Railways of Nippon

Railways of Nippon is admirably clear about its purpose: it gives the Railways/Railroad Tycoon formula a four-player home, without requiring the five or six people expected by its larger siblings. After a Tuesday at work, that is not a minor specification. It is good planning.

The central game remains the Railways game people already know. You play across a map and work with cards, in a familiar framework that makes no attempt to redraw the series' boundaries or bolt on a substantial new idea.

Player interaction consequently lives in that shared journey across the map, rather than in some distinctive new system. Nippon changes the setting and the material around the established game, but not, in any meaningful sense, the way it develops at the table.

That is not automatically a complaint. There is something quietly convenient about a Railways title that seats four, particularly if the series already suits you and you want a familiar evening without arranging a small expedition. Beyond its map and cards, though, I cannot find the special spark that makes an entry stand apart; Railways through Time, with its agreeable psychedelia, had one.

Railways of Nippon is a practical, familiar choice for four, but not the Railways edition I will remember for anything beyond its convenience.