So I Tried… Mech Builder

Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never played before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time around, I went with developer Don Pachi’s relaxing puzzle game: Mech Builder.

What I thought it was

I’ve recently gotten into building Gundam plastic model kits (or Gunpla, for short), so when I came across Mech Builder, I assumed it would be pretty much the same. Except, you know… virtual. And without the constant threat of a crafting knife taking the top of your finger off.

The screenshots on Steam seemed to confirm my assumptions: sets of runners with lots of pieces attached, all laid out on a cutting mat. It made me think this would be a chilled game that could potentially emulate the stress-free nature of building real-world models. Aside from the stickers… man do I hate those tiny stickers! The goal, then, would be to remove each piece of the kit from the sprue and connect them together by following a set of instructions. Then, before you know it, you’ll have a fully constructed mecha to potentially pose and set up on your own virtual shelf. With this not being a licensed game, it seemed to me there wouldn’t be any official Gundam units, which did open up the possibility for the developer to get creative!

What it actually is

Well, it turns out that Mech Builder is a pretty chilled game, and I found it to be a pleasant enough experience. The main difference from what I thought it was is that there aren’t really any instructions to follow. Instead, Mech Builder gamifies the hobby by simply showing you pictures of finished sections, such as the arms or torso. From this, you’ll need to snap each piece into place until the full kit is finished, making this more of a puzzler than first thought.

You could even compare it to a jigsaw puzzle in the way it plays. You can’t make mistakes and connect pieces that don’t match, but hovering a piece over others will eventually sound an oh-so-satisfying click to let you know you’ve found its correct home. Some models will also require stickers to be placed before finishing up, but they don’t have to be exactly where they are in the finished pictures.

Smaller things, such as the satisfying noise your nippers make when removing a piece from its runners or the small plastic shavings that pile up the more parts you remove, make it all very pleasing. Painting is also an optional step to add a bit of personal touch to the model. It’s simple and blocks each part into whichever colour you choose, so you can create some really stylish (or horrendous) looking models!

Finally, aside from the main mode, you can also take part in time trials to finish models as quickly as possible, as well as a kitbash mode, to really unleash your creativity!

Will I keep playing

I had quite a bit of fun with the Mech Builder demo, so much so that I went straight to the Steam store to purchase the full game after playing. That’s when I saw that a lot of the reviews mentioned the use of generative AI for some of the in-game models. Uh oh! As someone who is very much anti-AI (pay an artist, for God’s sake!), this really put me off spending money on it. The AI content disclosure on the store page does say that members of the game’s community gave the developer designs for new models, which turned out to be AI-generated. It’s a shame, as I’m now not sure if this is a game I want to support.

If, however, this isn’t an issue for you, then Mech Builder is certainly a great alternative to model building in real life! Just without the satisfaction of displaying some cool-as-hell looking mechs on your shelves!