Get ready for one of the weirdest pinball games I’ve ever played!  In Car Mechanic Pinball, you play pinball to fix up cars.  But instead of tossing balls around with the flippers, here you toss a CAR around!  This crazy pinball game is on Nintendo Switch, but I think I’ve seen an arcade version of it, too.

Gameplay is pretty simple.  You start with a couple of cars in a parking lot.  Select one and send it to the garage with the plunger.  The garage is where you’ll spend most of your time.  This is a pinball field with flippers and bumpers.  You must bump the car into the mechanics walking around.  As you do this, you’ll fill up a meter.  Later on you may have to fill it up multiple times to finish fixing the car.  When the car is fixed, press the button to open a door on the left and the car will kind of steer toward it and you’ll earn money.

Do this enough times and you’ll earn more money.  But if your car goes past the flippers, it’ll end up in the landfill and the game will be over and you’ll get whatever pay, if any, for that day.  But eventually you’ll earn enough money to buy upgrades.  These include simple things like more parking spaces, or more mechanics on the field.  One important upgrade is the tow truck, which gives you an extra life if your car hits the landfill.  You can also get side bumpers that give your car gas, and then you can exit the garage and steer your car around with the flipper buttons to try and earn more points and coins by crashing into things.  But I don’t recommend doing this because it’s an easy way for your car to get in the landfill, too.

This game does have a few minor problems.  The game is so unusual that it took a while to figure out how to play.  And the ball physics are a bit wonky since you’re using a car instead of a ball.  I like the fact that the rules are super simple, but it also means the game gets repetitive quickly.  But if you want a silly, weird pinball experience, you can’t go wrong with this one.

Kid Factor:

Nothing violent or objectionable here.  You can crash into other cars, but nothing looks realistic and everything looks like toys anyway.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, but not necessary just to play.  Kids love making cars crash and doing weird stunts, so I imagine they’d get a kick out of this one.  Car Mechanic Pinball is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews