Quirky App Of The Day: Lay Your Pipeline Under A Tight Time Limit In OilRush

OilRush (Free) by Olivier Puraye is a strategy game that tests how well you can perceive where pieces will need to go. You are laying pipelines for the oil that’s going to start pouring. Your goal is to lay as much line as possible before the oil comes.

You have one minute to lay your pipes. There is a black start marker where the oil will come from. There are cacti that you cannot lay pipes though, and there are also bonus point tubes that boost your score if you run the oil through them. However, it’s not necessary to do so.

At the end of each level, you need to meet a specific point requirement. It increases every level. You earn 100 points for every pipe that the oil gets through. There’s also a four-sided cross pipe that you can loop the oil back through. If you manage that, you’ll earn an extra 1,000 points.

The order of the pieces is completely random. I know that can upset some people. Your ability to win the level is based completely on chance. Any extra pieces on the board that don’t fill with oil count against your end score. If you have too many extra pieces, it could cost you the ability to move on to the next level. At one point, I had a pipeline that was worth 4,200 points, but I had so much extra pipe laying around that it cut my score in half. Beware the extra pipe.

Each level is restricted to one minute. That’s not much time. You can continue to lay pipe while the oil is flowing, but it’s a gamble. It could work, and you could earn some extra points by continuing on until the bitter end, or you can rack up a large amount of useless pipes that will cost you points.

There are no ads or in-app purchases thus far. This sometimes means that the developer is waiting to see how a game does before setting a price or adding ads. Now would be a great time to snag this awesome game.

This is a seriously challenging app. The randomness of the pieces and the point requirements add some difficulty to the game. You’re constantly under pressure lay the pipeline as quickly as possible, but the piece you’re handed make all the difference in how easily you can do that.

OilRush is an iPhone app, and it’s available int the App Store for FREE!