Image credit: tinyBuild/Parasol Corp
Steam Next Fest is finally here with its thousands of playable demos of all the exciting indie titles on the horizon. Two games immediately flagged my attention above all others: Restory: Chill Electronics Repairs and Cozy Game Restoration. The names aren’t subtle; the core of the experience in each upcoming indie title is to clean familiar games and tech. It’s all incredibly laid back and nostalgic, just what we need given the current climate we’re living through, but which game delivers the best experience?
The Exit of Goodbyes
I’ve had my eye on Restory: Chill Electronics Repairs for months, from the videos and snippets posted online. The simple act of running a small but busy kiosk in the middle of Tokyo and expertly dismantling, cleaning, and then reassembling tech certainly appeals to me. The demo available during Steam Next Fest gives you a small vertical slice where you’ll be handed what’s essentially a Nokia 3310 and then an Atari 2600 controller, both of which need to be dismantled, thoroughly cleaned, and then put back together as new.
Everything neatly snaps into place, and it’s more about good vibes than the granular complexities of hardware restoration. I was impressed by how stripped down it could make the devices in question; you need to physically remove the screws and then peel apart the tech layer-by-layer to get what’s underneath, whether that’s a circuit board, a screen, a battery, etc. Everything gets placed on your workbench, complete with a bin for all your spare parts, and you’ve also got a computer handy to order new bits as well.
ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs isn’t going to give you a complicated list of client demands to follow, at least, that’s not what I gleaned from my time with the demo. Each checklist of items clearly spells out what’s needed, and there’s even a hint button if you get stuck. Once you’ve finished the job, you put the item back on the counter for collection and receive some cash to keep the operation ticking over nicely. As a rough playtest/demo, it has a couple of minor problems with parts disappearing and some wonky click detection, but this wasn’t enough to sway me from the core experience.
Physical media forever
Cozy Game Restoration does everything that it promises. Instead of running your own local kiosk or business, you’re instead in the role of a retro collector looking to put new titles on a shelf. It’s a simple premise, and one that’s wonderfully executed by Parasol Corp here. The gameplay loop is simple; you unbox a mystery item of a set value, a cartridge or disc-based game that comes in quite a state. The title needs to be cleaned and restored to its former glory.
As someone who owns a fair share of old games, it’s a struggle that I’m all too familiar with. True to life, the Cozy Game Restoration demo sees you unbox a variety of cartridges, with games taking clear inspiration from the likes of Sega Genesis and Nintendo 64 carts. They come covered in old store stickers, drawn on with a pen, and damn right filthy. Similar to Powerwash Simulator, you start making steady progress by getting to 100% clean, using the tools of the trade.
It’s simple and not very challenging, but that’s hardly the appeal of a chill game like this. You have tweezers for peeling off old stickers, a cotton bud, and a toothbrush to remove levels of dirt/grime, adhesive to purge ink remnants, and a heat gun to dry them off again. You can also use a polish to get rid of any surface-level scratches and add the finishing touches.
Similar to ReStory, Cozy Game Restoration can be a little binary with what’s clean and what isn’t, with how things can snap into place, and it’s got more of an arcade feel. It’s impressive that you physically have to drag the mouse to peel off a sticker, and get fairly aggressive with your pointer movements to remove layers of filth from the surface or in the deep grooves. I like the immersion of needing to tilt/turn a cartridge to really get deep in there. I can see myself putting on a podcast or a long YouTube video/album and killing time with this in the background, all to end up with a lovely virtual shelf of pristine games.
ReStory vs Cozy Game Restoration: Which is best?
Based on the two Steam Next Fest demos I’ve played, I enjoy both ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs and Cozy Game Restoration equally, but for different reasons. They occupy the same vibe and have a similar level of relaxed gameplay, but the scope is different. If you care about old gaming and computing tech, then ReStory caters to that memory, whereas Cozy Game Restoration exclusively looks at the software for the tech instead. They really should both be played in tandem as time wasters (meant in the best way possible). I reckon both of these games will be a hit with content creators and streamers when they’re released. I’m looking forward to seeing the full versions of both later this year.
FAQs
The Cozy Game Restoration release date is September 24, 2026.
You can play the ReStory: Chill Electronics Repair demo available on its Steam Page.
ReStory: Chill Electronics Repair is the cozy game where you fix old tech. It doesn’t have a confirmed release date yet; however, just a vague window of “2026”.
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