Fix-it-up 80's: Meet Kate's Parents is part simulation and part time management, where you'll be presented with a list of goals to meet in order to complete the level. These can be anything from buying, selling, painting and tricking out certain types or numbers of cars, to expanding the business by hiring a certain number of employees or experts, to having enough cars in the parking lot to earn a certain amount of rent, to even building new facilities to take on additional customers. They've even added certain goals from time to time like customizing a yacht or building a parade float. You have to read the goals carefully because some require you to retain the cars that you modify in the parking lot, whereas others just want you to accomplish the goals. For instance, if a goal says buy 7 cars, it's just that - buy the cars. If a goal tells you to have 4 completely upgraded Caddis, then you can't upgrade, then sell them because they must be on-hand or the goal still shows as needing to be completed.
You will be buying, selling, repairing, insuring, painting, modifying, tuning and waxing a number of cars. You will also be deconstructing certain cars that are low in value, but yield a decent number of parts. This feeds into your need for spare parts, which are depleted every time you make a repair or a modification to a car. Clicking to buy spare parts takes some time, so if you can buy a cheap car and deconstruct it every once in a while, you can keep your spare parts supply full. Aside from the Campaign, you can also play each level you have opened in Free Play.
Of special note are the cleverly introduced iconic 80's characters that pop up from time to time to get car repairs. I don't know how they got away with some of these, but I loved it each and every time one made an appearance. There was Doc who needed help with his Delorean, a Ghostbusting group who needed help with their vehicle, the "B Team" whose van was in disrepair, and finally a set of Shaggy and Scooby clones who needed help with their van. These were lots of fun to see.
I did come across a glitch that presented itself twice, once almost costing me the completion of a level. The way the game plays is that a customer will pull up in each of the two lanes in front of the car lot and greet you. They have a car to sell and when you click on them, you are presented with a green check or a red X and an amount to buy the car. To buy it, click the green check and to refuse it, click the red X. You'll also notice a thumbs up or down symbol indicating if the car is a good deal for you or not. Well, I clicked yes to buy a car and then dragged the car to the repair shop. I noticed that the yes or no signs and the price were still present, even though I had clicked yes and already moved the car. Without thinking, and just to make it go away, I then clicked no and the game then wouldn't recognize that I had purchased the car that was now occupying my repair shop. I had to find a way to complete the level with the car sitting there because I could no longer do any repairs and because I "didn't own the car," I was unable to move it anywhere. Fortunately, I was able to buy enough working cars and accomplish the monetary goal by renting the cars out, but the game should not have allowed me to move a car I didn't own, since it apparently didn't recognize the fact that I had clicked to purchase it. This happened twice in-game, but the second time, I made sure to click the green check again and make sure it went away before I moved the car and got myself stuck again. Hopefully, a patch will come out to address this issue.
