Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Express Raider

Express Raider remains a fun 2-in-1 game, with the fighting stages standing head and shoulders above the shooting ones, which is something of an oddity considering the Wild West setting. As such we recommend it to anyone who was a fan of the original or who played the home conversions and want to have the original on their virtual arcade Switch museum. But if you have an itchy trigger finger, we recommend you buy a ticket to a more steampunk kind of Wild West.

Express Raider is a game that is now over 30 years old and I have to say it definitely shows. Unlike other arcade games from the era, this one has not aged as gracefully, offering a gameplay cycle that is not as enticing as the premise would have you think. Still, it's a great arcade port on Nintendo Switch and a slice of gaming history that is worth a play or two.

If you want to rob trains in a video game then Express Raider is a solid choice.

Express Raider is an interesting arcade game from another era that is a bit of fun when played in short burst due to its endless nature. Sure, every time you complete a cycle by playing both modes the difficulty will increase, but I don't think most gamers nowadays would appreciate this arcade-style experience, even if you can play it at home or on the go on the Nintendo Switch. Let me know if you've played the game and what you think of it!

Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Express Raider really should've been part of a compilation as it's nowhere near strong enough to stand on its own. It failed to stir up anything close to enthusiasm while I played it, so naturally, it's tough for me to generate much excitement with this review. Flying Tiger Entertainment thankfully has much better Data East games in their Johnny Turbo line like Joe and Mac, Sly Spy, and Super Burger Time, which makes Express Raider that much easier to ignore.

Express Raider is a short yet addictive Arcade experience. Fully focused on chasing hi-scores, this game is absolutely perfect for handheld sessions and getting the best score, although the lack of online leaderboards are a huge bummer, as this game suffers the most out of the entire lineup from the lack of them. Using the save state feature to save your high-scores is handy, and while there wasn’t much DIP Switch options to change in the original to begin with, it is unfortunate they’re still unavailable as per usual in this lineup.