I shoot everything? Are some of the other robots on my side? Am I supposed to be protecting something?
Being able to read written Japanese would probably be more helpful, but I've heard that there are thousands if not millions of characters. That's a little too much work for me, just to be able to play games.
Densha de Go looks to be boring, especially on the WonderSwan (Kinnikuman is also not interesting, I find it unappealing) considering that I’m a huge fan of that system (it has many strong points with a few weaknesses. Everything has their advantages and disadvantages. I am also fascinated with the fact it has a cult following just like the Neo Geo Pocket, awesome! I love both systems myself) and the vast majority of awesome games it has. This is not one of those on that system. You’d be better off simulating trains on your phone rather than a handheld gaming system. This game series in general I personally won’t enjoy if I ever get the chance to, not like I really want to. I got bored of those train conducting games rather quickly. Densha de Go is not abysmal, just boring. Not really interested in Japanese board games or simulator games, but a huge fan of Japanese action games, especially fighting games, shmups, RPGs and more. Simulating a train would get boring for me rather fast. You’d be better off with something else like me.
I am not sure what to make of it, to be honest. On one hand I find concept of the game like this a bit...absurd. Like it's must be very repetitive after certain amount of time. On the other, as someone who loves trains and railways, I certainly would had spent quite a lot of time with this game, if I had it back in a day. But in general, it's just rumblings of an old man who can't understand sports and racing games at all. )) Sega Saturn version looks horrible. It's like nobody really cared about positioning of textures and their quality. Game Boy Color port looks boring and Wonderswan port is just ugly.
I have no interest in trains however I find this (actually, the Dreamcast game) and Tokyo Bus Guide, a bus driving simulation to be fun and relaxing games. There is actually skill involved but it's more in the sense of judgment rather than reactions.
I like how Taito at least took the time to include the digitized voice in the WS and GBC ports.
Mostly in the GBC version. The Wonderswan doesn't really have that much. Odd really when KonamI's Beat Mania on the Wonderswan used music with loads of samples while their GBC versions sounded awful.
@@RetroCore Any idea how the n64 stands content/graphics wise ?( even if its the second game)
_Densha de Go!_ is basically a more engaging version of Desert Bus.
GBC used digitized stills too.
The problem with the Wonderswan version is the perspective. It barely looks like you're moving forward!
Thanks for posting this mark! I was about to buy the Saturn version because I've seen the controller very cheap ($35) but....... I can live without it !
Yeah, the Saturn game isn't that good. Densha De Go 2000 on the Dreamcast is rather nice.
I actually quite like this game, and the Game Center CX episode on it is one of my favourites.
There's nothing wrong with a bit of Densha De Go. It is an enjoyable game.
Nice.. an arcade cab about controlling a train! I wish they had it here in venezuelan arcades, I really love train simulators and all kind of games about the subject. I didn't know there was a playstation version of Densha go, but I guess it was only available in japanese. Pretty good episode, thanks!!
Yeah, you'd be surprised just how many versions of Densha de Go there are over the series. Check out this wiki - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densha_de_Go! The Wiki is missing the Neo Geo Pocket Colour version though. That version was based upon Densha de Go 2. I actually own it. you can seea picture of it on my Neo pocket here - www.segagagadomain.com/miss/neogeopocket.htm Also a UA-cam video of it - ua-cam.com/video/Fn_jfXrqJ4Q/v-deo.html&spfreload=10
I'll chek it man
Train simulator? Well that is a novelty to me, but if it was popular on the arcades I guess it must have some appeal to it...
Nice episode!
Densha de Go! = Mother of Train Simulator
8:35... Damn people bought this version and never complained about it?
Nice quirky choice there, there aren't many games that manage to be interesting and boring at the same time!
hehe, i actually like Densha de Go for some odd reason. Then again I also like Tokyo Bus Guide on the DC.
Retro Core I like Tokyo Bus Guide too - quite the guilty pleasure! I shall have to give the Dreamcast version of this a go.
