Have you ever dreamed of tweaking and working on cars but didn’t want to get your hands dirty? Well now you get a chance to experience what it might be like being an auto mechanic. Touch Mechanic covers a wide spectrum of repairs and upgrades that can be performed on a car. But how well does it actually play on the DS?

The basic premise of Touch Mechanic has you playing the role of a young, cocky teenager who is crazy about cars. You begin the game in the shop of Captain Bob, a well known and respected former custom shop driver. The game starts off with you performing very simple upgrades such as changing tires. More advanced and difficult repairs and customization requests will come into play as you keep progressing in the game.

Just like so many other games on the DS Touch Mechanic is heavy on the “touch” aspect of the gameplay. All of the “gameplay” is done on the touch screen by simply following some simple and basic instructions. For example to tighten or remove lug nuts and screws you turn the stylus in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. To paint you just tap on the painter icon and then start spraying away on the body. To whack something with a hammer just select the hammer and smack away. If you’ve played plenty of DS games before then you or your friends/kids/et cetera shouldn’t have many problems jumping into the game.

The game is broken down into chapters, with most chapters being connected to you performing a repair or upgrade to a car. Yet some of the chapters are short segments just to expand the story of the game. It seems while your character is a huge car fanatic, he’s also having some trouble with the law. The storyline won’t win any awards for best story but it’s enough to keep you playing. You will also meet other characters as you progress in the game.

Besides performing repairs and upgrades on customer cars you can also upgrade your own car. You earn money working for Captain Bob, which is based on how long it takes to perform a repair and how many errors you make. The faster you finish and the fewer mistakes you make the more money you will earn for upgrades to your car. The upgrades range from new rims and paint to new tools to use.

Unfortunately the tools are very expensive, which means you’ll need to replay some of the chapters over again to earn enough money. The timing system does seem to be very unforgiving with a fast countdown timer. You think you’ll end up with $100 in cash but end up with $25 once you finished a job. This happened on every job that I did. Maybe my DS stylus skills aren’t what they should to be, but no matter how fast I thought I could be I ended up with less money than I expected.

I did have an issue with the error system in the game. You can only perform up to a certain number of mistakes for each job, usually 12. The game has a rather basic tutorial system which is part of the earlier chapters. The tutorials will usually walk you through the specific tools you need to use for each job. If you use the wrong tool in the wrong order you get charged an error. I made several mistakes in the beginning because I was selecting the wrong tools. The game only provides a visual display for the tool. There is no text that will pop up to tell you the tool you’re hovering over. So if pick the wrong tool your error icon will fill up quickly.  If you go over the limit Captain Bob will perform his best Donald Trump impersonation with an over the top “You’re Fired” graphic.

In the end Touch Mechanic feels like just another DS game that we’ve already seen. As we’ve played in other DS games the core gameplay is really you just tapping the touch screen. You swipe in one direction to smack your hammer, you swipe back and forth to paint, etc, etc, etc. Sure these controls are easy to pick up and “play” but are you actually playing the game? These touch-screen games sometimes feel like a point-and-click PC adventure game where you’re ultimately just clicking away in hopes of clicking on the right image. If you have a fascination with automotive customization or repair then you’ll probably be right at home with Touch Mechanic. Or you if you’ve enjoyed the numerous other DS games with similar gameplay mechanics then this might be the game for you.

Gameplay: 5.5
The standard DS touch-screen gameplay we’ve come to expect now. Easy and intuitive enough for almost anyone to get into the game. Unfortunately the game doesn’t have anything else to offer in the gameplay department which could have helped the overall experience.

Graphics: 6.7
Visually the game fits the DS nicely with an anime style and appearance for the characters. All of the car models looked good with jaggies on some of the model outlines. The cars were definitely modeled off of their real-world counterparts such as a classic Ford Mustang.

Sound: 5.0
Nothing too spectacular to report when it comes to the sound effects or music.  The music sounds like a mix of slow jazz with some techno mixed together.  No voice acting for any of the characters.

Difficulty: Easy
Probably the biggest challenge is recognizing icons for the specific tools. After a few tries you probably get use to all of the tool icons.

Concept: 6.0
I not aware of that many car customization/repair games available for the DS. We could have gotten some additional gameplay elements to enhance the rather typical touch-screen gameplay.

Overall: 5.8
Touch Mechanic doesn’t try to create a revolutionary gameplay experience. Instead it treads in a wading pool that isn’t too deep for anyone to feel worried. If you’re a car buff and wanted a customization/repair car game then Touch Mechanic will be your game. You’ll have probably just enough elements to keep you playing all the way until the end.