Tiny Rails Reviews

by Kona Tea

Absolutely love this game. Came back to it recently and after starting from scratch it’s still fun but there are a number of small issues that make it more chore than game. Money gained is slow both online and offline (personally I wish buying stations increased money and even gem gain, it would make my own experience a million times better), the map should zoom out more and zoom in to where your actually looking, the car customization menu should be sortable, all achievements should be possible, and I wish the Russia spy story wasn’t just the same text repeated over and over again. The studio is small so I don’t expect any changes or for the story to be fully finished but I just want to leave this for anyone first coming into this game. Hadn’t played this game in years so I was expecting a lot of change but from what else I’ve read online the only changes have been downhill. Still hopeful for the studios future games. Edit: The studio’s library was acquired recently for the sole purpose of receiving annual income for another company trophy games. The actual studio has reformed as Doom Turtle to create console based games starting with Ember Knights which seems to be doing very well. Go support that, not this sinking trash barge.

by OakDragon

I’m torn about how many stars to give this game, so I guess I’m leaving at 3, in the middle. It’s easily a five star concept and design. I love playing it, that is, when I’m not frustrated by the oodles of bugs. Most of them are minor, but two of them really have been getting on my nerves lately. One is the flying or levitating chunks of graphics in some cities, particularly in Africa. The other is game breaking and was introduced in the last update and has caused me to avoid the game lately. When the game is closed, there’s a limit of 520 passengers or do that will travel on your train, no matter how far you’ve gone. Normally that’s about 40 stations-worth, but over hundreds of stations it makes it seem like you get only a couple of passengers per station and it cripples your income. Fix these, and I’d be mostly happy because, to be honest, I’ve gotten used to the other bugs. I want to love this game again, but I honestly can’t. I wish the devs would test their game on their own instead of waiting for players to report bugs.

by Martyshka123

The game is neat and can be entertaining if a number of bugs is resolved. Not in order of importance, 1) notifications that the train arrived, while the train has just left a station. Consequently, no notifications when the train actually arrives, so I miss all waypoints. 2) Little transparency as to how to earn money. When I started, every time I logged there were credits coming. Then at some point the bank suddenly dried out and now I can’t even afford the whatchacallit machine to get new cars. 3) What is the deal with the car weight? My train is always 10-30% over, and continuous improvement of weight doesn’t seem to have any impact whatsoever. 4) Got a bonus mission to clear snowmen from the tracks. Having played for a couple weeks now, not a single snowman to be seen. 5) Just a side note, is it supposed to inform some action that passengers say “jerk” and some such? I don’t see any functionality to interact with the passengers or improve their morale other then adding food and game cars. 6) If removing obstacles is an important part of the game, it should not be taking several minutes of watching the screen to get one.
All I currently do is check in at destination station to trade goods and advance the mission. I was hoping to have some interaction while the train is running, but it’s just landscape watching and nothing is happening.

by Theradman222222222222

So I updated TinyRails less than five minutes ago, already I have had many bugs and a lot of weird stuff happening. First of all when It loaded there was an obstacle in front of my train, only problem is that the game doesn’t think it’s there and won’t let me get rid of it. Also new gum ball machine looks better, one other guy said that free spins don’t work anymore, I haven’t checked yet but please free spins are so useful so they need to work. Also for some reason it decided to give me 108,000 for no reason when I logged in and reset all the prices of research or upgrades. So now I am doing level 15 cargo upgrade for 1,200 and the train edit screen now won’t scroll and neither will the regular screen. Also I got put at the caboose when the money was given to me and now I’m stuck at the caboose. The map looks good and I haven’t look at much else because the train is stuck! Also it won’t let me do ads for two of those people you can hire, the speed and money ones. Anyway these are just a few of the problems I have noticed, I give this a three right now but if these things get fixed I would give it four.

by Dshoe19

Like other reviewers have stated, the game has a lot of potential. Obstacles are sparse to come by but there are achievements and quests related to them, so that’s a bummer. There Isn’t much info on how you are supposed to progress in the game. It took a while to learn how to buy stations and set a destination station. Also, I still have no clue how to level up train cars.

My main complaint though is the sheer number of ad watching opportunities. It feels a bit money-grabby that every time I stop at a station I receive a bonus box that Gives me an extra x gold if I watch yet another video. It’s not worth it, but it’s still annoying to be constantly hounded about. It also doesn’t help that in-game notifications constantly update to get you to click on the in-game store.

