Conduct Together!

Genre: Arcade / Simulation

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Conduct Together! is a family-friendly Arcade-style game with Simulation elements, based on a series of Smartphone games but exclusive to the Nintendo Switch. At its core is a pretty simple gameplay idea – each of your four face buttons corresponds to a different train running along the tracks and pressing it stops or starts the corresponding train. Each of the directional buttons represents a different switching station, and pressing it changes the tracks from one direction to another. Using these simple controls (as well as a time-slowing button to assist as things get more complicated), players must direct trains to appropriate color-coordinated stations and avoid crashes.

It’s a simple premise, and as such it’s fitting that the game has a simple, low-poly presentation. While not in any way impressive, the visuals compliment the gameplay well, and leave it uncluttered so players can focus on managing the trains. This is paired with some nice train sound effects and a decent Jazzy (but ultimately annoyingly repetitive) background music.

The gameplay itself starts out laughably simple, but the game becomes deceptively challenging as you go forward, with the difficulty coming not from the controls or complicated gameplay elements, but simply from managing multiple elements at a time. When you have to multitask and manage four trains and four switching stations all at once, possibly keeping in mind multiple destinations and avoiding traffic or non-player-controlled trains, this simple little game can get surprisingly devious at points. Thankfully, the game allows you to change difficulty without any sort of penalty or judgment, and less-skilled players will find the slower pace of easier difficulties more manageable.

The ingenious part of this game is how co-op works, with up to four players “helping” to control the multiple trains and stations. However, while one person multitasking all eight buttons can be a challenge, splitting up that task among multiple people presents a wholly different challenge of proper communication and timing. If one player suddenly stops a train without warning the player controlling the train directly behind… boom, crash, game over. If the player controlling the switching stations doesn’t warn the player controlling the trains that he’s sending a train down a track occupied by another… you get the picture. It’s this sort of need for communication and coordination that makes it such a delightful surprise that simply splitting up the game’s tasks makes for such clever co-op.

There are a few issues I had with the game, though. The buttons corresponding to the different switching stations are clearly shown, but since their positions keep changing as you go to different maps, it never quite feels natural to control them, and players will often need to find themselves re-reading and thinking through which corresponds to which, rather than instinctually knowing which station pairs with which button. To some extent, this is true of the trains as well, as the A, X, B, and Y trains are of course constantly in motion and have nothing to differentiate them beyond the letter marking which button they correspond with.

In addition to this, some elements of this game feel unrealistic, like traffic never stopping at crossroads. While this is something players will quickly get used to as just a part of the game, it’s disappointing that the game often breaks suspension of disbelief with these departures from reality.

The other issue I have here is one of missed potential. Any game depicting trains, and especially one depicting them in a simplified style like this, clearly evokes the imagery of model train sets, and one of the great joys of model train sets is… well, building them. However, there is no map creator here. This is a game that is completely focused on the gameplay of managing multiple trains and switching stations on preset maps, and while that’s fine, I can’t help but feel that this would have made for a great opportunity to make this game something greater than it is, especially if players could both create and share maps.

As it is though, Conduct Together! is a solid, simple Arcade-style game with Simulation elements, and one that incorporates its co-op gameplay brilliantly and elegantly. Those looking for a good “easy to learn, tough to master” Arcade-style game, train enthusiasts, and those looking for a superb co-op experience should all find something to like here.

tl;dr – Conduct Together! is a family-friendly Arcade-style game with Simulation elements that has players using simple controls to manage multiple trains and switches. It’s a fun, challenging task of multitasking with some excellent co-op play baked right into the game design. The game’s controls never quite feel intuitive, and I wish the game expanded on its potential, but overall this is a solid “easy to learn, tough to master”-style game, and one that fans of co-op games should absolutely try.

Grade: B

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