Nom Nom Galaxy Review

The first thing you may notice when you boot up Nom Nom Galaxy – besides what is possibly one of the most unexpectedly psychedelic soundtracks in an indie game – is the premise. Any game that decides to set it itself in a dystopian future where soup companies have taken over the galaxy sets a certain tone. It’s a style of wackiness that the game sticks to with superglue-like obstinacy.

Nom Nom Galaxy is a game that’s hard to classify. It’s a puzzler, exploration game, resource management sim and base-builder. There are small whiffs of tower defence and strategy thrown in for good measure, too. Perhaps Nom Nom Galaxy is striving to create its very own specific genre of gaming – soup making sim.

The game’s main challenge is in the terraforming of planets that dot this dystopian soup-ruled universe. Your aim is to exploit each planet’s natural resources, defeat its flora and fauna and suck dry its very essences in order to make tasty soup. To perfect this process you’ll need to also defeat waves upon wave of AI enemies that will be sent by rival companies to stop your increasing market share. I’m unsure whether supermarket suppliers go to similar lengths in order to provide us with what is essentially flavoured water, but if they do they need saluting.

The creation of soup is a process in Nom Nom Galaxy that is easy to grasp and hard to master. Each planet becomes a puzzle in and of itself – you have to work out the best way of using what you’re presented with. Using a chainsaw (crucial in the production of soup, I think you’ll agree), you’ll dig your way through the landscape to unlock the precious resources needed to make a decent mascarpone. Other materials you collect can be used to build your factory, which will be used to deliver your revolutionary gazpacho.

As you progress further into the game you’ll unlock tools and upgrades that can make the entire process automatic, saving you the hassle of having to micromanage the production of your famous cream of broccoli. There is a deeper complexity to this game that would be easy to pass by, as developers Pixeljunk never really touch upon it past the initial tutorial sections. The mixture of so many ideas makes Nom Nom Galaxy an interesting melting pot, but a lack of direction often meant I was restarting levels because I just hadn’t built my base correctly.

The blocky style of the game, mixed in with its bright colours and emphatic soundtrack of trip-hop beats and electronic bass lines, makes Nom Nom Galaxy an appealing game to play. Each new planet feels different and varied, with equally variable wildlife (rather than the same creatures with a different colour scheme). The frantic action that can often occur while trying to defend your precious peppercorn recipe from hordes of enemies can often be as confusing as it is fun to behold.

The game has released on PC (via Steam) and PS4 so as a result can be played with either a gamepad or a mouse and keyboard. Unsurprisingly it’s far easier to navigate Nom Nom Galaxy with the former, which is somewhat disappointing for those without one. The game also allows co-operative play in order to solve particularly tricky levels, which is a nice touch – especially as the game can get quite difficult in the later stages.

Nom Nom Galaxy is a game that strives to mix the best of multiple genres and fails to really excel at any of them. The resource collection is easy, the tower defence and base building unnecessarily difficult to master, as well as feeling a little disconnected to the premise at large. Despite this, the game has an unavoidable appeal due to its odd premise, great soundtrack and colourful visuals. It’s one you might find yourself coming back to, if only to perfect that minestrone you’ve been working on.