City Bus Manager

As it is, City Bus Manager is fun while it lasts; the problem is that it doesn’t last too long. Although I appreciated the relative simplicity of the mechanics, I wish that didn’t result in a lack of gameplay. It’s far from a bad game, and I enjoyed playing, but it felt like I’d seen and done everything far too quickly. The use of real-world maps to plan bus routes all over the world, from New York City to the dingy little town I live in, is a great feature, though. For the relatively low price of £24.99, this may be one to pick up if the thought of this intrigues you, or at the very least wait for a sale. That’s why I’ll be giving City Bus Manager a Thumb Culture Silver Award!

City Bus Manager is a surprisingly solid simulation with smart use of real-world data and a love for all things transit. It’s a bit light on content for the price, but if you’re a fan of buses or city management games, this might just be your stop. Just be ready to pay the express fare for a ride that maybe should’ve come with a transfer discount. So go on—hop aboard. It’s not the cheapest ride in town, but it’s still got a lot of mileage.

City Bus Manager is the first game from Aerosoft in quite some time that has managed to pleasantly surprise me in many ways and put me in a positive frame of mind, making me think that the quality of games from this publisher might not be so bad after all. City Bus Manager is a simple and easy-to-understand management game that doesn’t aim for ultra-realism, but on the other hand offers decent management fun that you’ll appreciate, for example, as a way to relax after a hard day’s work. In addition, the game offers several surprising innovations, such as the implementation of OpenStreetMap, which provides you with a real-world map featuring actual city names and bus stops. We’ll see where the game goes in a few months, but even in early access, City Bus Manager simply managed to captivate me, and if, for example, you’re looking for a logical yet not too challenging game for kids, this title might be just the thing. On behalf of us at Gaming Professors, I’m giving the game eight out of ten points.