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Jake Power: Handyman (DS)

Status: Stopped playing - Something better came along
I started playing this game on Friday 3 June, 2022  //  I stopped playing this game on: Monday 6 June, 2022
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.

June 6, 2022 10:45:43 AM
I've now played Jake Power as a firefighter, policeman, and handyman.

I noted the similarity between policeman and firefighter, and I guess I was expecting similar with handyman?

These three titles are a great example of sharing (I'm assuming) a core technology/engine and general game design across different titles and making some cosmetic changes and distinguish the titles from each other this way (plus, at most, a few mini game differences). So, it's interesting because they're sort of clones of each other to an extent - similar in lots of ways, but slightly different.

If I was a kid and I'd loved one and asked for another game in the series I think I would be kind of disappointed - since the games are SO similar to each other.

In Handyman you, again, have a vehicle you drive (weird that it's a handyman emergency vehicle with a siren and all that jazz) and over the course of the game you can upgrade it's parts. As you drive you can turn on a siren - that forces other vehicles to clear out of the way. Once you get to the location you learn what the gameplay will be (several stages, but it's neat how they're presented -> the dino character says first we'll do this, and then this, and then this. And for each use of the word this an icon appears showing you what'll you'll do.

This time around we have at least the following:
- The step ladder climbing game from the other two
- A spray bugs game (same style gameplay and visually as the others, subtle differences though in how long the spray takes and things like that)
- Draw in a circle to unscrew/screw bolts (like the fire hydrant one)
- Drill holes in board (like the fingerprinting and the stomping games)
- Tap on nails to hammer them in (like other tap on target to win, but here you sometimes need to tap multiple times)
- Spray bugs that appear in a sink/bathroom (this one's new?)

And so on.

Unfortunately I only have the cart, and not the original box - but I think that it's the same developer that made all three?


 
kudos for original design to Rodrigo Barria