Rail Maze : Train Puzzler

I’ve played this game a long time ago when I was young. It still holds up relatively well, but the ticketing system really kills it for me. I don’t think it’s particularly a bad system but there’s ads inbetween levels as well which gets in the way of enjoyment for me. That’s all I have to say though, the game itself is still just as fun as it was back then.

It’s a fun game but it will be a money pit buying tickets or constantly watching ads to earn extra tickets, 2 at a time. You only get a couple to start with and every new level requires a ticket whether you win right off or have to repeat it so you basically play two levels in a row or repeat one level twice and then you’re done until the tickets regenerate in about 20 minutes, watch a video for two more or buy more. It becomes frustrating when you’ve just figured out the solution but are out of tickets and must pick a choice to get more. When other people have commented on this, the developer just says you can watch videos or spend real money to buy more, somewhat manipulative. Eventually you will get “nickel and dimed“to death or waste a lot of time watching ads and not playing the game because some of the levels may take few tries while some are easier. I liked playing but I think there are other similar games to try that are less time consuming to play, more game playing, less ads.

Apparently the developer thinks that this is a great vehicle for nagging about micro transactions. Just playing through the first few levels, it interrupts you three times with a nag screen suggesting that you should buy more levels or buy unlimited “tickets“ without explaining why this is desirable. There are numerous vibrating logos asking you to buy removing the ads -getting in the way of actually playing. And then, when you reach the level that has the first “pirate train“ you aren’t able to play because in order to actually play the level you need “tickets” which I suppose means that the program has not shown me enough ads yet or I have not agreed to give the developer money in a micro transaction. Too much nagging, deleted.