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The Excitement of Driving a Public Bus Around Tokyo. Very Slowly.

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Japan has a long and storied tradition of developing games where you are a train driver. Doing very little but going forwards, backwards and slowing down at stations. If that sounds a little too pedestrian for your tastes, well, there's always Tokyo Bus Guide.

Released around the turn of the milennium on the Dreamcast (and in Japanese arcades), TBG - developed by Fortyfive (who made Swat Kats on the SNES!) - had you get behind the wheel of one of the Japanese capital's metropolitan buses. And it was serious about it.

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While theoritically giving the player more flexibility than train sims, given you're on the road, its guidelines were just as rigid: stray from the road or fail to obey even minor traffic conditions and that was it.

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Gameplay was thus resigned to...driving a bus. Slowly, and stopping at a lot of red lights, with missions lasting up to twenty minutes at a turn.

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Don't get too judgemental. While it looks and sounds boring as hell, there's a hardcore market for this kind of simulation. Why? Remember: not everyone fantasises about being sci-fi solders or sports stars. Some people just like to kick back and pretend they operate public transport.