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Railroad Constructor

SCORE: 88

There are some really neat things in Railroad Constructor, and a few things I wish I had not seen. This is a game where the player has so much time to lay down tracks for the train. If you make a mistake there are five bombs to destroy tracks put down in the wrong places. The train starts to roll, and you better have the path laid out for it to go start to finish. Last minute adjustments can be made, but that train gets moving.

There are bright spots graphically in Railroad Constructor, and some dull spots. The gold bars, and the train look nice. The tracks are repetitive, as are a lot of the backgrounds. In fact some of the obstacles like water and rocks do not look that great either. Make a mistake and the train crashes. This is the extent to the violent graphics in Railroad Constructor.

The theme of trains resonates amazingly well in the music. I could tell from the music alone that I was playing a trained based video game. Translation - that is a good thing. The audio department works for this app, and brings it up to the next level. I was not fond of the crashing sounds, but I worked diligently to avoid them as much as possible. I am only human though, and found myself prone to mistakes.

I have a major quibble with Railroad Constructor. I would crash on a level, and go back to the menu screen. I then selected continue, and was right back on level one. Excuse me, a continue to me is continuing on the level I had just lost. So I saw no difference between starting a new game, and continuing the previous game. Sure the continue kept the high score, but to me that is pretty pointless.

I ran into some issues with the game play in Railroad Constructor as well. Too often the tracks that came out next were not usable. So what did I have to do? I had to play them. If the board was full, I would have to destroy something, play it, and hope the next one was usable. This lead to frustration, and in a timed game lead to losing a level. Which sent me back to level one. I could not find a way to skip certain pieces and try for the next one. On the plus side of the column, Railroad Constructor gives players ample time to play the pieces on the board.

Planning ahead is one of the lessons I learned from Railroad Constructor. I think with some adjustments a sequel could be amazing. I found good and bad in this app. So I have to be honest, and completely on the levels with all ya'll. I would like to see this franchise continue, because it has a lot of promise. I would love to see this game allow players to bank bombs for future levels.
- Paul

Graphics: 79%
Sound: 87%
Replay/Extras: 69%
Gameplay: 72%
Family Friendly Factor: 80%
System: iPhone/iPod Touch
Publisher: exosyphen studios
Rating: '9+' for 9+
{Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence}

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