TV Trouble

TV sets used to be a lot clunkier back in the day, mainly because they operated using vacuum tubes, which were pretty big. Nowadays, plasma and LED technologies allow us to produce extremely thin TVs, although they are still getting bigger screen-wise. The downside is that they are tougher to repair than the old ones, and they are also pretty much sealed tight.

TV Trouble is a simple, yet incredibly fun arcade game in which you play the role of a repairman trying to fix as many television sets as possible until the timer runs out. The more of them you manage to repair, the higher the final score, and you can also get a few bonuses by being extra quick or extra precise. The gimmick gets old after a few rounds, but you can always go back every once in awhile to try and best your score.

Each TV has a couple of buttons and knobs, or an antenna that needs to be carefully moved in order for the signal to be clear. The set is considered fixed when the image is as clear as it can get, and there are multiple ways to achieve that. Sometimes, you’ll even have to tune multiple knobs and buttons at the same time, although it’s not usually worth the trouble when you can just skip to the next one.

The disappointing fact about the game is that it gets repetitive after a few minutes, mainly because the gameplay does not evolve in any way, regardless of how much you play. It would be nice to see newer and newer TVs enter the picture, or maybe deal with various other problems. Granted, this is a jam game, which means that it was developed in a very short time.

Although you might not expect it, the game runs in Unreal Engine 4, although it is quite the overkill. Even so, the graphics certainly look nice, even if there’s not much to see other than the TVs themselves. You can even use a gamepad to control the buttons, but a keyboard is just as easy to handle as well.

In the end, TV Trouble is more of a concept right now, but the developers could certainly expand on it in the future. Hence, the game is certainly worth a try if you are a fan of clever indie productions.