Thank You Bus Driver developed and published by Double Fine is available on Steam.
In Thank You Bus Driver, the goal is to drive around the city, pick up customers, and drop them off at their desired stop. In turn, this earns thank-yous from customers. The thank-you points unlock new levels with different themes, items to boost your run, and more. Try not to smash into things too much, however, as you’ll upset customers, which won’t earn thanks. It all sounds fairly simple, but the chaos in Thank You Bus Driver is what takes the challenge up a level. Another thing that makes it more challenging is trying to view the map and drive without hitting anything. Slap the customers that break rules such as; being on the phone, clipping toenails, eating and many more. If you don’t enforce the rules by giving them a slap or kicking them off the bus, others will get angry and not thank you for a pleasant trip. Thank You Bus Driver is similar to Crazy Taxi in many ways, and I loved that. The game changes things up each run to keep you coming back for more.
The art style lends to the overall comedic feel of the game; throughout my playthrough, I just kept admiring the funny designs. The customers also have fun, unique characteristics like a microwave with a fish or a doughnut. The chaos of everything going on screen, whether it be ploughing through a farmer’s field and the cows you run into slowly sliding off the windshield, is hilarious (no cows were hurt). You might play a run on the trash collection day where millions of rubbish bags are strewn everywhere, and all that lies in front of you is trash, to the point that it blocks your view of where you’re trying to go. In Thank You, Bus Driver, there’s always something going on.
Verdict
Thank You Bus Driver is a small game filled with lots of love, chaos and humour poured into it. While it did feel like a short experience, each time you play it feels like a totally different experience due to the way the game adds different challenges to it. There’s also stuff to unlock along the way that keeps you invested. For me it become a challenge against myself to get more thank-yous than I did previously. I feel games like this, it’s the amount of laughs and joy you can get out of it and Double Fine did a great job here of just having fun. For only £4.59, there is a lot to love here.
