I think that you and I can both agree that being a future space repairman is a cool job, which is why developers Beard Envy have made us Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop, a timeloop roguelite about being a strange four-eyed fox dude armed only with gumption and a very large universal spaceship repair manual who has to make cash fixing ships or face death at the electromechanical trotters of his terrible boss, Uncle Chop. (I'm sure you can find some other ways to die, too.)
And that, I must say, is something like close enough to the space repairman fantasy. Probably. Except for the part where sometimes to fix a ship you open it up and have to play a brutally hard platformer. An unpleasant surprise, to be sure.
Okay, fine, this isn't a hardcore spaceship repair simulator but it is a pretty funny one, and it just released this week. Boasting a funky sense of humor, a host of goofy minigames, and a big manual to read when fixing ships, Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop is something pretty much entirely unlike other games I've played—and for that I commend it.
"Flaunt your basic literacy by consulting manual pages for guidance on diagnosing and correcting faults in spaceship modules, as well as operating workshop appliances," say the developers, "And if basic literacy isn’t your bag, then at least you’ve got pretty diagrams to gawp at!"
Savage. Plus, every time you mess up real bad and don't make rent you die... but also you'll be able to pick up little upgrades for the next time loop around your fix-it-up purgatory.
That's not to say that Uncle Chop's is inflexible. You can play one of two modes: The default timed, or the alternative that makes everything a bit harder and dings you for more money when you make mistakes.
PC Gamer features producer Mollie Taylor enjoyed Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop quite a lot in a preview of the game, even if it apparently reminded her how fundamentally bad she is at reading directions.
"I still haven't been able to make that first rent payment after a couple hours," said Mollie. "But hey—I can do a fuel change now without even looking at the manual, and building that sort of knowledge is a satisfaction all its own. I promise I'll learn how to actually change a rebreather and pay Uncle Chop soon."
As for the graphics? The story? The characters? "It's weird and wonderful in all the ways I want my games to be, like an interactive, deadlier episode of Regular Show," according to Mollie.
You can find Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop on publisher Kasedo Games' website, and for sale on Epic and Steam for $20.
