Post by Gilvan Blight on Jun 24, 2007 15:14:59 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Quickly:[/glow] Very odd but kind of fun, very cute.
[glow=red,2,300]Summary:[/glow] A very odd action game. You play a Slime (named Rocket if you don't rename him) who starts out the game in the Kingdom of Slimes hanging with his sister and his two slime buddies playing with a magic Heroes Flute they 'borrowed' from the Kings Treasury. Soon enough the entire town and castle comes under attack by evil Platypus creatures and everyone is captured except Rocket. It's then up to you to go out into the world and rescue the 100 inhabitants of the Slime Town.
The game is played without the use of the stylus (it is used for a colouring mini game but that's it). You move your slime around with the control pad and access menus with the shoulder buttons. You can hold down the A button and stretch out your slime to make an elastic like quicker move. If you hit an object or enemy while doing this elastic move it tosses them up in the air, and if you move under them before they land you can catch and carry them. Using these moves you move about a top down world that reminds me of a Zelda game and go about collecting items and capturing mobs. Everything you catch you can send back to town on the train system that runs through the various maps. Treasure chests are found throughout the maps and hitting them with an elastic attack frees one of the 100 slimes. As you free slimes and collect items the starting town is slowly rebuilt.
Along the way are various puzzles where you need to figure out where to go first, what order to catch mobs in, where to drop certain items, when to use a speed boost, etc. There are also large underwater mine (as in goes boom) type things that are scattered around the city preventing you from getting to different areas of the map. As you free slimes they move these out of the way. For example a 3ST mine requires 3 slimes to be saved before it can be moved. This is how the game expands the play area as you progress.
Added to this is the most bizarre Tank battle system I have ever seen. Early in the game you get a Giant Tank, and you use it to battle other Giant Tanks. You do this by running around inside your tank bumping into ammo, getting it on your head, carrying it to the cannons and tossing it in to shoot. There are two cannons one high and one low and you can shoot either. Your opponent does the same, with ammo shot at the same level canceling each other out. The ammo you shoot is the items collected during the main part of the game (so collecting good items is integral to having good ammo). Once you have done enough damage to an enemy tank you run across the battlefield between your tanks (or fire yourself from one of the cannons) and infiltrate the enemy tank, having to attack it's engine room. Along with this eventually you can add crew to your tank from the saved slimes, each adding some form of support (for example the team I have now fire the upper cannon, attempt to sabotage enemy tanks and heal my slime as we fight).
Lastly, the game follows a pretty linear story in which you explore new areas, eventually get to a boss battle (sometimes in a Tank, sometimes not) and free more slimes. The more slimes you free the more area's open up, etc.
[glow=red,2,300]The Good:[/glow] Strangely addictive. This wasn't at all what I expected and I wouldn't normally think I would enjoy this type of game, yet I keep picking it up and playing it. The Tank battles are rather fun, and I have found myself a few times going back to areas of the main map just to collect the best types of ammo. The Puns are horribly good... this entire game is pretty much all cute slime and platypus puns and it's quite an amusing game because of it. The graphics are also horribly cute, but it fits the theme well. I was very pleased to find a DS game that didn't just go nuts with the touch screen. It's great to see developers are putting out 'normal' games for the system, the kind you would have expected to find on a normal Gameboy, while still using the dual screen functionality excellently. WiFi play is also supported, and this one even uses the download function for some of the mini-games (meaning that your friend doesn't even need to own Rocket Slime to play some of the games over WiFi). Perhaps one of the best parts of this game is the price. It's only $30 CDN new, which is great compared to other DS titles.
[glow=red,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]This really isn't that bad a thing, but it fit here for me. This was just wholly not what I expected from a DragonQuest game. Come on DragonQuest is the most popular RPG series in Japan, beating even Final Fantasy over seas. This is a spin off of DragonQuest XIII one of the best console style RPGs I have played. Who would have expected an action based game where you play a slime attacking things like an elastic, with really no RPG elements except for the storyline. I was totally taken by surprise on this one. I can't see how it can be called Dragonquest when it's not a RPG, but that could just be me. Note that this is an Action game so it has all the frustration associated with them. Think of this as Zelda with a really odd attack system (the elastic bounce then catch). If you got frustrated miss timing your sword attacks you will get frustrated miss judging an elastic attack.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly[/glow] Only one save! I hate games that only allow for 1 person to play it. My wife and I both play our DS, so we would both like to be able to play the games. I get frustrated when I pick something up thinking we would both enjoy it and one of us has to wait for the other to get sick of the game or beat it before the other can play. Save points! There is only one Save point in the game, at the Church in town. This is a bad thing in a portable game. Thank the gods the DS has the sleep function, as the time between saves can be rather long when exploring a new map for the first time.
[glow=red,2,300]Overall:[/glow] A strange, funny and pretty fun game though nothing at all like I expected. It's definitely not for everyone, and do not think this is an RPG it's definitely more a Zelda style action game. I'm enjoying it, fans of DQ will like the world, but may not like the gameplay. At only $30 though it's worth picking up if you like action games. You could always rent it as well (the Rodgers in Tecumseh rents DS games) and make a call before you buy, but remember rentals are like $12 now, so it may be worth just picking up.