If the dev fixes the play mechanics a bit and drops the constant pestering to watch ads and click on their store, I’d vote this a 5 star.

by Silv3rCapybara

Tiny rails has not failed to astound me. I’m not usually a huge fan of these types of management games but the art style reeled me in and the gameplay has kept me hooked. This game has some of the best game references I’ve ever seen and the gameplay itself is a diamond in the rough. Despite my countless hours in the game there are some issues and annoyances but that’s to be expected. First, checklists once you get out of the U.S. These checklists simply become icons and have no way to see what it is that you have to do unless you look it up. Second, taking optional photos is rendered useless when important monuments are crowded by simple houses and buildings. Third, the storing of goods into warehouses is almost completely useless. Unless I can sell to stations directly from the warehouse they serve no purpose. Fourth, there needs to be a way to set a course or at least a waypoint from the cargo menu to places that have a demand for that good. Finally, there needs to be a way to set an infinite loop in an area as I’m trying to obtain miles in Asia while being offline but the train goes to Australia and loops there instead. Once those are fixed there will only be a perfect game left over.

by Armykid442

I would give this game a 5 star, except a few bugs I’ve encountered throughout my time playing. First of all, when you leave the game to do something else with a waypoint set, occasionally it’ll say you are near the waypoint, but when I log back in, I haven’t even left the station I left in. Second, (the most annoying) I am unable to get the second Depot, in the West USA. I’ve bought the 10 lumber from Boise 3 times, and presently hold 17 in my train, but the quest won’t update, making me unable to get that depot. These are the only bugs that I’ve come across so far, I will update as these are fixed or more are noticed.
Thanks!

EDIT: The depots are working fine since your last update (few days ago). Not sure about the travel glitch yet though. I’ve been playing fine since then so I think it’s fixed, haven’t been paying attention to that part

by Kida O

Some things that I was annoyed about before are fixed, but ultimately, I'm just now comparing it to the pc version.
The pc version is so much better then the Mobile one, it's a paid game up front so it has no micro transactions, no premium pay grades to complete your train set. They even have a pretty cool function of cleaning and repairing your cars the mobile version still doesn't have.
I paid 8 dollars for my copy when the Asia update was live, a lovely price for a lovely game! But it's not at great on my pc because I can't take it anywhere with me. I don't even care if I have to pay for it twice, or for full price for that matter. I really love this game, and I hope whenever Tiny Titan takes it out of early access that the full version will hit the mobile store so I can enjoy the full version on the go as well. I don't even care if I have to start all over for a full version on my phone, It's just so much better then the one on TinyRails Store right now.

by Lemom_Man_7274

This is a good game I just have a couple problems with it. My fist problem with it is that it is a HUGE battery drainer. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve played this game, and then have my phone die because of the game. (I personally think it’s because of the background. If there was a low power mode for the game, I would have that thing on 24/7. This really does turn me off from playing the game. Another problem I have with the game is that you either have to be actively playing the game or close TinyRails completely. The game takes no time to start and loud. I just find it inconvenient to close TinyRails for the train to move. I personally like to keep them open so I can get to them later quickly. But this is not possible with this game. Another con about having to be active or closed is that if you do leave TinyRails open but are not actively playing, the train does not move. This happens way to often and is very frustrating to me. If I were to be nitpicking, I could also say that the lights in factories and depots don’t match (as in the lights just flout and have no source) but this is not problem in any way gameplay wise. Other than these few (semi big) flaws, the game is great and as a random stranger to you, I do recommend you play this game.

by A.adrian.f

I got reeled into this game because I love management games like this and it really seemed like a good game, but as I played it I noticed a few things that could be better.
First of all, for the Canada Center checklist there is a mission where I need to travel over 15,000 miles, but that’s really hard to do because Canada Center is a small area. Because of this, there should be an option somewhere where the train travels automatically like usual, but only a specific area. For example, instead of traveling all over the place, it could travel only in Canada Center.
I’ve also noticed a second bug where I depart my train and get a notification saying I’ve arrived at my waypoint, but when I open the game it shows that I just left the station. Please fix this.
Lastly, the train upgrades and the car roll costs get very expensive very quickly, which makes it difficult to complete checklists.
Besides all of this, this game is very well worth my time. Keep it up with the updates!

by PhotoPhun

This game is almost like a casual strategy type game and it's quite addictive.

