The nostalgia gadget business is booming
A video game, by definition, requires an electronic device to participate. However, an interest in video games does not require an interest in those devices. ReStory is hoping to bridge that gap in the venn diagram by having players run an electronics repair store. It’s casual, early 2000s vibes, and player focused mindset keeps it more inline with discovering a hobby rather than a part time job.
Set in the early 2000s, ReStory has the player taking over an electronics repair booth in the streets of Tokyo. This nostalgic era is the peak of small electronics as Apple had yet to figure out how to make a phone take care of everything for us. Phones, radios, toys, pets! Pretty much anything was being made digital to make life easier. These iconic devices help direct both the story and gameplay
Players have to disassemble the device’s many parts. Removing screws, cleaning, and eventually soldering all could be required in both the disassembly and reassembly of a device. Each step is never too complicated and can usually be done by grabbing a section and seeing where the newly grabbed part prompts you to place it. Maybe its broken and heads straight to the trash or is dirty and needs to be cleaned. The player never has to make the choice. Screws are also highlighted in yellow when its their turn to be removed, but if its a set of 4, after the initial contact they glow a gray color that only slightly changes once unscrewed, leading to quite a few accidental unscrew-rescrew moments. Even though the game has an official partnership with Atari, it’s not overly concerned with the accuracy of how one might repair one of their systems. Soldering around the outside of an EPROM chip to ‘fix’ something about it would probably send an actual electronic tech into hysterics, but ReStory just uses it as a sort of next step in difficulty for repairs.
Soldering is weirdly where I think ReStory will get divisive. When soldering is first brought up in game, it’s treated almost like a gun. You have to know a guy who knows a guy to get you one and it flashes the entire street’s lights every time you use it. I can’t claim to know what ownership of one was like in Japan in the early 2000s, but I was trusted to use one as a teen, under adult supervision, in the early 2000s.
A serious take for a serious shop owner is not what you’re getting here. You’re getting familiar devices you can take your time to customize and repair for people you meet. Maybe it’s a cellphone that someone wants fixed to impress a crush, only for that same cellphone to return later with water damage because the new owner treats it like garbage. Characters return, often because they are pleased with your work, and its that part of business ownership thats being shared here. Tugging at your heart strings, not the clients purse strings. Customization is unlocked further in the game, but grows as a focus. It starts to stray a little too far away from the importance of repair for myself, but if you spent hours finding the best sticker placement for your iPod or gel pen to outline the buttons on your cd player, you’re in the right place.
There is some business management. Bills to be paid, devices to be ordered off in-game ebay, ‘security payments’ to wannabe gangsters. But it never gets in the way of playing the game at your pace. It also allows for some more interaction with the 2000s setting as you’re often on a Windows 98ish machine, clicking through early internet sites and checking emails.
If you’re a serious entrepreneur looking to run a business, you may want to take your investment capital elsewhere. If you’re nostalgic for sharp looking flip phones or egg shaped pocket pets to customize, business is booming. ReStory is available now on Steam.
This review is based on a Steam code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. This video first appeared on The SideQuest Live for August 8, 2026.
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