Tools Up! is a home renovation simulator party game, that can be played in single player, but is infinitely more fun to play in multiplayer co-op with up to 4 players, Think “Overcooked” but with home renovators.
In Tools Up! you are tasked with renovating the most bizarre apartment building you have yet to see, Apart from the normal renovation requests such as plastering and painting walls, re-tiling and re-carpeting floors, and moving back furniture into place and cleaning-up afterwards, the exquisite multi-storey is plagued with different disasters per floor, further adding to the challenge, disasters such as terraces buried in thick snow, or even lava in the living room. (which my guess is those poor home renovators are never paid enough to deal with that)
The very strict timer is a whole other layer of difficulty on top of all the challenge, as it leaves you zero room for error, and you have to memorize the blueprints in just a matter of seconds before you proceed with the plan which pretty much needs to be executed flawlessly if you want to achieve all 3-Stars per level.
I played the game in single player and had mixed feelings of extreme enjoyment and fun, but at the same time stress and frustration over the brutal difficulty in implementing all tasks in a timely manner. And it wasn’t until i played the game in multiplayer co-op where i realized that it’s definitely the way the game is meant to be played.
Coordination with your fellow renovators (or rather lack of) provides extreme satisfaction over a job well done through team work, or a disastrous mess of goofy mix-ups and players knocking over eachother’s buckets of paint and ruining the house that’s meant to be renovated beyond all repair.
Its simple, it’s fun, and it’s an amazing recommendable party game, and i give it a 9/10 !
Tools Up! is now available for the Nintendo Switch on the eShop here
Special Thanks to ALL IN! GAMES for the review code!