Bus Jam

The pitch

Bus Jam is two puzzles stacked on one screen. At the bottom is the jam: a car park crammed with cars, vans and buses, each painted a colour and pointing somewhere. Tap one and it drives out along its arrow - if anything is parked in the way, it only bumps and honks. Above it a queue of passengers winds through the park in colour blocks, and every vehicle you free pulls into a bay and takes the passengers of its own colour with it. That is the whole squeeze: a bay only leaves when it is full, you only have a few of them, and pulling out the wrong vehicle fills one with passengers nobody needs. Clear the queue before the bays jam up and the level is yours. Levels are generated, so they never run out, and the lot is laid out in ten different packings - rows, rings, herringbone, spiral, sunburst - across thirteen worlds that change every five levels, from City Park to Snow Town. Coins buy extra bays and three boosters: VIP pulls any vehicle straight out, Arrange re-sorts the queue, Jumble reshuffles it. There is a seven-day login reward, a weekly win event with four prizes, a daily chest, a VIP pass for double coins, and a profile full of lifetime awards to finish off.

Controls & how it runs

- Tap (or click) a vehicle in the car park to drive it out along its arrow. - It can only leave if nothing is parked between it and the way out; otherwise it bumps back into place and you lose nothing but the move. - A vehicle that gets out pulls into a free bay and boards passengers of its own colour from the front of the queue. - A full bay drives away and frees itself up again. If every bay is full and the passenger at the front has nowhere to go, the level is over. - Clear the whole queue to win the level, and earn coins and stars. - Boosters: VIP lifts any vehicle straight out, Arrange sorts the queue by colour, Jumble reshuffles it. Coins buy more, or watch a short ad. - Locked bays can be opened with coins or a rewarded ad at any time. Controls: tap / click only. No keyboard needed. Works on phone, tablet and desktop.

Getting a run going takes exactly one press: Press start, up top, and the game boots inside this page — nothing downloads in the background and no form wants your details before the first jump. The cabinet is drawn for a flexible screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. It reshapes itself for tall and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all get the full picture. Given a fullscreen button, use it — scores look better at full size, that's just science.

Bus Jam — quick-fire questions

Does Bus Jam cost anything to play?

Not a token. The cabinet is free from the first run to the five-hundredth — no wallet, no sign-up, no toll booth hiding three levels in. The adverts around the page are what keep the floor's lights on.

What sort of game is Bus Jam?

It stands on our Matching row — that's the family it plays most like. The pitch above is the publisher's own rundown of what it throws at you and what it hands back.

Can I play Bus Jam on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. It reshapes itself for tall and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all get the full picture.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Bus Jam is an HTML5 game: hit the start button and it boots on this page, and shutting the tab sweeps the cabinet clean behind you.

Before you wander off

Personal best banked, or still chasing it? Either way the full Matching row is powered on and waiting — Forty-seven matching cabinets — line it up, swap it out, watch the chain reaction argue your case. Small moves, cascading consequences.