"Slime flies when you're having fun."

Chocobos. Moogles. Neither is a very crucial part of any Final Fantasy game, and yet their popularity is quite abundant. There's even a series of Chocobo Mysterious Dungeon video games (Wait a minute... Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon? I sense a trend...). So for those of you not familiar with Dragon Quest, just know that the slime, the most basic of enemies, is to DQ what chocobos are to Final Fantasy. Only this time, it's not Slime's Mysterious Dungeon. It's just fun.

Graphics:
Like the smiley face plastered on the front of every slime creature, Rocket Slime the game features a cartoonish, kid-friendly world. The style is very simple and looks a lot like the Minish Cap on the Game Boy Advance. In that regards, Rocket Slime starts to feel like nothing more than a GBA title with an extra screen. And that extra screen falls back on the tried-and-true map, of all things. But refreshingly enough, having a constant map is quite convenient this time around.

Yet it's when the game moves into its tank battle mode that the two screens are put to their best use. The top screen features a much-needed view of the overall battlefield while the bottom screen focuses in on you and your immediate surroundings. These tank battles also tend to throw out a lot of enemies, items, and particle effects, at which point the GBA feeling recedes. In any case, the graphics go well with the light-hearted nature of the game.

Gameplay:
And Rocket Slime is by no means a deep and meaningful RPG, nor does it take itself too seriously (with puns and sight gags by the handful). You're just a little, blue blob, after all, a blob that really isn't capable of much. Some reports even claim Rocket Slime is a one-button show, but that's not entirely true. You end up using all the buttons on the DS eventually, but your abilities as a blob are still kept to the basics of jumping, bouncing into enemies, and throwing stuff. Your mission is just as simple: enter different areas and find and rescue kidnapped civilians of your hometown. Once you've found a fellow blob, you can carry them on your head and toss them on a train back to town. You can also pick up monsters and items and throw them on the carts for later use.

This "later use" is where Rocket Slime really shines. The adventuring aspect is simple and easy to get into, but it just isn't enough. Thankfully, Square-Enix went out of its way to include a completely off-the-wall, truly exhilarating tank battle mode. This pits your town's castle/tank hybrid against a number of increasingly odd enemy tanks in a fight to the death. What's great about this mode is that you don't take control of the tank directly. You run around inside, pick up ammo, and load it into one of two cannons to fire across the battlefield. Anything you find in the adventure fields can be used as ammo: broken obelisks, empty chests, swords, etc. Once you've managed to wear your opponent's HP down to zero, you can infiltrate their fortress and attack its weak point for massive damage (you knew it was coming). In fact, you can sneak into their base earlier than that and smash all the consoles to slow down their ammo chutes. Also, civilians of your hometown will even act as teammates and take different commands from you. The amount of strategy involved, while not staggeringly complex, is much appreciated and a whole lotta fun.

Lasting Appeal:
The fact that what you find in the adventure mode can be used for your tank greatly extends this game's value. I'm rarely a fan of collect-a-thons, but Rocket Slime really rewards you for your effort. You want to rescue all the slimes in an area so you can recruit them. You want to fulfill those recipes to make new and stronger weapons for your tank. It all boils down to the tank battles, really. The main adventure is just too simple and mindless. Puzzles are embarrassingly easy, and you get way more HP than you need. It also gets quite repetitive, but this is true even with the tank battles. The game throws out all its good cards too soon and leaves little left for you to discover afterwards.

Rocket Slime also takes a short amount of time to complete for something so similar to an RPG (about 8-9 hours). But collecting everything is actually more fun here than it is in other "Oh, look, you still have 50 stars left!" games. Again, you collect to make your tank better, and this becomes much more necessary near the end when you face some increasingly brutal battles. You can also put this work towards playing against a friend in the game's included multiplayer mode. However, there is no single-card download play for the tank battle. This is a shame, too, because I can see this being a hilarious experience. Unfortunately, the odds of you finding somebody with a copy of Rocket Slime are pretty low.

Overall:
Rocket Slime may not take full advantage of the DS, but it is quirky and cute and fits perfectly with the rest of the DS library. The adventuring side is a little easy and disappointing (despite being very funny), but the tank battles-- Oh, man, I can't say enough good things about this. These tank battles are near as much fun as the whole of Advance Wars: Dual Strike. You simply have got to try it.

Points:
+ Great sense of humor
+ Easy to get into
+ Awesome tank battles
+ Fun collecting aspect
-- Too short
-- Too easy
-- Gets a little repetitive
-- Multiplayer requirements will rarely be met

Score: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/06