Densha de Go!

More fun than it looks.

Densha de Go! is a series of arcade style train simulations from Taito that were released in Japan. The games have gained somewhat of a cult following outside Japan despite none of them ever leaving the country. Relatively easy to learn how to play but difficult to master, the game has you in control of one of many trains running in Japan, stopping at stations properly and obeying various signs and signals along the way. Different games have different selections of trains available. The series began in arcades and has been ported to many consoles, including PSX, PlayStation 2, PC, N64 and the DS and PSP.

So far the Densha De Go games that have been released are:

• Densha de Go!
• Densha de Go! 2 Kōsoku-hen
• Densha de GO! Professional
• Kisha de Go! (focused on steam locomotives)
• Densha de Go! Nagoya Railroad
• Densha de Go! 3 Tsūkin-hen
• Densha de Go! Professional 2
• Densha de Go! Shinkansen Sanyō Shinkansen-hen
• Densha de Go! Ryojōhen (focused on trams and light rail)
• Densha de GO! Final
• Densha de Go! Special Version—Revived! Showa Yamanote Line

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Densha de Go! franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.

• Cool Train: Quite a few:
  • The famous Yamanote line is a route in several of the games, complete with its trademark green striped commuter trains.
  • In Densha de Go! 2 and Densha de Go! Professional, there's the Akita Shinkansen, which hooks up to another Shinkansen for the final leg of the journey. Badass.
    • Densha de Go! Shinkansen has the original 0 series Shinkansen (which has since been retired) and the awesome Nozomi Super Express, which can reach a top speed of 300 km/h.
  • Densha de Go! Ryojōhen has the Botchan Ressa train, a street running steam train converted to diesel.
  • On the Tōkaidō line, there is the 223 series, a train with electronic chimes that play instead of a horn.
    • Several of the Densha de Go! Nagoya Railroad trains have musical horns too, which play a tune that sounds like the NBC chimes.
    • Densha de Go! Nagoya Railroad even lets you drive a monorail (one that sadly has ceased to exist due to low ridership).
• Nintendo Hard: The first two games were ported to console directly from their arcade versions and as a result are quite unforgiving. Later games are less strict, but later routes are tough.
• Scenery Porn: Most of the routes are through the same city/town areas, but occasionally, you get some nice scenic routes like the one you drive the DD 51 diesel engine on in Densha de Go! Professional.