This is a great simulator game. The anime girl who randomly appears at times to talk to you is a nice touch. I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese trainee train drivers at the time used this game to help improve their stopping skills. lol Have you ever travelled on the Metro trains in Tokyo? I have and I noticed that the electronic announcement signs that appear when approaching a station is in both Japanese and English which is interesting. :)
Yes, I lived in Tokyo in the late 90's. Actually, I use the train every day now. The last two weeks I've been traveling on the Shinkansen every day :( I travel far but the inside of a Shinkansen is like an airplane. Very nice :)
Professional Shiyou will always be my favorite even though the Tohoku Shinkansen levels only have one route and one stop; Morioka to Shin-Hanamaki.
I really should try the latest Densha de Go Arcade machine one day.
There was a release for the Nintendo DS from 2010 that was pretty fun.
That's right. There was also a Shinkansen one on the Wii.
What a bizarre game, one that I would love a go of actually. I'm a massive fan of the 1980s movie Runaway Train and always appreciate a game with trains in them, mainly GTA to be honest.
You may find driving along the train tracks in GTA-V more fun than this game. Then again this is so much of a geek simulation that it's actually good. I really enjoyed playing Densha De Go! 2 on the Dreamcast.
Retro Core I thought I had seen it before, it must have been in a magazine about the Dreamcast version (Or was that a Bus driving game??) as I was thinking about the Dreamcast when your video started..
There's also the bus one on the DC. It's called Tokyo Bus Guide. It was later ported to the PS2 as well.
Retro Core Ah, thanks for the info.
I love my Sega Saturn but holy cow that was bad, thought you were playing it on a buggy emulator for a second ;) Played the arcade version of this on my first trip to Japan back in 1999, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Yeah, I love the Saturn too but it must be said that the team behind the Saturn port of Densha de Go! had no idea what they were doing.
I think You should play Densha de Go! on a real Saturn hardware, not an emulator ;) And if You want to know for sure how many frames per second the game has, capture the video in 60 fps and then play it frame by frame. Sometimes the game UI is updated every single frame (60 fps) while the game objects (like backgrounds or 3d objects) only every second frame (30 fps) :) Saturn games tend to do this trick.
I've always wanted to import Railfan for the PS3 which uses real footage as scenery. I dunno, I just find that really cool lol.
There's a few games like that on the PS2 as well.
Question: Who is that random anime girl talking to you in the tutorial? I don't speak Japanese so I don't know who she is or what her name is.
She's just the tutorial character. I don't know her name.
The one on the lower left at 0:11?
Retro Core
BTW have you played Densha De Go 64 and/or Professional?
Interesting one. The biggest game in Japan for years you say! Wow. They must REALLY love their trains then! Very quirky. As much as I love quirky Japanese stuff/games, I'd probably play this once or twice and never again :)
You wouldn't believe just how much the Japanese love their trains. I mean, not everyone in the country but I think it's safe to say there are more train geeks in Japan than the whole of Europe and US put together :)
Retro Core Blimey. I see on NHK the small trains going through communities and that homes and businesses sometimes integrate with them. I've even seen stops that are just hundreds of meters away from each other. A world away from the shit state of the uk service and infrastructure.
You said it. The UK train system is a joke. I remember buying tickets a week in advance to travel from Liverpool to London yet I had to stand up for 1 hour of the journey! Total joke! Tomorrow I will take the Shinkansen to work. Ride in luxury with proper reclining seats that fold back so far I can have a quality snooze in them. It's like being on a spacious plane!
Retro Core yep the train system here in the UK is a joke but it's kind of come to the point where we all get used to it and if we change it up all hell breaks loses.
I've always been interested in this series, but do you have to know Japanese in order to play these games? That's my only concern.
Not really, I figured it out when I played the arcade version years ago. You will find that outside of RPG's that a lot of games can be imported and played without much issue. A lot of my Saturn games I have even have an English language selection which makes me laugh because they were never released outside of Japan to begin with. Import away (provided you know how to play them on your systems) and have fun!
I downloaded the GameBoy version, might have actually tried to buy a copy if I could figure out how to play it. I don't know Japanese though, and even if I figured out what to do, the novelty would probably wear off pretty quick. Makes me want to play a train simulator again, I've got a few old ones lying around.
The game isn't too difficult to control but the understanding of when to break or slowdown can be.
