Amanda's Magic Book 15 Preview: All Aboard The Midnight Train

Here is how this one starts. A violent storm strands Amanda and Charlie in a little town somewhere in Eastern Europe. The streets are flooded. Past them is a railway station that nobody has used in years, and waiting there is an envelope addressed to Amanda, with a warning inside written in her own handwriting. Then, out of the fog, a long black train pulls in without a sound.

I would get on. You would get on. Amanda certainly gets on, and that is where Amanda's Magic Book 15: The Midnight Train really begins.

A Train That Will Not Sit Still

On board, nothing behaves. Corridors shift when you are not looking. The windows show stations that cannot possibly exist. The other passengers seem to know far more than they are willing to say, and every one of them has a story tangled up in the mystery. Someone keeps leaving Amanda cryptic warnings about a place called the Last Station, and the more she learns, the clearer it gets: she has to work out what is driving this train and stop it before it gets there, or she and Charlie ride it forever.

After fairy tales, spirit worlds and last time's haunted carnival, a ghost train is a perfect fit for this series. It is creepy in the cozy way, more Twilight Zone than horror film, and it gives the whole game a single place to explore carriage by carriage.

Matching Your Way Down the Train

Underneath the mystery is more than 70 levels of match-3. You match gems to repair the damaged carriages, and each repair uncovers another clue and pushes the story further along the line. The series formula is a good one: every level gives you a clear goal, matching five makes a bomb, you get a handful of power-ups to rescue a tricky board, and the stars you earn pay for the restorations that unlock the next part of the story. Here, the train itself keeps things unsettled too, with reality-bending events that stop even familiar carriages from staying predictable.

What I love about Amanda's Magic Book is that the story is never just wallpaper. Fans of the series keep coming back for the atmosphere and the characters, and a train full of strangers with secrets is about as good a setup for that as you could ask for.

Worth Knowing

Each book tells a complete story, so you do not need to have read the first fourteen to enjoy this one. And if you finish the trip wanting more, you are in luck: this is one of the longest-running match-3 series around, with a book for almost every mood.

Should You Play It?

If you like your match-3 with a mystery attached, yes. The Midnight Train has the strongest hook the series has had in a while, and a train is a clever way to keep a story moving forward, one carriage at a time.

Want to catch up first? Last time, Amanda and Charlie took on cursed puppet masters in Amanda's Magic Book 14: The Forgotten Carnival, and before that came the sunken music garden of Amanda's Magic Book 13. Or go right back to where it began with the original Amanda's Magic Book. For more, browse all match-3 games for PC.

Try the free trial. Just do not ask the conductor where the train is going.