[glow=red,2,300]Summary:[/glow] A very odd action game. You play a Slime (named Rocket if you don't rename him) who starts out the game in the Kingdom of Slimes hanging with his sister and his two slime buddies playing with a magic Heroes Flute they 'borrowed' from the Kings Treasury. Soon enough the entire town and castle comes under attack by evil Platypus creatures and everyone is captured except Rocket. It's then up to you to go out into the world and rescue the 100 inhabitants of the Slime Town.
The game is played without the use of the stylus (it is used for a colouring mini game but that's it). You move your slime around with the control pad and access menus with the shoulder buttons. You can hold down the A button and stretch out your slime to make an elastic like quicker move. If you hit an object or enemy while doing this elastic move it tosses them up in the air, and if you move under them before they land you can catch and carry them. Using these moves you move about a top down world that reminds me of a Zelda game and go about collecting items and capturing mobs. Everything you catch you can send back to town on the train system that runs through the various maps. Treasure chests are found throughout the maps and hitting them with an elastic attack frees one of the 100 slimes. As you free slimes and collect items the starting town is slowly rebuilt.
Along the way are various puzzles where you need to figure out where to go first, what order to catch mobs in, where to drop certain items, when to use a speed boost, etc. There are also large underwater mine (as in goes boom) type things that are scattered around the city preventing you from getting to different areas of the map. As you free slimes they move these out of the way. For example a 3ST mine requires 3 slimes to be saved before it can be moved. This is how the game expands the play area as you progress.
Added to this is the most bizarre Tank battle system I have ever seen. Early in the game you get a Giant Tank, and you use it to battle other Giant Tanks. You do this by running around inside your tank bumping into ammo, getting it on your head, carrying it to the cannons and tossing it in to shoot. There are two cannons one high and one low and you can shoot either. Your opponent does the same, with ammo shot at the same level canceling each other out. The ammo you shoot is the items collected during the main part of the game (so collecting good items is integral to having good ammo). Once you have done enough damage to an enemy tank you run across the battlefield between your tanks (or fire yourself from one of the cannons) and infiltrate the enemy tank, having to attack it's engine room. Along with this eventually you can add crew to your tank from the saved slimes, each adding some form of support (for example the team I have now fire the upper cannon, attempt to sabotage enemy tanks and heal my slime as we fight).
Lastly, the game follows a pretty linear story in which you explore new areas, eventually get to a boss battle (sometimes in a Tank, sometimes not) and free more slimes. The more slimes you free the more area's open up, etc.
[glow=red,2,300]The Good:[/glow] Strangely addictive. This wasn't at all what I expected and I wouldn't normally think I would enjoy this type of game, yet I keep picking it up and playing it. The Tank battles are rather fun, and I have found myself a few times going back to areas of the main map just to collect the best types of ammo. The Puns are horribly good... this entire game is pretty much all cute slime and platypus puns and it's quite an amusing game because of it. The graphics are also horribly cute, but it fits the theme well. I was very pleased to find a DS game that didn't just go nuts with the touch screen. It's great to see developers are putting out 'normal' games for the system, the kind you would have expected to find on a normal Gameboy, while still using the dual screen functionality excellently. WiFi play is also supported, and this one even uses the download function for some of the mini-games (meaning that your friend doesn't even need to own Rocket Slime to play some of the games over WiFi). Perhaps one of the best parts of this game is the price. It's only $30 CDN new, which is great compared to other DS titles.
[glow=red,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]This really isn't that bad a thing, but it fit here for me. This was just wholly not what I expected from a DragonQuest game. Come on DragonQuest is the most popular RPG series in Japan, beating even Final Fantasy over seas. This is a spin off of DragonQuest XIII one of the best console style RPGs I have played. Who would have expected an action based game where you play a slime attacking things like an elastic, with really no RPG elements except for the storyline. I was totally taken by surprise on this one. I can't see how it can be called Dragonquest when it's not a RPG, but that could just be me. Note that this is an Action game so it has all the frustration associated with them. Think of this as Zelda with a really odd attack system (the elastic bounce then catch). If you got frustrated miss timing your sword attacks you will get frustrated miss judging an elastic attack.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly[/glow] Only one save! I hate games that only allow for 1 person to play it. My wife and I both play our DS, so we would both like to be able to play the games. I get frustrated when I pick something up thinking we would both enjoy it and one of us has to wait for the other to get sick of the game or beat it before the other can play. Save points! There is only one Save point in the game, at the Church in town. This is a bad thing in a portable game. Thank the gods the DS has the sleep function, as the time between saves can be rather long when exploring a new map for the first time.
[glow=red,2,300]Overall:[/glow] A strange, funny and pretty fun game though nothing at all like I expected. It's definitely not for everyone, and do not think this is an RPG it's definitely more a Zelda style action game. I'm enjoying it, fans of DQ will like the world, but may not like the gameplay. At only $30 though it's worth picking up if you like action games. You could always rent it as well (the Rodgers in Tecumseh rents DS games) and make a call before you buy, but remember rentals are like $12 now, so it may be worth just picking up.