| Rocket Slime is ball of laughter and fun. It is full of puns and goofiness. Throughout the game is silly dialog amongst members of the Plob who act like well intentioned idiots. The music during these encounters shifts to emphasize the goofiness of the Plob gang trying to act cool. At various points in the game, you battle in tanks. The titles and subtitles of the tanks are puns and comedic references that pertain to American culture and Square Enix games. Even the sound effects of the main character, Rocket, amuse the ears. I love the “boing” sound that Rocket makes when bouncing around. The colorful cartoon style of the graphics completes the package of emphasizing the light-heartedness of Rocket Slime.
This game is a spin-off title of the Dragon Quest series, which are normally RPGs. However, Rocket Slime differs from the series because it is an action adventure title. Unlike most Dragon Quest games, Rocket Slime can be conquered within far less than 100 hours. It took me 28 hours to beat the game, and most people complete it within 20 hours. The straightforwardness of Rocket Slime hinders replay value. Another drawback is that starting a new game requires erasing the old game file, first. Folks wanting to start over, but keep all past progress saved, are out of luck.
I like the challenge presented in Rocket Slime. It is neither too hard nor too easy. Enemy movements during the adventure portions of the game are predictable enough to dodge their attacks. After clearing considerable portions of a level, you can jump into warp holes to open short cuts to earlier parts of the stage. This makes it easy to save the game & quickly return to the same point at a later time. At various locations, Rocket finds fruit that increase his max life. Just like in Zelda, hearts represent life. Unlike Zelda, Rocket doesn’t use a bunch of tools during his adventure. Rocket uses his body as a weapon. Also, most enemies don’t hurt him unless their attacks hit him. In general, it takes three physical attacks to kill an enemy, but an even quicker way to take care of a baddy is to drop it onto the train to Slimenia. He does that by first ramming into an enemy. This bounces it into the air. If Rocket catches it, he then carries it on his head. Rocket can carry up three monsters/items on his head at one time. He can throw the bottom item/monster at any time, and he can rearrange their order with a shoulder button. Some items give Rocket special abilities when he carries them on his head. For example, a SlimeKnight allows him to fight with its sword, and cloak makes him invisible to enemies. When Rocket throws an item/monster at an enemy, it inflicts damage. However, tossed enemies resume attacking Rocket once he no longer carries them on his head.
The challenge in Rocket Slime is greatest during tank battles, which require careful planning ahead of time. You pick all the ammo to use in your tank, and you decide which three characters would accompany you for tank battles. You acquire ammo during the adventure portion of the game by sending various items home via the train to Slimenia. Better ammo can be created through the use of alchemy. The characters that join you during tank battles help by loading ammo into cannons, launching themselves at the enemy tank, sneaking into the enemy tank & sabotaging its weapons system, healing your party, etc. Each character can do one or two of these things, hence the importance of careful planning ahead of time.
At some point, you can participate in tournament in which you fight other tanks, but you get to pick any tank to use during battles. You could also compete against friends in tank battles. However, folks like me that don’t have friends close by are out of luck, because there is no wi-fi for multiplayer battles. Other bonuses in Rocket Slime including a surfing mini-game and paintings you can draw on. In the surfing mini-game, the goal is to collect as many coins as possible within a limited time frame. When drawing over paintings, you use the touching screen to draw directly onto it. (That is probably the only time the touch screen is used.)
Rocket Slime may not make much use of touching the touch screen, but the game makes good use of the dual screens visually. During the adventure portion of the game, the top screen serves as a menu, while the action appears on the bottom screen. During tank battles, the top screen shows the ammo being launched from each of the tanks, while the bottom screen shows Rocket and the area he is at. You manually load ammo at the bottom screen, but use the top screen to strategize on which cannon and ammo to use. Not using the touch screen much keeps the game simple enough for practically anybody to play. |