Great video! You forgot to include the Windows port of the game. I don't blame you though, it isn't the most popular of the ports. But, the game did have a graphic uplift and a few "extended" levels. At least for the first Densha de Go! game, that is.
+Crunchynote Oh, I didn't know there was a windows port. Wish I did when making this show.
+Retro Core Yeah, it's my favorite port of the game.
Yup!
Like I said, the Windows port has extra levels.
+Retro Core I just finished playing that version & came to see some reviews of it, and game play. My Japanese friend handed me a copy of it. It's pretty cool....
The N64 got a version of this too. This is one of those games I'd like to try and I'd want the custom controller, but it would probably just end up in my pile of stuff that is just too big at the minute.
There is a Densha de Go game on the N64 but it's different than this one. Thats why it wasn't featured. There's also a Densha de Go game on Dreamcast but again it's a different game.
ah - OK.
oh hey, didn't arino-san play this for the 100th anniversary of a railway on game center cx? he didn't exactly beat the ps1 version...
No idea. I've never watched and full episode of Center CX. I have seen clips here and there though.
@@RetroCore oh you'd probably like it. There's also interesting segments in between trying to complete a game like visiting arcades and various segments that change season to season like matching taglines up to their games. There's a reason it's been on 22 seasons
I've been curious about this game ever since Arino from Game Center CX did an episode challenging the PS1 version but I was intimidated to try because my Japanese skills isn't up to snuff. I'm still learning but I guess I can still give it a go even if I don't understand all the kanji and spoken phrases going on.
Even without knowing Japanese you'll be able to work out what you need to do.
Retro Core Okay cool I'll definitely give it a shot then. Thanks!
Great show! Last summer, I invested in getting this game and the controller for the Saturn. Then I discovered how crappy it looks as compared to the Playstation. Naturally the Playstation handles 3D graphics better than the Saturn, but I believe the sub-par graphics is due to the port being handled by Takara rather than Taito themselves. Video games are not really one of Takara's strong points. They ought to just stick to transforming robots. The train tracks seem to flicker underneath the ground textures in the Saturn version is terrible-looking. However, the frame rate is smooth, and the gameplay is pretty nice. You really get an understanding of how to brake at the right times, when to sound the horn before entering tunnels and rounding turns, getting a feel for the momentum of the train, etc. Plus it's fun making that whining woman fly onto the floor when you brake too hard!
Yeah, the reason the Saturn version is so poor is because of the development team. The DC version also looks pretty crappy for a DC game :(
Retro Core Oh no! I was considering possibly buying the DC game someday. At least the video I saw on UA-cam of it looked nice.
It's ok but it could have looked so much better. The frame rate is always dropping on it and that version also has graphical issues with the texture mapping. It is a good game. I played it A LOT! But it could have been so much better.
Which game got the NGPC port?
I'm pretty sure that was Densha de Go 2. I have that game around somewhere.
This proves my theory of only Japanese like Japanese exclusives, only Americans like American exclusives, and only Europeans like European exclusives. That rule follows around 90% of the region exclusives.
I remember seeing screeshots of a game like this one being announced for the ps3 back in the days.
I'm surprised that Train Simulator isn't the top selling game in japan
There is a PS3 game called Railfan which features a Densha de Go mode. Maybe this is the game you saw?
nope that isn't it.
the Railfan is all full motion videos.
I swear I saw a game pretty similar to Densha de Go but completly 3d.
I also remember it featuring a third person view similar to Train Simulator.
Going to lurk for it, see if I can find it.
Unless it was cancelled I'm certain that I saw screenshots of a game like this one for the PS3
Isn't there a PC version released by UNBALANCE etc?!
I'm not sure if it's the same game. There's a lot of Densha De Go games and some are on the PC but which ones I don't know.
How do you get free on Android?
It's Japan only.
Train Simulator 201X?
Pfft, have some Densha De Go please. It does make TS look ridiculous. :-)
+Min Nohara's Channel Of Fun Densha De Go is the grand daddy of modern train driving sims.
***** nothing as long as he/she paid for it :)
ブルートレインが走っていますね。
I dont see the ngpc version here... That was the best handheld densha de go version... Edit: now i can see this is about the first densha de go,please cover densha de go 2 so you can compare all 3 handheld versions of this game (gbc,ws and ngpc)
Okay, I'll do it for next weeks show 👍
Are you using an emulator???
for which version? Some ports are running on real hardware.
The sega saturn version of densha de go ex
And the Dreamcast? Where's the Dreamcast version!!!????
This is not on the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast game is a different version of Denshi De Go. There are quite a few games in the series.
Also you forgot the PC version
I think it would be more like I didn't have access to it back then.
do a BOTP for Street fighter 1.
Did that ages ago. Search Battle of the Ports Street Fighter in UA-cam.
I wish I understood Japanese. I know you can learn to play this game without it, but I imagine you miss out on a lot of the little touches if you only know English. Plus, there are so many other games that never got a release outside of Japan.
I actually tried to use online translators to take screenshots from a game, OCR them to Kanji(?) and then translate that into English. Naturally it didn't work at all. I tried it on text where I already knew what the option did so that I could get an idea of whether the translation made any sense. It translated the text for the options menu into something like "Flowers". :(
Hmm, learning enough Japanese to understand the kanimanner in this game would take an awful long time. I've lived in Japan for 19 year yet I can't read everything here.
I've thought about trying to learn Japanese, but people say it's probably the hardest language for foreigners to learn.
It's just that there are so many games that I can't figure out. Like the PS1 game Mobile Suit Gundam - Perfect One Year War. I figured out the basics of moving around the map and attacking, but there are still a bunch of icons that I don't know what they do, and the later levels have tons of option screens which don't do anything immediately obvious.
Then there are all the 3D Gundam and Macross games. Some people say that you don't need to know Japanese to play them, but how am I supposed to know what to do in the missions? Do I shoot everything? Are some of the other robots on my side? Am I supposed to be protecting something?
lurkerrekrul Japanese grammar is tough due to the order being different than English but pronunciation is actually quite easy unlike Chinese.
Being able to read written Japanese would probably be more helpful, but I've heard that there are thousands if not millions of characters. That's a little too much work for me, just to be able to play games.
lurkerrekrul yes, there are so many Kanji but you don need to know them all. Just about 200 will get you by in most cases.
일본은 저게있으면 우리한텐 흠심과. bve. 오픈bve가 있다
No n64
Different game. This is for the original Densha Go. There's no Dreamcast version shown either.
Thanks
Densha de Go looks to be boring, especially on the WonderSwan (Kinnikuman is also not interesting, I find it unappealing) considering that I’m a huge fan of that system (it has many strong points with a few weaknesses. Everything has their advantages and disadvantages. I am also fascinated with the fact it has a cult following just like the Neo Geo Pocket, awesome! I love both systems myself) and the vast majority of awesome games it has. This is not one of those on that system. You’d be better off simulating trains on your phone rather than a handheld gaming system. This game series in general I personally won’t enjoy if I ever get the chance to, not like I really want to. I got bored of those train conducting games rather quickly. Densha de Go is not abysmal, just boring. Not really interested in Japanese board games or simulator games, but a huge fan of Japanese action games, especially fighting games, shmups, RPGs and more. Simulating a train would get boring for me rather fast. You’d be better off with something else like me.
Densha De Go is one of those strange games. I don't really care much about trains myself but I did enjoy playing this game.
my God this Saturn port is House of the dead levels of ugly.
I am not sure what to make of it, to be honest.
On one hand I find concept of the game like this a bit...absurd. Like it's must be very repetitive after certain amount of time. On the other, as someone who loves trains and railways, I certainly would had spent quite a lot of time with this game, if I had it back in a day.
But in general, it's just rumblings of an old man who can't understand sports and racing games at all. ))
Sega Saturn version looks horrible. It's like nobody really cared about positioning of textures and their quality.
Game Boy Color port looks boring and Wonderswan port is just ugly.
I have no interest in trains however I find this (actually, the Dreamcast game) and Tokyo Bus Guide, a bus driving simulation to be fun and relaxing games. There is actually skill involved but it's more in the sense of judgment rather than reactions.
How can anyone be so bad at such a simple game?