Getting vehicles through obstacles has been a classic gaming genre for a long time.  Now, with touchscreens the new thing for mobile devices, these games are slowly making their way there.  Trains is the latest in a series of vehicle based games released for the iPhone in recent months.

Review Date: June 10th, 2009 (Version: 1.0)
Developer: ZAGG Inc.

Fun [rating: 2]
Interface [rating: 3]
RePlay [rating: 2]

Overall [rating: 2.5]

The concept of Trains is simple enough: you have to guide trains to the proper stations to deliver their goods, and then make sure they don’t crash into each other while they exit.  The tracks change when you tap them, allowing you to shepard trains to the left, right, or straight.  The game’s interface is plain and simple, although sometimes switching to the right train tracks can take far too much time cycling through them.

There are little warning signs that tell you when a train is incoming, which is pretty useful.  The object is to get as many points as possible, although there isn’t a high score board connected to the Internet.  You lose when two trains crash into each other.

Unfortunately, the game still lacks from some significant flaws.  For one thing, you need to click on the screen often to change tracks, but you also need to constantly keep track of multiple trains which your quickly moving fingers happen to block.  Accomplishing both of these tasks simultaneously is quite difficult.  Perhaps instead of tapping, a more sliding motion in a certain direction could be used to guide tracks.  This would lessen the time you have to scroll through the different directions by tapping continuously and allow the game to flow more freely.

The game loses it’s novelty and fun pretty quickly.  There is no overarching goal other than to amass points.  There are no additional levels or alternate tracks.  In it’s defense, however, it is still in version 1.0 and it has a long way it can go to improve itself.  I’ll make sure to be on the lookout for significant updates in the future.

Right now, however, it’s Not iWorth It. Additionally, the price is going to be raised to $1.99 soon, and there are far better games out there for $1.99.

Opening Screen

The train tracks