Nom Nom Galaxy (Q-Games. Ltd.)

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He who controls the soup controls the galaxy. That is why, as a worker for Soup Co. it is your mission to keep the soup flowing. It appears that the galaxy doesn’t particularly care what the soup is made of either as you can slap together just about anything to make some. The local wildlife obviously objects violently to being turned into a soup and Soup Co. also has powerful rivals so you have your work cut out if you want to survive this cut-throat business.

Nom Nom Galaxy might look like pure chaos when viewing the screenshots, but it is actually quite simple. You are dropped off on a hostile planet which you have to explore while turning everything into soup. The soup making is done via factory modules that you have to build and is blasted off into space using rockets. As you rake in the profits you can expand your base in order to add defenses, more soup making modules as well as robotic workers to help ease the workload. You have to make the most of the limited amount of time you have available each day in order to beat your rivals and conquer the market with your soup.

Just because the basic idea is very simple doesn’t mean that the game has no depth. Nom Nom Galaxy cleverly combines elements of platforming, tower defense and base building into one cohesive and very addictive whole. It is a fast paced game as you have to race around collecting ingredients while ensuring that your base is well defended. If your office module is destroyed the game is over so you have to protect this vital module at all cost. Initially you can only carry one ingredient at a time and it takes two ingredients to make one can of soup, but fortunately you can use the research tree to unlock ways of automating tasks. From conveyer belts to robotic servants and vacuum tanks that suck up multiple ingredients, there is already a lot of very cool ideas in this Early Access version.

The 2D visuals are bright and bold with that trademark pixeljunk look that Q-Games have perfected. Mixing and match all kinds of bizarre ingredients like grass, flowers and whatever unfortunately wildlife crosses your path just to see what type of soup it produces is incredibly fun. The base building is also very addictive as you can create sprawling layouts teeming with workers, defenses and modules. The game also already features a split screen local co-op mode and the developers are actively listening to fan feedback about incorporating and including new features.

The mixture of different genres keeps Nom Nom Galaxy interesting throughout and you constantly have to switch your priorities to stay alive and ahead of the competition. Exploration is made tricky by requiring oxygen when you are outside of your base and straying too far might mean you won’t make it back in time to protect your office if enemies sneak past your automated defenses. A recent update added a save feature which makes things a bit easier, but things can and will go horribly awry if you make stupid mistakes like tunneling for resources below your base without putting up support struts.

I enjoyed my time with Nom Nom Galaxy immensely and look forward to seeing what the developers are going to add to the mix. The basic formula is already very solid so anything they add during the Early Access phase is just going to make the game better and more polished.

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