FTE Games has been releasing Data East arcade games on the Switch for a while now and most have been good. They have been more of the advanced games Data East has released, but with Express Raider, they have gone for an earlier release.
Express Raider is simple to understand, as its an old west game involving fighting enemies on trains via a mix of beat em up and arcade shooting. Its an interesting experience and it is easy to see that this is where many of Data East’s beat em ups and action games took influence from. Express Raider definitely laid the groundwork for a lot of what was to come, but at the same time was not the best experience itself. This is not to say that the experience was bad, but just that Data East truly evolved their style after this game.
If you are coming into this game expecting something like Bad Dudes, then be warned that this is not for you. It is interesting that there were only a few years between the games, but in that time Data East truly upped their game when it came to the arcades. The fighting is a lot more difficult and I had some issues figuring out how the game worked at first. Like many Data East arcade games, this is a quarter muncher and so you should expect a high level of difficulty. That being said, the issues I had were more with the controls. I am not putting the blame on FTE but rather the game itself, as it just doesn’t feel like it controls right. FTE has done an amazing job with their other Dat East re-releases, so I cannot say that their emulation is the issue.
Ultimately, I cannot recommend this one. I suggest checking out some of FTE Games other releases such as Gate of Doom, Wizard Fire, Sly Spy and Two Crude. They all are amazing experiences.
Disclaimer: A review code was provided