It is funny how gathering suggestions from friends always ends up a bit odd…. I put a status update on my facebook profile asking for suggestions for a review, and the only game that was suggested to me was Desert Bus. Now, up to about two hours ago I have had no idea what this game was about and I must say, that prior to this, I was wondering what the best game was, and now I have found this little charm from over a decade ago. This was originally a SEGA CD unreleased game which was part of a mini-game compilation called Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors. I have no idea why this game was cancelled, considering the fan base that this could have carried.
Above, you can see a view of the main game. See how graphically spectacular it is!?! I love how the sky is always blue, none of that cloudy crap you see in other games, the road is straight (Who wants to try and drive around curves in the road) and the desert is very detailed with a nice colour choice of the desert landscape… orangey-brown. The fact that your name is also placed at the top left hand corner of the screen adds a nice touch to the bus, and unlike other bus drivers, you don’t have any noisy passengers to throw food at or scream at you. Nothing can beat the environment used in this game, to simply put it.
There is actually a pretty decent storyline to this game as well, rivaling the stories of Final Fantasy and Heavy Rain by FAR! I am going to summarise the storyline:
You are a lonely bus driver, driving a bus (Obviously) with no passengers on it, driving along a freeway from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada at a real time rate of 45 miles per hour. You get to see all the things only people travelling on the bus can, such as the bus stop in the middle of nowhere, the lonely cactus that you see after a few hours and leaving the bus still whilst you have to go to the toilet only to come back and find that some strange tow truck is towing you to the start point which was hours away, calling the tow driver a prick for not taking you to the much closer Las Vegas. Was it mentioned that the bus has a fault that makes you veer right?
My summary covers both the storyline and gameplay, since there is so much entertainment that summarizing it all in italics does this game the best judgement. The last thing to discuss is music, where the radio must be broken however you have the sounds of nature to bring you enjoyment. The whiney bus horn, the whirring engine of the car and the beautiful sound of gravel running under the tires when you passed out at the controls and forget that the car veers to the right. So much great stuff!
Now, I would like to give my reviews for this game. Unfortunately, both of my one keys on my keyboard are not working, so I will have to omit them from the reviews.
Overall Score
Characters – 0
Storyline – 0
Music – 0
Graphics – 0
Gameplay – 0
Replayability – Either 0 or 0, depending how long you feel like you can last!
Personal Opinion – 0
If you want to try it out for yourself in all its glory, then you can either find a copy of the Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors and run it on a SEGA CD System or emulator…. or alternatively try out the emulator for it found at http://desertbus-game.org/
and yes, this is a seriously sarcastic review, I gave up playing this game after two minutes due to the strain on my mental capacity to remain focused. I would say you should only play this game if you want a cheap laugh, want to remind yourself that games could have turned out OR that you are such a hardcore gamer that you must play this game.
That being said, there have been several events being run of this game, such as the Desert Bus for Hope marathon by LoadingReadyRun in support of the gaming charity Child’s Play, which is a charity organisation I agree is doing a brilliant job for children around the world who are in hospitals. This event has been run many times and has increasing success with each event. The first event yielded over $US 22,000 whilst the second event held just last year earned them over $130,000 for the charity which is a big accomplishment. Looking forward to seeing how the 2010 event will go!
