Mechanic Battle Review

Review code used, with many thanks to MobilWay S.A.

Mechanic Battle is a single-player game published by MobilWay S.A. that combines arcade car racing with mechanic maintenance of your car. The objective of the game is to buy cars and improve them in your garage so you can use them in races against other cars. As you start earning money with the prizes of the races, you’ll improve your car even more and customize it to your liking. From painting your car to installing newer pieces, you transform an old used car into a racing machine of your own.

Mechanic Battle LadiesGamers — Main menu with reminders on the bottom to start your mechanic career

Old School Racing Game Challenges

When I started playing Mechanic Battle, it took me a while to get used to it. It is not the traditional Racing game I had experience with, especially because of the camera location. This is a top-down racing game with a locked camera on your car and does not give you a view behind the wheel or behind the car like other games do. If you enjoy the top-down micro machine view, then Mechanic Battle does it very decently, yet a bit slippery on certain occasions.

I faced challenges with the controls since I was not used to controlling a car from this type of perspective. My left and right turns were getting mixed up in my first few races but after a while, I got used to it. It does have a learning curve that won’t take long for you to get acquainted with. The same happened with the breaks, which I had to learn when and how to use properly to avoid crashing constantly.

From Mechanic To Driver

The game has two main aspects that are the basis of the whole game. The first one is in the garage, where you start with $20,000. This sounds like a fair amount of money but with that you can buy one of four cars, leaving you almost broke. The maintenance and tuning you can do to your car cost more money, so you have to race to earn it. Since the car you buy looks like a used car, you get motivated to tune it up piece by piece, not only so it can run faster but also to make it look nicer.

Lets Race

The second aspect of the game is racing. The first few races can be tough because of the simple car you have at the beginning of the game. Also because of the time it takes the player to get used to the camera and controls. Even though the actions are pretty straightforward with only accelerate, brake and nitrous, the challenge in the race is to not crash with the walls or other cars while keeping your place forward.

After a while of playing, I realized that the speed of my car was relevant but not essential. The other cars also crash and make mistakes. You are not playing NASCAR or a Formula 1 race, this is a battle between mechanics with used cars! As long as you do not crash and keep to the route of the stages, you can progress easily without having the fastest car. Still, it does feel good to improve your car and feel the changes within the races.

Simplicity vs Sameness

Many games have simple graphics and music, still, they generate many emotions. I have felt immense joy with the simplest games and sometimes it is that simplicity that adds to the experience. In this case, with Mechanic Battle, the focus is not set on their details, but on the experience around them. Unfortunately, this game does not offer a good variety of its features.

Once I won the first championship and went up from the amateur tier to the pro tier, I already felt I had seen it all. The stages were the same with a few extra curves or longer routes, the other cars were slightly faster and the music was the same.

The fact that Mechanic Battle is simple is alright. For the price it is sold at, I consider it a decent game that still delivers a racing experience. The playtime of the game is around five hours of very similar races made me lose engagement more quickly than in other racing games. After tuning your first car to the max and playing all the races and the different modes, you are left with not much more to do.

To be fair, the game does offer different modes to play besides the regular races and the championship. There is the mode Elimination, where the last car of every lap gets eliminated, and Hot lap, where the car that makes the fastest lap wins. These events attempt to fix the lack of variety, but it doesn’t feel like much.

Conclusion

Many racing games have appeared similar to this one. Sadly, I did not find any specific feature that highlighted Mechanic Battle over other games. With the repetitive stages and simplicity of its details, I expected to be able to play multiplayer or have another event that made the experience more varied.

For its price, it does deliver an entertaining experience for a few hours. Especially for those who do enjoy playing racing games with the top-down view and micro-management customization, this might be for you. I recommend looking into it before getting it, to understand if it is what you are looking for in a racing game.

Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure.