Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator

Developer: Pyramid Games
Publisher: Ultimate Games
Platforms: Switch, Mobile
Reviewed On: Switch
Release Date: 27/01/2020
Price: £6.29 £2.51/$6.99 $2.79
*On Sale until 17/03/2020
Reviewed By: Felix Kenndy
Review Rush was kindly supplied with a review code.

[ Introduction ]

Psst...Hey you!...yeah you!… How would you like to experience being a motorcycle mechanic? Don’t you need to go to some mechanics school or apprenticeship to do that, you say? Nah buster, there’s a way to do it and earn (virtual) money thanks to the guys at Pyramid Games S.A.
 
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator thrusts you into the world of motorbike fixing, motorbike buying(in auction), motorbike upgrading and motorbike selling. All of that with a small element levelling up included. So, are you in or out? Not decided? Well, let this review guide you into deciding….
 
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator black bike

[ Gameplay ]

Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator or as we cool kids like to call it, MMS(we don’t, it’s just something I made up to be lazy) has a basic gameplay cycle at its core. You are given a job to do from random people with pics taken straight from Shutterstock, in this case, repairing their motorcycle. Once you’ve repaired their vehicle, you earn their (virtual) money. What makes MMS interesting is all the other elements added to the main gameplay. 
 
First of all, each job that goes your way has a time stipulation so you have to think about what to accept to maximise earning potential. Also, once you accept a job, you get can get bonuses based on the quickness of you doing your job. This all adds to your overall character level. The more jobs you do, the more you level up; which in turn unlocks more items in game such as repair parts and motorbikes to buy in the auction. The auctions mode is another simple but welcome variation to the game. You buy motorbikes that are unlocked with the (virtual)money you’ve earned, these bikes usually have varying degrees of repair or upgrade needed. Do your thing with your bought bike and then sell it on for profit! Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 
 
So, now, to talk about what you actually do. Luckily for beginners, you are given an extensive tutorial of the basic mechanics of the game. While you are looking at jobs, the description box has a list of what’s needed to be done with the bike. Once you accept it, you then go through each part of the bike to take it off. Sometimes you have to take off other parts of the bike to get to the part that needs serviced, sometimes you need to pick the right tools to use to take the part off. Sadly, navigating through all the menus using the joycon buttons can be a little bit frustrating. The game could really have done with the option of using the touchscreen when in handheld mode as this would make navigating so much easier. Instead, they’ve made the whole servicing part of the game unnecessarily frustrating by having the player go through so much rigmarole of finding the right menu to first take parts off, then go to another menu to get to the parts you need to service; especially when you are trying to get that sweet time bonus. 
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator engine

[ Visual and Perfomance ]

MMS does feature some nice graphics of the bikes that you repair. The parts of the bike that you service look nice enough but they are all the same for each model of bike. While I appreciate that this is an indie title, the variety of bikes available isn’t very much. A title like this would have been made better if there were some licenced bikes included, instead it’s just one generic looking bike after another which can become tiresome; especially coupled with repetitive gameplay loop. The menus are another gripe I have with the story. It’s all very dull and some of the highlight graphics used adds to the navigation difficulties I mentioned on the gameplay section. I’ll give it some leeway though as this is an indie game, but some decisions are just baffling and could have done with some changes. 

Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator chain

[ Sound ]

There is one really annoying sound feature in this game. The honk sound effect used when the player chooses the wrong option in the menus. It is loud, intrusive, and very unnecessary. It is also heard quite a lot during gameplay, as more than once you’ll choose the wrong option or part to take off or some trivial thing within the game. Luckily, you do have the option to either turn off SE or lower it down, but experiencing it one time is bone chillingly enough. Aside from that, the BGM is pleasant enough without standing out. It’s repetitive, which basically follows the overall feel of the game. 
 
Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator wearhouse

[ Conclusion ]

Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator is a decent indie title. It’s one of those games that you always see on the eShop and just skim over and never think about. It’s a solid title which has nice little touches to its main core gameplay. It does however become really repetitive really fast so I can only recommend it if you have nothing else to do on your Switch and need to kill some time. 

 

Check out our review of  Sister Royale Sisters Under Fire HERE!

6-10
ABOVE AVERAGE