Video games have always incorporated a variety of biomes into their settings, from early platforms with one-note environmental gimmicks to interactive open worlds on modern consoles. Many of these locales are so ubiquitous that they have become archetypes: slippery ice levels, treacherous lava levels, and of course, train levels.
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Though perhaps not as common as ‘forest’ or ‘desert’, train levels are notoriously exhilarating. Little compares to experiencing a story on a train, barreling at breakneck speed down the tracks through changing scenery while also being restricted to the finite space of a train car. Here, we have compiled a list of the most breathtaking railway levels in video games.
10Overworld - The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
While not exactly a specific level, thisThe Legend of Zeldatitle leans heavily on locomotives as a core gameplay component. Launched in 2009 for the Nintendo DS, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks follows Link as a Hylian engineer alongside Zelda’s disembodied spirit as they strive to save the kingdom from the clutches of the evil Demon King Malladus.
Spirit Tracks has you utilize trains whenever you’re in the Overworld, allowing you to customize and improve your train as the game continues while also connecting you to towns and locales ripe for exploration and dungeon-crawling. While the ability to have agency over a train is unique, its simplicity story-wise keeps it from placing higher.
9The Whole Story - The Last Express
While many video game trains are found in platformers or first-person shooters, this one is a rare exception. Launched unceremoniously in 1997 as a point-and-click historical fiction, The Last Express takes you on a train ride from Paris to Constantinople where you play as the American Dr. Robert Cath investigating the premature death of your old friend, Tyler Whitney.
While the gameplay may not feel as exhilarating, this point-and-click replica of the Orient Express is richly designed and accurate to the World War 1 time period. The characters speak culturally accurate languages like Serbian and French, as well as peruse the cars pursuing their own agendas. Though not popular at its time of sale, this game’s unique design and fascinating story make this train one to remember.
8The Ecliptic Express - Resident Evil Zero
Resident Evil’s Ecliptic Express sounds like a nightmare for claustrophobes. Originally a service train for shuttling employees of the pharmaceutical company Umbrella, the Ecliptic Express becomes overrun by a Cannibal Disease orchestrated by Queen Leech by the time our heroes come along.
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As Billy Coen and Rebecca Chambers, you are tasked with containing the virus. Through exploration and a deft touch, the heroes must dispose of the infected and attempt to recover the train if possible. The fresh creativity of combat with countless creatures within a finite space is a welcome challenge to many gamers.
7Train - GoldenEye 007
Similar to the Ecliptic Express, this train involves a heroic gunslinger seeking to prevent a railroad tragedy. Taking place on a Russian armored train, this level of the much beloved GameCube classicGoldenEye 007sees Bond sneaking aboard this coach loaded with missiles to save his partner Natalya from the Russian general Ourumov.
Constricting Bond’s movements to tight hallways and sharp corners, the train level of GoldenEye has always been a fan-favorite, testing your reaction time and ability to perform even when there is very little defense available. Despite being an older title, the train level from GoldenEye holds up against the passage of time.
WhileRed Dead Redemption 2is not exactly split into levels per se, as the world is freely explorable, there are missions and story beats that contain some of the most realistic and well-rendered trains in video game history. The main plot largely begins with a train robbery committed by theVan der Linde gang.
While it is not required that you hijack or rob a train outside the main story (as you are able to simply ride them if you so desire), leaping onto the roof of a speeding train from an overpass is quite the thrill. The interactivity of these Western steam engines combined with the agency provided to you make this title host to some truly awesome train levels.
5Charles - Choo Choo Charles
Perhaps one of the strangest and most terrifying creations in video game history, Charles (or Hell Charles) from the gameChoo Choo Charlesis a train worth mentioning. Charles is a demonic spider-train hybrid who is terrorizing the land of Aranearum while you, playing as a monster hunter known as The Archivist, are tasked with disposing of him.
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Obviously a violent and corrupted parody of the Thomas & Friends series, Charles can only be summoned by gathering his eggs and can only defeated by a flurry of machine guns and explosives. The uniquely terrifying nature of this character and the weirdness of this game’s premise makes Charles a nightmare you won’t soon forget.
4The Phantom Express - Cuphead
Perhaps one of the most unconventional train levels in video game history, the Phantom Express is one of the seven bosses of Inkwell Isle Three in the lauded 2017 run-and-gun titleCuphead. After betting their souls on a game of craps at the Devil’s Casino, the dual heroes Cuphead and Mugman must collectstray souls for the Devilin order to spare their own.
Alive and fully animated, the Phantom Express consists of four phases: the Blind Specter, the Conductor, the Lollipop Ghouls, and the Head of the Train. Self-categorized as a train for the dead and filled to the brim with spooky imagery, this level takes the unconventional route of making the train a character in and of itself. We would expect nothing less of a title like Cuphead.
3The Excess Express - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Serving as the setting for Chapter 6 of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the Excess Express takes our next spot as a posh place for a curious case. While Mario is aboard the luxurious bullet train to Poshley Heights, various items are stolen from passengers. This causes Mario to enlist the services of Pennington, a penguin detective with an improbably large brain.
AsPaper Mariogames tend to be more narratively focused, the writing for the Excess Express is sharper and more clever than traditional Mario storytelling, clearly parodying Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. This engaging setting with lovable characters and the uniqueness of a Super Mario whodunnit place this train level near the top.
2The Phantom Train - Final Fantasy 6
Another train eerily associated with the dead,Final Fantasy6’s Phantom Train is undoubtedly one of the medium’s most memorable locomotive levels. After encountering the mysterious coach in the Phantom Forest, members of the hero’s party accidentally board and are tasked with finding a way off of the tracks before they are shuttled to the other side.
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The Phantom Train is populated by ghosts. Some are friendly and temporarily recruitable or willing to sell you items while others are hostile and looking to start a fight. The Phantom Train’s association with death also bring poignant memories to the forefront of our heroes. The strange and emotional nature of the Phantom Train makes this level one for the books.
1Locomotion - Uncharted 2
Perhaps one of the most iconic scenes in video game history, Nathan Drake’s train escapade in Uncharted 2 takes the cake for best train level. From the opening image of Drake hanging from a passenger car (which itself is hanging off of a Himalayan cliff) to the initial high-speed train ride through Nepal, each second of this extensive train levels screams action.
A train level lends itself well to the Uncharted series in particular, as it makes for a finite area for professional scrambler Nathan Drake to climb around. As he performs death defying jumps between train cars, barely wins high speed one-on-one shootouts, and climbs up from a most perilous height, it is clear to see that this train level exemplifies all the best parts of the archetype.
