10 Best Video Game Train Levels
Video games have always had a range of biomes in their worlds, from early consoles with simple environmental tricks to newer systems with open worlds that you can interact with.
Get ready for the best train levels in video games!
Video games have always had a range of biomes in their worlds, from early consoles with simple environmental tricks to newer systems with open worlds that you can interact with. Many of these places are used so often that they’ve been turned into icons. For example, ice levels, lava levels, and train levels are all very common.
Although not as common as “forest” or “desert,” train levels are known to be very exciting. Few things are like reading a book while riding a train down the tracks at top speed through changing views while confined to the small space of a train car. We’ve put together a list of some of the most beautiful train levels in video games.
Overworld – The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Even though this The Legend of Zelda game isn’t really a level, trains are a big part of the gameplay. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks came out in 2009 for the Nintendo DS. It follows Link as a Hylian engineer and Zelda’s spirit as she tries to save the country from the evil Demon King Malladus.
In Spirit Tracks, you can use trains in the Overworld. As the game goes on, you can change and improve your train, and it also takes you to towns and other places where you can explore and go dungeon-crawling. Being able to control a train is a unique feature, but the story is too simple to make it rank higher.
The Whole Story – The Last Express
Most video game trains are in first-person shooters or puzzle games, but this one is one of the few that isn’t. The Last Express is a point-and-click historical fiction game that came out without much fanfare in 1997. It takes place on a train from Paris to Constantinople, and you play as the American Dr. Robert Cath, who is looking into why your old friend Tyler Whitney died too soon.
This point-and-click version of the Orient Express is beautifully made and true to the time of World War I, but the gameplay might not be as exciting. The characters talk in languages that are true to their cultures, like Serbian and French, and look around the cars on their own time. Happy Wheels wasn’t very popular when it came out, but its unique style and interesting plot make it one to remember.
The Ecliptic Express – Resident Evil Zero
Resident Evil‘s Ecliptic Express sounds like a horrible nightmare for people who are easily scared. The Ecliptic Express started out as a service train for moving workers of the drug company Umbrella around. By the time our heroes get there, Queen Leech has spread a disease that turns people into cannibals.
You are Billy Coen and Rebecca Chambers, and your job is to stop the virus. The heroes must use discovery and a light touch to get rid of the infected and try to get the train back if they can. Many gamers enjoy the new challenges that come with fighting a lot of different creatures in a small area.
Train – GoldenEye 007
Like the Ecliptic Express, this train has a brave shooter who is trying to stop a terrible train accident. This level of the popular GameCube game GoldenEye 007 takes place on a Russian armed train. To save his partner Natalya from the Russian general Ourumov, Bond sneaks onto a coach that is full of missiles.
The train level in GoldenEye has always been a fan favorite because it tests your reaction time and ability to perform even when there isn’t much defense available. Bond has to move through narrow hallways and sharp turns. Still fun to play after all these years, the train level from GoldenEye is still pretty good.
Train Robbery – Red Dead Redemption 2
The world of Red Dead Redemption 2 is open to exploration, so the game doesn’t really have levels. However, there are tasks and story beats that have some of the most realistic and well-rendered trains ever seen in a video game. The Van der Linde gang robs a train, which is where the main plot mostly starts.
You don’t have to steal or take over a train outside of the main story; you can just ride them if you want to. But jumping onto the roof of a fast-moving train from a bridge is pretty cool. Because these Western steam engines can talk to each other and you have control over them, this game has some really cool train levels.
Charles – Choo Choo Charles
Charles (or Hell Charles) from the game Choo Choo is one of the weirdest and scariest ideas ever put into a video game. Charles is an interesting train. You, as a monster hunter called “The Archivist,” are supposed to get rid of Charles, a demon who looks like a cross between a spider and a train. He is terrorizing the land of Aranearum.
Charles is clearly a violent and messed-up parody of the Thomas & Friends series. The only way to call him is to gather his eggs, and the only way to beat him is with a bunch of machine guns and bombs. Charles is a nightmare you won’t soon forget because of how scary this character is and how strange the game’s idea is.
The Phantom Express – Cuphead
One of the seven bosses on Inkwell Isle Three in the acclaimed 2017 run-and-gun game Cuphead is the Phantom Express. This level has one of the strangest train layouts in video game history. The two heroes Cuphead and Mugman bet their souls on a game of craps at the Devil’s Casino. Now they have to find other souls for the Devil so that they can keep their own.
The Phantom Express has four parts: the Blind Specter, the Conductor, the Lollipop Ghouls, and the Head of the Train. All of them are alive and moving. This level does something different by making the train a character in and of itself. It calls itself a “train for the dead” and is full of scary images. We wouldn’t expect anything less from a game like Cuphead.
The Excess Express – Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
The Excess Express is the next place on our list. It’s a fancy place for a strange case and is where Chapter 6 of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door takes place. Several people’s things are stolen while Mario is on the fancy bullet train to Poshley Heights. Mario hires Pennington, a penguin detective with an amazingly big brain, to help him with this.
Paper Mario games tend to focus more on stories, but the writing in The Excess Express is sharper and smarter than most Mario stories. It’s clear that the writers were trying to poke fun at Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. This train level is close to the top because it has a fun setting, likeable characters, and a unique Super Mario whodunit.
The Phantom Train – Final Fantasy 6
Another train that seems to be connected to the dead, Final Fantasy 6‘s Phantom Train is without a doubt one of the most memorable engine levels in the series. When the heroes’ party meets the strange coach in the Phantom Forest, some of them get on by accident and are told to find a way off the tracks before they are taken to the other side.
There are ghosts on the Phantom Train. Some are friendly and will sell you things or help you get recruited briefly, while others are mean and want to fight. Because the Phantom Train is linked to death, it brings up painful feelings for our heroes. This level of Phantom Train is one for the books because of how strange and upsetting it is.
Locomotion – Uncharted 2
In Uncharted 2, Nathan Drake’s train adventure is one of the most famous scenes in video game history. It’s also the best train level. From the first shot of Drake hanging from a passenger car that is perched on a cliff in the Himalayas to the first high-speed train ride through Nepal, every second of these long train levels is packed with action.
Being able to make a train level works well for the Uncharted series because it gives skilled climber Nathan Drake a limited space to work with. It’s clear that this train level has all the best parts of the archetype. He does dangerous jumps between train cars, barely wins high-speed one-on-one shootouts, and climbs up from a very dangerous height.
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