Feed Me Oil Review
PROS
- Challenging puzzles; multiple unique solutions despite the small amount of tools available.
- Fun visuals and relaxing background music.
- Amazing fluid mechanics; the oil moves smoothly while reacting in a way that feels natural.
CONS
- Difficult without using up hints; lots of trial and error for a potentially poor/incorrect solution.
- Overlapping objects can be hard to manipulate.
VERDICT
Feed Me Oil jumps in to a genre already full of interesting titles and manages to stand out despite its obvious inspirations.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
There's something distinctly disturbing about Feed Me Oil by Chillingo and HolyWaterGames - while the amazing fluid mechanics could be considered uncanny, the unnerving variety of creatures you end up 'feeding' are almost the stuff of nightmares. Though feed them you will as you obsess over engineering the perfect machines for transporting oil from the pipe and in to the monster's mouth(s).
The immediate impression you get on loading up the game is one of a re-imagined World of Goo, but it's the mechanics and not the aesthetics that make this game a wonderfully fun and challenging experience. Upon touching the oil-pipe a set amount of oil will flow out in to the screen and it's up to you to place a handful of objects in its way in order to guide it towards a 'mouth'. This is no easy task as levels quickly introduce switches and other moving parts that force you to use fans, magnets, platforms and and other objects in novel ways to shift the oil efficiently. A 'hint' button is available to essentially spoil the puzzle you're on, but a cool down prevents you from simply blasting your way through the game and coming up with unique solutions is far more rewarding than following a preset path.
It's clear the game has taken a lot of inspiration for its design, aping the whacky 'living' environments and jazzy background tunes, but it's a formula that works well as it provides distractions that can lead you down the wrong path or lead you to entirely novel solutions to the problem you're facing. If you opt to forgo the hints you'll need to spend a lot of time testing your creations to fine-tune them, but even if you do 'skip' a puzzle you can come with skills learned on later levels to conquer it with less items, gaining more 'stars' in the process. Players are rewarded for their tenacity with bonus levels that feature unique scenarios (such as zero gravity), so it's worth taking that extra bit of time to think things through.
Feed Me Oil tickles the brain in a way that's rare for a physics puzzle as players turn abstract ideas in to workable machines that require considerable effort to perfect. The charming style and challenging gameplay makes for a great distraction that's easy to come back to again and again; definitely worth checking out.
Screenshots
$1.99
