Busy Bags Review

Busy Bags is a time management app that tries to make one of the most boring and mundane topics interesting. Players get tasked with directing passengers that have just disembarked from an airplane and need to get their bags at the baggage claim. There are only so many spots at the baggage claim, so the difficult part is making sure the right passengers make it to the correct spots at the ideal time.

Players tap on passengers and then tap to send them to one of the empty waiting spots in front of the baggage claim. Players can also tap another passenger to have the two talk. When a passenger is selected, users can see what bag they are waiting for and where the passenger is currently walking. If a bag is missed, then just like in real life it will come back around a later time. Before I realized that I could zoom in I found it hard to precisely select passengers. After zooming in some, it became much easier. Zooming in however makes it difficult to see the entire environment, so I really wish there was a way to see the entire level and for it to be easier to select the passengers.

Each passenger has a patience meter above his/her head. The longer they wait, the lower the bar goes and the angrier they become. Players earn fewer points as passengers become angry. Some passengers are also more prone to getting upset, like old ladies, and sending other passengers to speak with them will actually improve their mood. Other problems occur like the luggage claim breaking, celebrities getting nervous, and passenger getting sick. All of the different problems just create a more complex environment that has to be controlled. Honestly, I found it very difficult to actually implement a strategy while playing and usually just sent a passenger to the baggage claim when a spot opened up.

Gameplay can be slow at some points, and thankfully the developers have added a button to increase the speed of the game. This is great for when all of the passengers have their bags and are walking out or when also of the passengers have been told where to go. Even though I had increased speed on most of the time, I still found the gameplay to drag sometimes.

Busy Bags is just like so many other time management games. Nothing really stands out to be as being really good or really bad. The gameplay has its moments of fun, but the controls and pace of the game need a little work. Fans of the genre will probably enjoy it, but others who don’t want to pay $1.99 for an app that they might enjoy should probably look elsewhere.