I love trains. I love puzzle games. I love Tracky Train because it merges those two things into one. Plus it’s free, which is always good.
To put it in its most basic form, in this game you lay down train tracks so that a train can safely reach its destinations. You control two characters in a handcart, who are somehow moving forward and instantly laying down track behind them – a train is driving along not far behind and you have to make a route through several environments (fields, castles, factories, beaches etc.) which avoids obstacles and brings you to passengers and stations. If you hit a wall or a dead end and the train catches up, you lose.
It’s a fun and addictive game which anybody could enjoy. Not only is it fun to play so that you can beat your high score, but the more passengers you pick up safely and bring to a station, the more money you make and the more locations and train upgrades you unlock. The fact that it is so simple makes it all the more appealing.
Another good incentive to keep playing and picking up more passengers, is that there is quite a wide variety of passengers to encounter (which are recorded as you see them), many of which are parodies of celebrities and fictional characters. Among the many characters you can pick up are a lookalike of Walter White (from Breaking Bad) in his underwear, a lookalive of Mr. Blobby, a lookalike of Clippy the Paperclip (from old versions of Microsoft Office) and even lookalikes of Jet Force Gemini characters. But it’s not just lookalikes: this game actually features the first video game appearance of Yooka from Yooka-Laylee which I find pretty exciting. There’s also a semi-official appearance of Banjo the Bear from Banjo-Kazooie, which is how I initially heard of this game, being a rabid fan of the series. As the characters in the handcart are randomly chosen passengers, this very nicely means that you are sometimes controlling Banjo and Yooka working together.
So if you’re looking for a new mobile game to play in your spare time, something which you can sink hours into easily without being pushed too aggressively towards micro-transactions, I can heavily recommend this Tracky Train.
Rating: 8.3/10
