"It Might be a Rocket, but it's Ceratinly Not Out of this World"

I had high hopes for this game. I'd heard about it from my cousin who spends most of his time hanging out around a video game store, leading me to believe that he knows a lot about the hottest games out or soon to be released. For most of the time he's been right, but not about Rocket Slime. I found it to be repetitive, stale, and quite frankly, boring.

Gameplay: 7/10

Yikes, there isn't much to say about a game where your main character is a slime. The gameplay here is very comparable to that of The Legend of Zelda series, in the fact that you're basically running around through dungeons, beating up baddies that you can both see before they jump you and run away from (unlike the enemy encounter system found in many TBSGs). You get no experience from these battles and thus there are no level ups. You gain health by finding Seeds of Life, similar to the Heart Piece system in Zelda. Although I'm fine with that, my problem is with your fighting techniques, or lack of them. Being a slime, the only way for you to attack enemies is to stretch your body and roll into them. However, stretching takes a few seconds to be effective, and in that time you're very vulnerable to attack. Many of my battles were filled with confusion as I desperately tried to attack and get out of range at the same time.

Despite the lack of a handy battle system, many of your fights are incredibly simple. If I recall, out of all of my battles I was never KOed. Now, this isn't because I'm an expert gamer. It's because the AI is stupid and many of your opponents can't even find you, let alone attack you. Should you happen to be attacked, you'll take very little damage. Bosses aren't much better, as the same charging and rolling strategy can be employed against almost all of them in some way or another. There is no equipment in this game, and I don't believe there are any items you can use in mid-battle.

The one redeeming quality of Rocket Slime is the tank battles. They are by far the best innovation in the game and they come thick and fast. Soon after starting you will find a giant tank, which you will use to fight other giant tanks. While bouncing through dungeons, you'll come across items which you can take home and use as ammo (rocks, bullets, swords, etc.) By loading ammo into cannons mid-battle, your tank will lob them at your opponent, dealing a set amount of damage. When your opponent's tank reaching zero HP, it becomes possible to use yourself as a cannonball and launch into their tank to destroy the engine, thereby winning the battle. Though this was fun at first, it quickly gets somewhat old and quite annoying. As you come across more and more slimes, you can choose whether or not to add them to your crew. However, many of them are stupid, launching themselves at inappropriate times. Many times I found myself the only crew member still in my tank. After about the halfway point, tank battles will become quite one-sided to your opponents advantage. They will have much better weapons than you, and have a lot more of them. I found it simpler to let my tank reach zero HP, then repel invading enemies as they came over. While I considered this cheap, it is the only way to win.

Story: 6/10

There isn't much to be said about the storyline of Rocket Slime. You live in a town of slimes. They get kidnapped. Due to the stupidity of your enemy, you are the only one left behind, and you need to go rescue your friends and family from an enemy who you don't even know exists until the end of the game. That's it. No complexity, no in-game realization about yourself or your past, nothing. Lame.

Sound Effects/ Graphics: 7/10

Come on. The music is good, as it changes from dungeon to dungeon, but at a certain point you begin to hear the same tracks over and over. Music is basically divided into town, forest, mountain, and final. The boss tracks are all the same. Tank battles had some nice music, but that's because I liked the one track they played over and over again.

Graphically, the game leaves a lot to be desired. The whole thing is a bird's eye view of your adventure. Everything is a cartoon, taking little advantage of the DS's capabilities. Although this follows the traditional Dragonquest style, I still found it to be disappointing. The bottom screen used heavily, but not because of the stylus. It's used because the top is reserved for maps and tanks. As far as DS games go, that wasn't too special.

Play Time/ Replayability: 6/10

Wanna hear a joke? Rocketslime's estimated play time. As I recall, it took be a total of 12 hours to beat the game, rescue all the slimes, and do all of the interesting side-quests. You get nothing for beating the game, and even if you did, I can't see how anyone could possibly want to play it again.

Final Recommendations:

Don't buy this game. I'm not saying it's not worth your time, as it's a real time RPG, which are rare in this time of Final Fantasy and Hotel Dusk, but it's too short to be worth $30. A good rent, perhaps, but not worth the retail value.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/20/07