One issue I've come across though is when you complete a demand for a station and collect your gems.. As soon as you leave (or anytime thereafter) and click the station again from the map, it has a check mark and says "ready to collect" - shouldn't it say completed/collected or something? Not something that makes it seem like it still needs your attention?

Another frustration I have is that I have the hardest time finding where these stations are exactly that want each resource.. I know in the cargo screen it has the city/state, but it's anyone's guess which part of the world and region those are in.. Could you maybe make it clickable then half the screen zooms in on the city that wants it so you can then zoom out and/or direct your train right there? That would definitely bump my rating up to a solid 5 stars and make the game less frustrating. But to still an awesome game and highly recommended!

by MountainMoon

I’m liking this game a lot, I’ve started recently but I think there’s a lot to do and it seems fun. It’s easy to grasp what the systems do, and I really like the artstyle.
My biggest problem currently is that it doesn’t consistently work in the background? I’ve tried both keeping TinyRails on but using other apps or turning it off entirely, but most of the time it just turns back on like nothing happened, and none of the in-game timers moved up. I waited three hours and my daily log-in bonus still said 30 minutes like it had three hours before. Also, the game gives me alerts that aren’t true, lik it says that I have a free spin or that I’m almost at my location but I open it up and it says that I’m 8 hours away from a free spin or I’m 4 cities away from my location.
I’m currently testing if it only happens when I depart and quit in the middle of a trip or if I use a destination point, but I think the timers really ought to run no matter what. Maybe there should be a designation ‘quit’ button to make sure TinyRails always shifts into background mode?

by Werd5273

A good game but I wish you didn’t have to be such absurdly high levels to unlock the new areas, mostly because there are specific cars locked behind these areas by the levels. I progress through the zones faster than I unlock new ones and so I’ve now got to a point where I can’t really continue in a new area. If it’s supposed to be an idle clicker like game you shouldn’t have to keep it open just to watch your train drive around to get the full benefits to help you level up. My train is almost max and I’m not even done with Russia yet, and I literally do not have access to cars that would give me enough facility score to keep my passengers happy because they’re locked behind levels. Of course I could spend money to buy cars with gems but that’s not a good way to play the game. In conclusion, fun at first but eventually you will hit a wall where progression is too slow and it is no longer fun.

by Gavalier1

So far I’ve fallen in love with this game. I’m not too big on mobile games but Tiny Rails has been the perfect pastime during the more boring hours of the day. The art style, tycoon-like game loop, collection aspects and map are what really drew me in and have kept me playing. There are some bugs, such as tasks opening up when not possible to complete due to region lock, but outside of minor bugs the game runs fantastic. There are some issues such as the time to complete special cargo events not feeling long enough and the cargo for such events not always spawning. I look forward to attempting these events but never can seem to even come close to finishing them. Additionally, it appears this game no longer has support. There is still a region that is ‘Coming Soon’ and I’m hopeful it will be added one day. To the devs ~ is there continued support for this game? There’s plenty of content but it would be awesome to know if there will be new content. 4/5 stars with the potential for 5/5

by Kitty's Funtimez

This game is so fun. When I leave the game the train sometimes does not generate money and passengers. I left it for a day and it said 0 passengers served and 0 coins earned. All in pc version you can clean the interior. Not in mobile add it. Also the guy you hire to clear obstacles is useless, there are barely obstacles and you can remove them yourself. Make that guy work harder. Make demands easier to acquire. A one train company is like being a vet with only one animal so make it so you can have multiple trains I would love that. Maybe add dynamic weather. When people do reviews they compliment your train but then put on one star. They all say, “this train isn’t much to look at” I don’t know what that means. Also there are no 5 stars. You should have a ad pass where you can pay to remove adds and open crates without an ad.
I love your game and I play everyday. Make this improvements for 5 stars

by Sanctimus

I’ve played the game twice now, and it’s because of the same thing that’s happening with the game. Twice now I’ve gotten over to Europe and after a couple days, it won’t let me back in the game. I’ll open it and it’ll crash. Repeatedly. Can’t even get in to look at things. I even paid for the VIP for the week and look at that, only three days have been able to be used because the game crashes. Great game, I love the game, but now that this has happened twice on two different phones, I won’t be paying for anything and I would like to see reimbursement for the week I paid for. I know it’s only $3.99 but I’m not going to pay for a product that doesn’t work. Please fix this and refund my week of VIP. Thank you.

