Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

"Instant fun! Just add Slime!"

Rocket Slime delivers a rare experience to the DS. I thought this game would be boring, but it couldn't have been more addictive. It's amazing how much stuff this little blue guy can make fun and hilarious.

Story - 8/10

The story goes like this. Your playing around the castle grounds, and you play the Warrior Flute that your friend stole. Almost 1 minute later, a group called the PLOB come and destroy the town and then kidnap everyone except you. Your goal is to save everyone from certain doom from being locked inside of chests. It may seem too short, sweet, and to the point, but it gets the job done in a midley interesting way.

Graphics - 9/10

Graphics are actually pretty good. There's no distortion, realistic sprites, and no confusion. There isn't any 3-D, which would have been welcomed greatly in tank battles, but sadly, isn't there. Aside from that, I'm not complaining at all about this one.

Controls - 9/10

Hard to say in this area. On the one hand, you have very precise control over your slime. I doubt you'll be complaining about him doing something you didn't want him to. But the way they utilize the control isn't very good. One area is the Elasto Blast, which can sometimes not have the effect you want to when using it, causing you to run into the wrong thing. But cases like that aren't too big a deal.

Gameplay - 10/10

The gameplay is the very aspect of the game that's so strange about it. On one hand, you spend a lot of time in the overworld, beating and/or capturing baddies, rescuing slimes, using your repetitive Elasto Blast, when you shoot yourself at enemies, also your only attack, and gathering ammo (more on that later). The puzzles you face also aren't that special, and the only real thing that'll make you scratch your head is wondering where those lost two slimes are in one area. But the real fun begins in the tank battles.
The Tank battles are where you take all your ammo you collected and use them in battle with another tank. Instead of directly controlling the tank, you and your crew have to load ammo into it, protect your engine, and infiltrate the enemies' tank to slow it down. This may sound simple, but with various ammo effects, crew tactics, enemies' sabatoge and abilities, tank and ammo upgrades, it's extremely in-depth. I could spend hours repeatedly replaying tank battles and increasing my ammo's power. It seriously helps, and is pretty much the main reason this game is really worth playing.

Replay Value - 10/10

A lot of greatness here. You'll be back to many areas to create better ammo, or if you just want to fight a tank there. And since destroying other tanks is fun, you'll be back to fight them a lot. You'll also be back for the tank tournament, Tank Wars, which is very engrossing and will have you coming back for prizes and fights. It'll be a while before you put the game down for good.

Final Word

Rocket Slime is a very good game, with many good aspects, and new introductions into the gaming world. If you ask someone the most memorable feature, odds are it'll be tank battles. The only really bad thing I've noticed is the saving function, which is time consuming, and you can only do it in the town, wasting more time, even though it doesn't affect it too much if you remember to do it. All in all, do not miss this awesome game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/07