Get ready! Stock up on diesel and get those engines running! Dive into train-to-train combat because Battle Train has been released on Nintendo Switch and Steam. Will this game be the gas-guzzling thrill ride that the trailers make it out to be? Or will it be a gentle journey between two countryside stations?
All aboard!
Battle Train is the latest game from Terrible Posture Games and Nerd Ninja. It is published by Bandai Namco Entertainment America and is out for Nintendo Switch and on Steam. In this roguelite deckbuilder, you are a contestant on a game show with the same name, which is all about trains. But not in a boring, relaxing kind of way! In Battle Train, you fire your locomotives as projectiles to destroy enemy stations in diesel-fuelled explosions. The aim is to beat the Duke of Demolition! The Supreme Champion! President Conductor Alvado!
Every Battle Train run has a specific flow. First, you choose your contestant from three randomly generated people. Each contestant has a special ability, such as starting the game with extra fuel or receiving extra gold for wins. Each contestant also has a unique set of starting cards that is added to your standard starter deck. These cards are important for the core part of the game: the Battles.
In a Train Battle, you and your opponent each control one or two stations representing life. The aim is to destroy your opponent’s train station while sustaining minimal damage. You deal damage by connecting the station where your Battle Train starts with your opponent’s Life Stations by playing cards from your hand to build the train track between them. Cards are paid for in fuel. You can obtain fuel by connecting your tracks to Fuel Stations or by collecting random fuel on the board. Cards come in two forms: tracks and action cards. Tracks are rails in various forms and sizes, whereas actions are abilities that can inflict damage on rails and stations or pull objects to another tile on the map. Combine these with the cards you can win after a battle to add extra depth and strategy to the gameplay.
Causing explosions in train-to-train combat isn’t the only thing you can do in Battle Train. Each run is structured as a branched path where you can find cutscenes to advance the story, challenge levels where you must destroy enemy stations in a limited number of moves, and battleship-style minigames where you must find and destroy trains on a grid by dropping bombs. Take your pick — the show must go on!
High octane?
When I started playing Battle Train, I was immediately drawn in by the premise and the fun characters. The game opens with a whimsical tutorial in which the overly enthusiastic candidate Cherlyl is picked from the audience to play Battle Train. The tone was set, and I loved it. The producer/presenter was whimsical and all the characters were entertaining. Even the President Conductor, the resident bad guy, always made me smile when he appeared on screen. Unfortunately, this vibe didn’t continue in the rest of the game. The presenter only appeared in the menu for the most part, while the President Conductor just sat on his throne and said something occasionally in a cutscene. The high-octane, high-stakes vibe I experienced in the tutorial came to an immediate halt as the tension dissipated. The game itself remained the same, but without the story and characters to accompany it, it felt a lot emptier to me. The random characters I could choose from had only one or two battle cries at most, and their design wasn’t as original as Cherlyl’s. I would have preferred to create an original contestant to play as and have them voiced. This would have maintained the energetic, witty vibe from the beginning of the game for longer.
Games that combine roguelite elements with card games are becoming increasingly popular. I have already reviewed Starless Abyss and played Starvaders this year. With the recently released Monster Train 2 and the imminent release of Slay the Spire 2, there are plenty of these games to choose from this year.
It may be due to the choices I made during my four hours of gameplay, but I found Battle Train became repetitive quite quickly. I think there are two main reasons for this. Firstly, I never felt that I was becoming more powerful or destructive, despite the game promising chaos and destruction. Most of the upgrade cards I was offered were rails with damage boosts or odd shapes. Meanwhile, the bosses got lightning strikes, counter moves to shield themselves, better-looking trains and so much more. This made me feel inferior for most of the time. I don’t mind a roguelite making you feel this way at the start of a run, but isn’t it more fun to feel like you’re getting stronger during your run than to stagnate?
My other point of criticism builds on the first: I sometimes felt that the balance of the NPCs was off. On multiple occasions, I noticed a mistake after placing a tile. Instead of finishing me off, my opponent made a random counter-move on the other side of the board, allowing me to finish them off the following turn. This made me feel cheated; even with more powerful cards and a tactical advantage, they still refused to win and end my run. I was frustrated that the game didn’t offer a ‘fair’ challenge, but instead held my hand from time to time.
Don’t get me wrong; I have had fun playing Battle Train, flaws and all. I just think that, with a bit more attention to detail and balancing, this game could have been one of the great titles of the year. For me, though, it just doesn’t make the cut.
Conclusion
Battle Train is a roguelite with card game elements that fails to stand out in a genre already packed with better titles. Its gameplay is good, offering fun runs, but the lack of character development after the tutorial and some balancing issues make the game feel repetitive and unfair at times (even when it is to your advantage). If you are a fan of the genre, you will probably enjoy the train-building mechanics, but don’t expect to lose track of time while playing. Battle Train is out now on Steam and Nintendo Switch.
