Review: Fuel Tiracas
Arriving on the PlayStation Mobile platform is Fuel Tiracas. Created by Futurlab, the team behind Coconut Dodge and the awesome Velocity on PlayStation Minis. Futurlab bring their knowledge and love of games to a new digital platform. Regarded very much as a mole attack with a twist kind of game and a low purchase price. We look to see how their first effort on PSM faired.
The story of the game sees you play as a person who needs to re fuel an entire planets atmosphere, as quickly as possible. Gameplay is simple in practice but an art in execution. Each level has between 2-6 fuel gauges, all different colours. You will see 3 circles on either side of the play screen. Selecting one will then start the sequence of the circles illuminating with fuel. Your job is to hit that button as quickly as you can as its running on a timer. The sooner you hit it the more fuel you get out, the quicker another circle iluminates and overall the quicker you finish a level.
The game is a fast and frantic affair with quick refelxes key to winning. Be warned that filling your designated fuel cell up past the marked level will stop the reactor from working and you will need to wait for it to drain down. This along with contaminated fuel cells (marked with a skull) which completely drain your fuel cell, make the game even more challenging. its kind of like trying to balance a tray of glasses on your head while trying to defuse a bomb. You know what needs to be done but little things keep getting in your way. The game supports leaderboards and the sequence of buttons is always the same which aids you in getting top scores as you can just memorize the sequence.
For the low low price of just 40p, you cannot go wrong with this game. Yes its short and yes its simple per se, but for the value of money and the way it suits quick bursts of play, Futurlab have done a good thing. They have zeroed in on what makes game addictive, added a skin over it and given us leaderboards. Boom! success, first game on PSM is good so we can only hope this continues until they give us Coconut Dodge on PSM with leaderboard support.
