Earlier this year I reviewed the iPad version of Fix-it-up: World Tour and found that it improved up on the fun but flawed original in every way. Even after the third game in the series arrived and tweaked my 80s nostalgia, World Tour remained my favorite. When G5 told me they were releasing the game for the Mac, my thought was ‘if they do a decent port this will be a great Mac game’! So let’s see how they did!
The Hype:
Go global in this fantastic strategy adventure! In this sequel to “Fix-it-up: Kate’s Adventure”, you must help Kate expand her car-repair empire around the world! Build car-repair shops anywhere from snowy Canada to steaming African jungles. Buy cars, fix them and paint them to make your business prosperous. Earn your fortune in your quest to build the mansion of your dreams. You must make sure that you create what the clients want so you can set the prices high! Increase the quality of your offers by upgrading buildings and tuning the cars so they don’t pollute the environment. Hire the best specialists so you can get cars up and running in no time! But this game isn’t just mechanics! Find out how the fascinating love story of Kate ends. Who will she choose – Steve or Martin?
• 39 Levels and 15 bonus levels
• 18 Unique locations around the world
• Over 20 car types in environmentally friendly buildings
• Hire employees and train them
• Upgrades, achievements and more!
The Reality:
Fix-it-up: World Tour picks up where Kate’s Adventure left off, but now on her own she is looking to expand her horizons. This includes taking her operations worldwide. Also, she is being pursued by Steve and Martin, each taking a branch of the operation in a different direction and seeking to impress with success. If you think all of this means both a more interesting story and more varied gameplay – you would be right!
The original game had 6 locations – World Tour has 18! But that doesn’t mean the game is longer – there are a total of 15 possible levels (39 normal plus 15 extra bonus levels), which will take you a few hours to play through. The impact of more locations is that the pacing is really fast – two or three levels with one character and ZOOM you’re off exploring some other part of the world!
The core gameplay remains the same: you get objectives to start each level in keeping with the story, and need to get to work quickly to meet those goals. You might be constructing a new building, fixing cars, painting, modding, selling, renting, or doing something else specific. You will sometimes get new tasks along the way, but unlike the original I never found those new objectives at odds with the current goals – so I was never frustrated!
One other change is having an environmental look at everything you do. Some areas require you to be eco-friendly, so gaining ‘green points’ is a critical part of your operations. More upgraded and streamlined operations are more eco-friendly, so upgrading is critical.
You also now have the ability to hire ‘specialists’ to speed up your operations. Now rather than trying to just throw loads of employees at a problem you can be more efficient. Whereas in the original game a change of priorities could doom you, now you just grab a specialist and you’ll be fine.
The goal is to achieve ‘Gold’ status on each level, as that nets you more coin to spend on upgrades and special items. But you will often have to settle for Silver or keep retrying.
In terms of everything else we have the typical G5 attention to detail and quality: you have road and car sounds, very well done graphics and animations, well written dialogue and interactions, and solid performance with quick load times. The Mac version brings all of these things perfectly to the mouse-driven environment. I still prefer the iPad interface for most G5 games, but it works well either way.
While I complained about the lack of an action queue before, at this point it is just part of the experience. You know that getting parts and building things takes time, and you just have to manage your time and keep an eye on things.
Everything about Fix-it-up: World Tour is improved over the original, so while I had a very lackluster opinion of the original, I highly recommend this one – it is better paced, offers a more balanced challenge and an overall more fun time throughout.
Here is the trailer for Fix-it-up: World Tour:
Review: Fix-it-up: World Tour
Where to Buy: Mac App Store
Price: $6.99
What I Like: Large amount of levels; solid and clear objectives; solid fun; not too challenging; great port
What Needs Improvement: Still no ability to queue actions
Source: Publisher provided review code