A-Train All Aboard! Tourism

A-Train: All Aboard! Tourism won’t be for everyone. That’s not just because it’s part of a niche genre – it’s also because of the way it’s structured and the time commitment to truly get into it and dig deep into the ‘good stuff’. It never quite goes off the rails, but sometimes you’ll wish the journey could be a little quicker – and not everyone will be able to stick it out. If you manage that – and more fervent fans of transport sims should be able to do that – there’s a bit of a hidden gem here.

So much about A-Train: All Aboard! Tourism is neat that I wish I could more strongly recommend it. At the very least, I'd love to force people who don't think public transportation is worth investing in to play it so they see what an adequate rail system can do for their community. Because this does make a good argument for expanding public transit, it's just that its antiquated user interface and woeful tutorial and manual mean very few people will bother listening to what it has to say.

It's hard to express how well a niche game fares with a numerical score. If train business minutiae are your niche, your heart will be all a-flutter; if not, you'll be all a-bored. Setting the content on one side, there are significant balance, interface and performance issues – but they don't derail the game entirely. While there are other options for management sims on Switch that are much more light-hearted and accessible, A-Train is something different that educated us and broadened our horizons in the genre. Fans, then, will be stoked to play the series on a new platform; for others with plenty of patience A-Train could be a sleeper hit. (We're really, really sorry about all the puns. Honest.)

Overall, once you get past the issues, it can be an in-depth and fun game to play for a rail simulation enthusiast, but those issues can be tough to overcome and take a lot of trial and error if you want to build more complex routes. It has a tough learning curve even with the tutorials. Some of this may just be me coming from another style of play but I actually had to restart the tutorial a couple of times until I got the hang of how the routing and scheduling system worked so I could design my tracks properly, but now that I have the hang of it, I'll probably continue playing it.

A-Train: All Aboard! Tourism is definitely impressive. People have an extraordinary degree of control over all elements of transportation and the entire health of towns. It demands you pay attention, to be sure. There are some technical issues here, to be sure. (Patches were released as I was playing, so it seems Artdink is aware of problems.) People willing to give it a chance could find a simulation they could spend months playing.

An interesting railroad management simulator that seems a little bit stuck in time.

A-Train: All Aboard! Tourism is a complex management simulation game. If you spend the time getting to know all the ins and outs of the gameplay and what is required to succeed, it’s an enjoyable and entertaining strategy game. The high price point might put some people off, though true fans of this genre will find a pretty solid management sim underneath somewhat flat visuals!

A-Train: All! Aboard! Tourism is the same wonderful blend of genuinely enlightening and deeply rewarding simulation gameplay that will both make you realise the value of mass transit, and help you to understand just how hard it is to get all of it right. Even the cute anime aesthetic, which initially seems so out of place for something so complex, eventually makes sense, too.

A-Train: All Aboard! Tourism might seem a lighthearted game suitable for beginners, instead the last of Artdink's productions turns out to be the exact opposite. It's a complex and articulated managerial title, full of micro-management elements and with a particularly steep (perhaps too much) learning curve. That's because, despite the presence of two exhaustive tutorials, there's always the risk of being disoriented by an unnecessarily confusing interface.

A-Train All Aboard! Tourism is a complex management simulation, based on a railroad company but not limited to it. Graphics are too simple, and control scheme needs some learning, but after some practice we enjoyed the japanese setting in different periods.