Yo jurors! When I was a boy, which we’ll say was yesterday so I don’t feel old, I had a fascination with trains and train sets. I just thought they were cool and I’m not really sure why. Now as a man things have changed and...who am I kidding, they’re still cool and I still don’t know why.

One thing's for sure though, the fine folks over at Oroboro Games and Flazm know exactly why. Now available on Steam early access is Train Valley. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Kenpo, there are a bunch of train tycoon games out there already. Yeah yeah, I know, but this isn’t a train tycoon game. This game is about the joy of building the train system and then managing its switches. In other words, it’s the same sort of thing I did with train sets without being so heavily focused on the financial aspects like a tycoon game or city builder game would. More choo choo and less checkbook!

It looks awesome and the dev team are clearly passionate about the game. So far they’ve been very active on the Steam forums interacting with the community and asking for feedback and feature suggestion...in other words exactly what we like to see from developers!

Speaking of features, here’s a brief rundown of what’s in the game and what all the fuss is about:

• Build railroads in order to connect cities, tunnels and bridges. New railways are cheap when laid across bare fields, but can be expensive when demolishing forests, villages and other existing structures.
• Manage increasing traffic by constructing, switches, sidings and spurs so that multiple trains can run without delays, at the same time.
• Stay accident-free by precisely controlling trains during crucial moments, using pause for planning (you can build railways and schedule trains while on pause).
• Play through 4 seasons: Europe (1830–1980), America (1840–1960), USSR (1880–1980) and Japan (1900–2020). (*The Early Access version currently offers 3 seasons, the Japanese levels are still in development).
• Complete the story mode featuring such real-life events as the Gold Rush of 1849, the construction of the Florida Overseas Railroad, World War II, the Cold War, the launch of the first manned space flight Vostok 1 and more.
• Explore the game in different game modes: in story mode (5-10 minutes), in random mode (15-20 minutes – the level looks and develops differently every time you launch) or in sandbox-like regime (can be turned on for both story and random modes. It allows to play without time and money limits).
• Discover 15 types of trains – from early steam-powered locomotives to modern high-speed trains (*the Early Access version currently features 10), driving 18 types of cars – from old-time passenger cars to hoppers and cisterns and to military-use tank and gun platforms (*the Early Access version currently features 14).

I’ll be digging more into this game in the future buuuuuuuuut, what say you jurors!? Ready to brave Mount Early Access for a trip into Train Valley? Or are you the type to wait for the train to enter Full Release Station? Let us know in the comments.

For more news on this and other games, don’t miss the switch for Pixel Judge. This news is adjourned.