OmniBus Review

If Speed attempted to be a dank meme and failed.

OmniBus is one of those games made for the Twitch streamers and YouTubers who overreact to everything. The game has purposefully broken physics meant to be funny but instead ends up negatively impacting the gameplay, unlike games such as Goat Simulator and QWOP that pull this feat off.

The story mode has you playing as OmniBus, a personified superhero bus. There isn't much story to be had aside from brief dialogues at the start and end of each level which mostly consist of telling you your objective and thanking you for completing it. But no one is buying this game for the story in the first place.

Each level consists of a different singular goal that a bus could perform, so mostly driving into things or getting to the end of the level. Controls are about what you'd expect when you first start levels, but as your bus continually accelerates on its own, the controls become very twitch-based to the point that the slightest touch will send you flying in the other direction.

Most things you come into contact with will also send you flying in random directions, be they bumpers (meant to do as much), small obstacles, or just bumps in the road. A majority of my deaths in the game were caused by the wonky physics system, and not my own doing. I get how that can seem funny at first, but after 20 or so stages it is excruciatingly frustrating.

Everything looks and sounds like a retro game, from the flat, pixelated textures to the repetitive chiptune soundtrack with some tracks having obvious looping points. The graphics are neither here nor there, but the soundtrack is easily one of the worst I've ever heard.

Aside from the story mode, there is versus multiplayer and free play. The local-only multiplayer pits up to four players against each other in derby-like arenas where you fight to be the last bus driving. While the multiplayer mode is simple and only has a couple of arenas, it is the only enjoyable part of the game aside from a few of the story levels.

The free play mode has stages based on each of the worlds found throughout story mode, and players doing 'tricks' by launching their bus into the air and doing spins and flips while attempting to land upright to score points. Free play doesn't serve any real purpose aside from adding a bit more content to an overall shallow game. Sadly, stages and buses for both free play and versus modes have to be unlocked by completing the story mode.

However, OmniBus isn't all bad, as there are a couple of levels that stand out and show what kind of potential the game had. One such level has you driving up the side of a building while avoiding ramps and cars being thrown by a giant gorilla on top. Another puts you in the driver seat of a bus that can explode on command, which is used to launch balls into giant basketball hoops. There is even a cow-themed bus that can jump. Unfortunately, a majority of the stages are just dull or have you fighting the terrible physics system instead of having fun.

The developers of OmniBus decided to put humor over fun and created a game that might do well for a couple of Twitch streamers or YouTubers, as I can imagine it might be fun to watch. But it sure isn't fun to play.