Just like many videogame enthusiasts my age, Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest in Japan) was my first real RPG. I loved every second of it, and it serves as a basis of how I judge almost every game I play today. I say this for a reason because Square-Enix has decided to release Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime in the US. As I am sure you guessed, Rocket Slime is a spin off of the Dragon Warrior series that stars…well, a slime monster as its main protagonist. Will this design stick with gamers? Read on to see what we thought.

Facts and Features

• Take control of Rocket as he attempts to foil the plans of the evil Plob gang.
  
• Rescue 100 different slime monsters from certain doom.
  
• Challenge friends with multi player tank battles.
  

A Slime’s Tale
Slimenia is an island hidden away that is truly a slime monster’s paradise, where the slimes live in peace. Until one fateful day, an evil organization know as the Plob invaded their capital city of Boingburg. They laid waste to the capital, and before leaving they slime-napped, er, kidnapped every slime monster in Boingburg. Well, almost everyone. A young slime named Rocket somehow eluded being captured. Now Rocket must rescue his friends, and defeat the evil Plob, but how will he accomplish this?

Thankfully Rocket isn’t as defenseless as you might have expected. He can stretch himself, and like a rubber band, snap forward in an attack dubbed an Elastro Blast. When Rocket uses this attack, he typically will knock his target into the air. Then Rocket can catch, and carry up to three items, foes, or friends. I know, I know hitting your friends may sound harsh, but how else can you rescue them from the Plob if you are a slime monster? Players can also throw, or even rearrange the order of what Rocket is carrying.

Armed with these basic abilities, Rocket sets out to take on the Plob. After leaving Boingburg, a map screen appears and the player chooses a destination. At first there is only one level, but as you progress through the game, more levels will be unlocked. At first these levels may seem simple in scope, but they hide a subtle depth that will reveal itself later in the game.

Save Your Friends!
Rocket’s primary mission is to save his friends and bring them back to Boingburg. You can do this in two different ways. The first relies on you actually physically carrying them back to Boingburg through the entrance of the level. The latter revolves around throwing them on a cart or a raft. Yes, you heard me correctly. This will automatically carry them, and even Rocket, back to town. You can send items, and even enemies back to Boingburg too, but more on this later.


Next stop, Boingburg!

Tanks! You're Welcome!
All too quickly, Rocket finds out he is not a match for the Plob. They possess giant tanks, and they love to use them! What is our hero to do? If you answered get his own tank, then you are right! If you can’t beat them, join them. Rocket quickly makes friends with a fellow name Ductor Sid (get it?), and he sets Rocket up with his very own tank, the Schleiman Tank to be exact.

Remember that I mentioned earlier about sending items back to town? Well, what did you think Ductor Sid would include, ammunition with his tank? Come on people, he gave Rocket a rolling death machine! Anyway, every item that Rocket can carry can be used for ammunition, be it a treasure chest, or catnip. Each item has its own properties. For example, you can acquire mirrors that will actually bounce back certain projectiles fired from your enemy.

During tank battles Rocket will actually have to load the cannons with his own abilities. He will have to Elastro Blast the items into the air, catch, and then throw the items into a nearby cannon. Items appear randomly inside the tank. Each item also has a number, and if you fire similar items in succession you will do extra damage. So you will have to use not just your wits, but also your reflexes to do maximum damage on your opponent.

You and your enemy will exchange volleys of items until someone’s hit points on their tank are reduced to zero. When this happens the tank is defenseless, and their opponent is free to go inside their tank, and destroy the engine. This is the only way to completely destroy a tank, and once done their machine explodes into a firestorm of 16-bit era destruction.