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Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime Review
Written by Cody Musser on Tuesday, September 26, 2006
User Score
Tank battles! British colloquialisms!
Extremely easy.
Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime is, in short, "A jolly good time." The game will actually make mention of said "jolly time" quite often, as well as "old chum," and a good many other English colloquialisms. In many cases that could be just as annoying as the faux-gangster speak that plagues many other releases, but in this case I tip my hat to the localization experts at Square Enix. Between the English dialect, ze stereotypical German (or Russian, I never really could tell ze difference), and a slew of other comedic references to all sorts of things, the world that makes up Dragon Quest Heroes is a pretty charming one.
The charm is the single first aspect of the game that most players will enjoy. Playing as the bouncy Rocket, players mostly travel around an adventure world saving their fellow slimes from the despicable Plob. Of course, players obviously know that the Plob is simply Dragon Quest's version of the Mob, just with platypii. The Plob alone deliver Dragon Quest Heroes my wholehearted recommendation. Platypii are sorely underrepresented in modern video games, and it's high time their presence be appreciated. Mmm ... platypii, who doesn't like that word?
Adventuring throughout the world of Slimenia, is mostly a carefree affair. Rarely is gameplay in Dragon Quest Heroes fast-paced, and even less rarely is it difficult. Not only can I never recall dieing in my playthrough, I can barely recall getting harmed in any way. While the lax difficulty could be an issue for some players, in the end, it doesn't really detract too much. The world is a happy, very happy, place to journey about, and the game delivers that experience to the player through lighthearted gameplay.
Amidst their journey, players will rescue their slimy companions scattered throughout different stages selectable by world map. Each stage is a fairly vibrant 2D setting, making the visuals of Dragon Quest Heroes not something to drool over, but pleasant in their simplicity. The gameplay also revels in simplicity, never making use of the touchscreen, it is in favor of a more basic scheme. Rocket travels about using the D-Pad, and attacks enemies, items, and well, anything, by using an "Elasto-Blast" mapped to the A-Button. Rocket stretches himself and then springs toward any obstacle in his path. This attack launches enemies and objects alike for Rocket to catch and either transport back to town, or save for the games more robust feature, the massive tank battles.
The massive tank battles are where Dragon Quest Heroes shines. All of the carefree exuberance from the games adventure setting is put to rest as the player's and enemy's tanks lineup within walking distance of each other. Frenzied is the best word to describe the chaos that ensues as players fire off the items they collected in the games adventure setting. Traveling around the tank and scooping up items from ammo chutes may not seem like much, but there is so much more to the experience. I almost hate to spoil the surprise for anyone reading this, but the first time I accidentally fired myself out of the tank I was literally laughing out loud. Landing in the other player's tank nets you the opportunity to fire them out of their tank, destroy their tanks ammo chutes, and a mess of other actions that make for insane amounts of fun.
Unfortunately, as players progress through the game, they have the opportunity to strengthen their tank, and in doing so, the battles in single-player lose almost all difficulty. Luckily, the multiplayer gameplay modes allow for tank battles to be experienced among friends, and the difficulty and frantic pace is refreshed.
There is little for me to complain about during my experience in Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime. The game world is more charming than almost anything I've seen, and the in-jokes in localization are something to keep players amused throughout. Diehards might scoff at the games simplicity and low difficulty throughout the adventure setting, but in that case, they're missing the point. Slimes are just really happy guys, and their entire world is built around keeping you smiling, just like them. This game comes in just shy of perfect, and if the tank battles would have held their pace, Dragon Quest Heroes could have easily been the single DS game to buy this fall, even among the stiff competition.
posted September 27, 2006