Fuel Tiracas Review (PS Mobile)

Fuel Tiracas is wonderfully compelling. You'll approach it with the intent of a quick five minute session, but will no doubt end up pouring the best part of an hour into it. And it's all because of the game's pesky leaderboards. You'll want, no, need to shave a few seconds off your personal best in order to climb the high score lists; it will become an obsession.

Indeed, the FuturLab developed title is brilliant in short bursts. It's a great example of an accessible experience with an addictive underpinning – but, as with most games based on simple ideas, it does get a touch repetitive with time. Still, that doesn't mean you can't have fun while the novelty persists.

Your objective is to maintain the atmosphere on the titular planet of Tiracas by powering processors fuelled by the location's own natural resources. To achieve this, you must tap fuel, represented by coloured circles presented on either side of the screen, which then fill tanks in the centre. This fuel must be kept at a specific level in order to kick the processors into gear. The twist is that each tank will be constantly leaking in the process, making it a real exercise in concentration to keep everything at the desired level – especially when there are multiple rods to maintain. Over filling or allowing any tank to empty entirely results in a game over screen, so there's the constant threat of failure at all times.

New mechanics are sprinkled in as you progress through the campaign, including contaminated fuel – which is represented by a skull and crossbones – as well as circles that need to be tapped multiple times or in pairs in order to increase the challenge. There are twelve levels in total, but the aforementioned leaderboards will keep you playing long after you've completed them all.