Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 is the dream game for tinkerers and motorcycle enthusiasts alike, and I had already played this on the PC when it first came out, so when Play2Chill and PlayWay brought this gem of a title to the Nintendo Switch, I was eager to jump in and try it out. Originally released on the 14th of January 2021, Motorcycle Mechanic Simulator 2021 can now be enjoyed portably, and it’ll set you back about $20

Opening a brand new motorcycle mechanic business in an unnamed location you are thrown straight into the action. Accepting jobs from a tablet or your laptop, you get to choose to work on basic or more advanced repair jobs to bring in the money. You could be doing anything from removing the front forks and replacing the front wheel to rebuilding the motor, and by saving your hard-earned cash, you can even buy yourself a project motorbike to work on over time.

Sadly, this is where the port becomes a very different experience. I was surprised at the long loading times with this one, and there were a few occasions where the game just wouldn’t load at all. I found myself constantly restarting the game just to be able to play it. I also found that when I connected the Switch to the dock, the game decided it wanted to become an even laggier mess, making it nearly impossible to play.

Coming from a PC, the controls took a while to get used to. Using both the touch-screen and the normal Switch controls, it felt like neither option was fine-tuned, and again, made the port to Nintendo Switch hard to play. There were times when interacting with certain elements of the motorbikes felt like more of a task than it was worth, and then other times when the process was ridiculously simple.

There were even times when interacting with the tablet required several button presses to actually accomplish something, and test-driving the motorbikes you just rebuilt or fixed was also super clunky. Putting all that behind us, the smoothest part of the controls was when I was moving the character around or panning the camera with one of the thumbsticks.

For a game themed around getting up close and personal with motorcycles, I was a little disappointed with the graphics. You could clearly see what part you needed to work on based on the level of detail put into it, but when it came to the less important parts of the bikes, it looks untextured and half-finished. When you were looking at the parts you were working on, they also really lacked the shine you’d expect to see on someone’s pride and joy, giving off more of an arcade feel to the game.

While you do spend almost all of your time in the shop, I would have expected less detail in favour of the bikes, but there was more detail and thought put into that with textures and how it all looked and felt. I’m well aware there is probably a limit to the graphical power of the Nintendo Switch, but this felt like something I’d be playing back in 2000.

The upbeat music playing in the background is a little bit of a saving point, which was like an alternative, rock sound. The sound effects of the tools are also a selling point, but listening to the clicking of the ratchet became overly repetitive after some time. Unfortunately, once again, the motorbikes suffered when it comes to sound effects. They could have used a lot of work. It seemed like they didn’t use recordings from actual motorbikes, which I would expect from a simulator for that more realistic feeling.

The game could use some fine-tuning to make it a more user-friendly experience on a hand-held gaming device, and with the focus being on motorcycles, I would have preferred less detail within the workshop and more textures on the bike itself. Even the banger soundtrack is let down by sub-par sound effects for the motorcycles, so unless you absolutely want to take your workshop with you, you would be better off playing on PC.

Written by: Hayden Nelson