The ZX Spectrum has a great shared history with locomotives, especially when it comes to games where the protagonist runs along a moving train. Stop the Express is an early classic that constantly appears in those top Speccy games of all time lists, Express Raider was a solid conversion and the almighty Back to the Future series got some horrible games on the Speccy until Part 3 steamed in. Choo-Choo!
Taking the above into account, throwing in the fact that I really enjoyed Quantum Sheep’s earlier collect ‘em up Jumping Jupiter and being a fan of both early 90s dance music and a good pun, it’s with some expectation that I first loaded up Last Train to Tranz-Central.
The story is a classic AI gone wrong caper and it’s up to Space Cowboy Maurice (as some call him) to reign in the bots, who appear to have been named by someone with a penchant for classic Spectrum characters.
The game itself is split into two parts, each of which sees you play through 4 trains of 8 carriages each. It is a run and gun style platformer where you progress left to right collecting items that unlock barriers, overcome (or avoid) enemies to unlock the door to the next carriage on your quest to confront and stop each of the rogue AIs.
The first thing that strikes you when you play it is how polished it all is. The background effects give the train that feeling of momentum and add that extra level of slickness, as too does the funky AY tune that really spurs you on as you progress through the game. The programmer’s humour and sense of fun really shine through too.
There are puzzle elements, which are not too frustrating and there are arcade elements that are not too twitchy. Everything is planned out to get that little bit trickier the further you get into the game, like all the best titles do. As well as being extremely well designed, the controls are tight, it feels very tough at times but never unfair.
The first few times I played this I felt like I could really have done with having a few more lives, but in reality, real progress can be made and comes from patience and repeated play. The cute graphics and the progressive difficulty really drive you on to get just that little bit further each time and see what the next carriage brings.
Above all else though, this game is FUN! In fact you could say “Congraturations” are in order for a very “Sucsessful” game.
Release Date: 08 August 2020
Original Publisher: Quantum Sheep
Machine Type: ZX Spectrum 48k/128K
Price: Digital £1.99 / Cassette: £10
Digital Download: https://quantumsheep.itch.io/last-train-to-tranz-central
Cassette: https://www.bitmapsoft.co.uk/product/last-train-to-tranz-central/
I remember when I first met Sheepy and I streamed some of his games. I fell in love with the text adventures on the Spectrum and at first I was “why a platformer?”
It didn’t take long of course for me to realise there style translated over rather well though and I thouroughly enjoyed this game. To be honest I need to play it more as it kinda got lost in the previous wave of incredible ZX Spectrum games over the last few years. This is a stand-out title regardless. It moves well and it plays well. To top it off, it looks great too!
We need more sheepy games!