UPDATE: have to update stars and just say I appreciate the response from the Devs. Thank you for the help and I hope all is normal soon! :)

by Peknive

I only write reviews for games I truly enjoy or game that need a lot of work, so when I say 5 stars, I mean 5 stars.

First of the pixel art is absolutely beautiful, enjoying the scenery alone is half the game. This game also has great sound design, and it really adds to the appeal of just having it running in the background while you do something else. The developers are also from what I can tell, listening to the players, as I’ve seen one review stating how it was annoying that when you left your phone alone for a little, it would stop counting the distance you’ve traveled, and as far as I can tell, fixed.

I am biased towards games with older types of trains as I’ve traveled by train quite a bit as a child.

by KWVIPER

When I downloaded this game I thought It'd be like pocket trains. But I like this so much more than that game. It's original, I haven't see any game like it which is hard to find. And very fun to play and build up your train empire! I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys tycoon games, strategy games, and anyone looking for a game with good replay value. Will be telling my friends about it and I'm actually gonna check out some of your other games, hope they are as good as this one! Btw I never, never write reviews. But I was so impressed that I really wanted a chance to tell the developers and designers good job! Easy to understand, easy to use controls and interface. Love the Easter eggs. Love that there is a story instead of a free play thing like pocket trains. You guys should make one for planes too!! I'd get it! A+ 100% :)

by Former Clash Royale Player

A week ago I was dealing with an issue where the game just kept on crashing whenever I tried to open it, I couldn’t load the game at all. So I tried the route of uninstalling and reinstalling. It worked, but only half worked. You see, the game loaded, but now, all, and I mean ALL of my progress was gone. I had around 30 special cars, multiple event exclusive engines and cabooses, including the Orient express. And I had made it to Central Asia in the story. I can’t boot up my progress because it can’t load the cloud data at this point. I was around 20 years into the game, and had fully leveled up many many stations.

All of this progress just vanished! I can’t bring it back at all. But I would be lying if I said this was a bad game, because I love this game, I’m just furious that the game kept crashing and now all of my data is erased.

by Lyssa216

I love the game, it’s very calm and easy with many quests and things you can do while running your train! Upgrading your train takes time, which makes sense, I’m not gonna complain, and they are very happy to give out gems, which I like! I love being able to earn the things I need, gems in this case, at a decent pace, instead of just having to buy them. The only thing I would recommend is having an option to leave factories and warehouses instead of automatically making you leave when you click “close”. One too many times I have accidentally clicked close and left when I wasn’t ready to. I’d also like to be able to look at the map and see what orders need filled while at the warehouse. Not a big issue, just something that I think would be nice to be optimized!

by FistedToaster_

So, when I first got the game I fell in LOVE with the game. I started making great progress and I loved it so much that I played it for 6 hours STRAIGHT. So I had a really good train and I checked the progress book or whatever it is, and it said “Make a stop at (where the place was to complete the 1st chapter)”. And so what I did was... set a waypoint to the place (whatever it was) to complete the chapter, and I turned off my iPad because I was tired. And what happened was when I got back... my train didn’t go to where I placed my checkpoint! But when I placed it and kept my iPad on, it went to the checkpoint perfectly fine. And I don’t fully know if it’s a bug or anything but it seems like one to me. But other than that, I haven’t seen any other bugs. But there’s one review that says he/she had an obstacle in front of her train and couldn’t tap it away, that has happened to me only once. So like I said great game and could use just a little tinkering.

-Anonymous fan

by ~~~__~~~___~~~

Really good game and tons of things to do to keep you interested in the long run. Nothing really ruins the game for me, however I would really like to see an upgrade that brought: #1.) A button that would automatically place the best cars you have to give you the best happiness rating with respect to your cars. - Not something that’s needed but would definitely make it a bit easier instead of experimenting with all the possible combinations. #2.) While editing your train, a filter button to make browsing your available cars more organized. - That way you can focus on the cars with the highest food ratings, then facilities, etc. That way you can do it all on that one page rather then going to the train book page.

Hopefully the developers will see this and take my ideas into consideration. Either way, great game. First review I’ve ever done.