In Tokyo Bus Annai the player is a bus driver with all of the attendant responsibilities - namely picking up passengers, dropping them off, and announcing destinations with the press of a button. Following the rules of the road are contingent on your success as an operator and your duties include staying off curbs, obeying traffic lights, and heeding the mundane trivialities of accelerating and braking in a smooth fashion that is both pleasant and non-threatening to your riders. Abrupt bursts forward and screeching stops may rouse latent Gigantors from their berths. A versatile camera affords four views of the bus ride and a trailing view, which follows your bus from the outside, is the default. Two windshield views and a distant camera shot are the other options for scoping out your road moves.
Similar in every respect to the Dreamcast original, the PS2 version of TBG boasts an extra game mode which adds a yellow school bus and a red double-decker to the vehicles you commandeer. Of course, the original green and white commuter bus found in the DC version sits in anticipation of your manhandling. Publisher Forty Five developed TBG with the help of the Tokyo Metropolitan Bus Service and included actual bus routes in the game. Virtual bus drivers perform tours of duty ranging from noon to night and contend with varying traffic conditions as well as passenger density spikes and troughs throughout the shift. Taito took care of train fanatics with the Densha! series of games and Forty Five does their part to sate the curiosity of bus fans. Yes, bus fans. They're out there and amongst the general population...
In Tokyo Bus Guide, players drive on three real-world routes of the Toei Bus service. In addition to stopping at the right bus stops on time, triggering announcements, and ensuring passenger comfort by not accelerating or braking too harshly, drivers also have to follow the rules of traffic by stopping at traffic lights, obeying speed limits, and correctly indicating when turning or changing lanes. Part of a green "life bar" in the lower left corner of the screen turns red every time a rule is violated or a task not completed correctly. More serious violations, such as crashing into another vehicle, entail more serious consequences than minor mishaps, such as forgetting to announce the next stop. The life bar can be replenished by passing or stopping at stations on time. When the life bar turns entirely red, the player is forced to retire prematurely.
The three routes selectable in the game are the Niji 01 (across the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo Bay area), Tian 70 (in the busy Shinjuku ward; this line was decommissioned in 2000), and Ume 76 (a more rural route in Western Tokyo). All the routes can be driven at noon, in the evening, or at night, with respectively different traffic density and amount of passengers. Some of the routes and schedules have to be unlocked by gaining experience in Story mode. Story mode also includes short cutscenes of interactions and monologues of some of the passengers, which play at certain bus stops. These cutscenes unlock brief files on the respective passenger's profiles in the main menu, along with occasional entries into an album. There is also a Free Run mode where no data is saved and no content can be unlocked.
A mini-game that can be downloaded to the Visual Memory unit is a quiz game on Japanese road signs.
MANUFACTURER'S DESCRIPTION:
According to the traffic rules the same as the real city, the bus driving simulator which operates a bus. Course that can be driving three Odaiba, Ome, of Shinjuku. Each morning, I'll be able noon, operating the time zone of a different night. The deduction to cause the violation, retire 100 points of possession point becomes zero. Let Toso run to the end to try to safe driving.
FEATURES:
- Third person perspective.
- 3D graphics
- Cartoon graphics
- Bus driver theme.
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