I obtained Toy Tinker Simulator for free during a giveaway; however, my review is unbiased.
Toy Tinker Simulator is a job simulation game that emulates being a toy repairer. For many, this game might seem like a niche job to make a simulator about, but the potential is there.
As stated, the game lets you fix toys in various styles, such as teddy bears, animals, and dioramas. Overall, the game offers a variety of toys to restore/repair, giving you a choice of different toys to fix. At the start, the game lacks variety. This is because many toys have the same jobs at the beginning; this makes the game repetitive.
Whilst fixing toys is repetitive, the early part of the game feels repetitive because many of the toys appear to be wooden or plastic. This means you do the same thing over and over. Whether it’s a dog or a seal, the shape doesn’t matter in terms of repetition. The only differences are the order and whether you have to disassemble parts, such as tyres and flags, to clean them. Job-wise, you’ll disassemble, scrub, sand, and repaint toys until you get another style to repair. This is why the game becomes repetitive quickly. As the game is based on picking a toy from the laptop, buying any items required and then repairing it, rinse and repeat.
You might think the game would let you be as creative as possible. However, you would be wrong, as the game limits creativity. In this game, when you start a job, you are told what items are needed, although some jobs are cleaning-based. Some jobs could have offered more creativity, since some jobs require adding paint or touching up parts that need a bit of love and attention. However, the game tells you what colours are needed and does the toy design for you.
I dislike this as the game could have specified that the toy has to be blue but allowed you some creativity. I think that’s why the game does all the designing for you. This takes a lot away from the game, since designing should be a bigger part of it.
I also note that on some toys, such as the cottage diorama, the game doesn’t do a good job. The cottage has a grass texture on the floor. The model itself is reasonable and it has a wooden fence, which is apt. I think the red base is ok. However, the shed is a bright yellow, which looks hideous. The cottage looks unfinished; it is yellow, and it has a roof sticker on one side. There are other stickers placed on the doors and windows. The dog and chicken are strictly one colour. I dislike that you cannot redo the house with a brick finish to make it look complete. Same with redoing the cottage roof so it looks complete. It looks like the diorama repair is a slapdash attempt before calling it a day.
On paper, the premise seems good, as it could be a fulfilling job to make a simulator about. The game could have had 2 sides. The first side would be a business management game, managing costs, profits and the supplies you have. As expected, you would also have the arts-and-crafts side of the game. This could have let you repair and create toys you buy in a state of disrepair. After buying them, you get to transform them into a toy that looks completely different from what you first got. This combination would have made a good game, design-wise. But, sadly, the game fails on the last hurdle. I feel that even though this game tries to be unique, it fails in its objectives. Because of this, I cannot recommend it on this premise alone.
