When I was a child I was primarily enamored by giant monsters and building things. Crafting creatures out of Legos or Construx remained one of my favorite pastimes. Chillingo's new iOS puzzler, Feed Me Oil, competently combines construction with monsters, videogames, and puzzles, sating my lingering childhood obsessions.

The goal of each of the game's 45-plus levels is to direct oil into the mouth of a colossal organic structure by positioning objects like planks, windmills, magnets, and fans into a Rube Goldberg-esque contraption.

"Feed me, Seymour!"

Stages range from pandering to extraordinarily taxing, though an intuitive interface cuts frustration down to a minimum. While you're rated on a 1-3 scale for every level, you can take as much time as you like piecing together your apparatus without penalty. You're free to stop an unsuccessful attempt at any time to make tweaks before letting loose more oil to test your new hypothesis.

As with any physics-based game, there's a bit of luck involved. Running the same oil through the same course will result in slight deviation, but it's consistent enough to rarely feel frustrating. More irritating is the physics can be finicky and sometimes you may have the right idea, but a piece a few pixels off could cause vastly different results.

It's a small price to pay for such open-ended design. While there's a helpful hint system that suggests where to place certain pieces, truly skilled players will discover better strategies than the default answer and originality is rewarded. While I never fully understood the score system, a major component of it is based on beating a level with fewer pieces.

The Moon is a harsh mistress.

Elsewhere, the aesthetic is charming with monsters that are equal parts twisted and adorable. Only catching a glimpse of their face makes them all the more awe-inspiring, and in a cute touch their eyes follow wherever you touch the screen.

Feed Me Oil isn't perfect; it can be fussy and awkward to control (especially on a small iPod touch or iPhone screen), but this is a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent puzzle game. Its physics work well, the interface is user-friendly, and the scenery is fantastic. Who would've guessed oil spills could be so fun?

The bottom line. Despite a few controls quirks and a modicum of luck, Feed Me Oil is an outstanding physics-based puzzle game. Simultaneously challenging and forgiving, its open-ended nature and offbeat premise make for a captivating time.