 |
Publisher G5 Entertainment
Developer
Released: March 22, 2012
|
Genre: Simulation Players: 1 Also on: iPad
Supported Features:
|
Review Scores: (?) 8 - Gameplay 8 - Graphics 8 - Sound 7 - Value FINAL SCORE: |
|
|
Fix-it-up 80's: Meet Kate's Parents Meeting anyone's parents is either a daunting task or a blessing waiting to happen. Fix-it-up 80's: Meet Kate's Parents, for the iPhone, is a rather cool trip down memory lane as you see how Kate's parents, Frank and Mary, met and got into the biz of fixing up cars in the 80's. If you thought fixing cars around the world was cool then you definitely have to try it back in my favorite decade, the 80's. Players get to step into the shoes of Frank and Kate as you start small repairing cars to expanding your business to doing paint jobs and mod jobs to tailor to customers needs like a sweet convertible. There are two modes of play in Fix-it-up 80's: Meet Kate's Parents. There is the Career mode that will take you through 45 challenging levels at 7 different locations. This is where the majority of your time will be spent as you work to meet the various objectives that you will be given.
I never played the predecessors to Fix-it-up 80's but the interface is simple and quick to pick up on. Cars arrive in front of your shop and you can choose to purchase them or not simply by tapping on them, accepting the best deals indicated by the red and green thumbs. By touching and dragging the vehicles around the lot you can repair, paint, mod and wash the cars with ease. With all the fast paced action you have to keep a close eye on your employee and parts count as well as any offers on cars up for sale. It’s easy to get sucked up in parts of the job and forget about others. If you don't have enough people hired its harder to complete multiple jobs at once. The same goes for your spare parts count. Parts are a little easier to get as you can acquire them by disassembling junk cars or purchasing them in bulk. Besides the pretty solid gameplay, the biggest appeal for me is the graphics and sounds of Fix-it-up 80's: Meet Kate's Parents. This time management adventure looks really good on the iPhone's Retina display which is important due to the small screen. Characters and cars are nicely detailed and a few of the cars look indicative of the time period. The story is presented in static character pictures and word boxes. I have to admit customizing the diner is cool as well, though nothing's cooler than seeing some of the most famous movie and TV cars make their near identical appearances. The sound effects are decent but its the music that drew me in from the moment I loaded up the game. The background music doesn’t contain vocals but they pull off the classic 80's vibe completely. There are only a couple different tracks but still the mode is still there. As I mentioned there are two modes of play in Fix-it-up 80's: Meet Kate's Parents. Free Endless Mode, the second mode, will put the player's skills to the test as you face a never-ending slew of buying, fixing and selling. This mode is a great way to burn some time and sharpen your skills for the main career mode. Fix-it-up 80's: Meet Kate's Parents is a highly addictive adventure into the time management genre. Its biggest appeal to me is its sharp visuals and of course the 80's theme. The gameplay is consistently solid with enough variations in each of the 45 levels to make it not feel like the same tactics will work each time. If you love the Fix-it series or just a fan of time management titles then I recommend giving Fix-it-up 80's: Meet Kate's Parents a try. Screenshots  
|
Each level has an ultimate goal, such as selling a set number of modified cars that you have to complete. Though they sometimes throw in additional objectives which I found out the hard way as a level dragged on when I found out I had to earn rent by leaving cars on the lot instead of selling them. If you complete all the objectives in a silver time limit you gain a gold coin that can be used to decorate a diner which I can't for the life of me understand why other than a throwback to the time period. There are only 10 different styles of vehicles to work with throughout the game, but there are few awesome 80's cameo reference vehicles in need of repair, such as a certain famous car that only goes 88 miles per hour. In a car repair title these cameos are perfect and totally awesome. 
