Growing up, the Nancy Drew PC games were my cozy go-tos. They had gorgeous art, well-written stories, and, of course, minigames. The series was about solving crimes, but the real draw was the break youâd take to cook pancakes or organize bento boxes. ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs, from developer Mandragora and publisher tinyBuild, hits a similar formula. It comes with a healthy dose of nostalgia and the ASMR vibes of games like Unpacking or PowerWash Simulator. Oh, and itâs set in early-aughts Tokyo with an anime-inspired aesthetic and gently-thrumming lofi music.
Clearly a labor of love by the same detail-noticing devs who made I Am Future, ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs is a narrative shop sim. In it, you play a repair tech. You disassemble, clean, and reassemble everything from officially-licensed Atari consoles (thanks to tinyBuildâs partnership with Atari) to phones, cameras, and music players. Youâre thrown directly into work upon beginning your game. Thereâs a to-do list that checks itself off as you set up your workstation and figure out how to open the store. A circular target glows whenever you pick up an item that has a specific place to get to. Itâs a little hand-holdy, but the good kind: enough guidance so youâre never lost, and enough left unexplained so you still need to think.
Soon, youâre pulling apart and cleaning your first device: not a Nokia, but a Pokia phone. You start by popping off the back casing, removing highlighted screws, which the game very thoughtfully scoops up for you, and setting aside any components you canât yet fix in a lower-screen parts box for later â maybe itâll help with another repair later. If youâre missing a part entirely, you can hop on the CRT computer and order it online. (The gameâs helpful mail carrier will get it to you in seconds.) Clean, sort, replace, repeat! This same loop remains the same whether youâre cleaning a Pokia phone, an Atari controller, or a PSP â sorry, PMP handheld.
Small clunks as you drop cords and clicks as you fit screen overlays back together offer a nice little touch of immersion and that satisfying ASMR feel. The parts of the experience less dedicated to realism â a progress bar that moves along as you clean a component, the animated dust clouds whooshing off your brush â transform a chore into a true delight.
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