Review By

Brad Gallaway

As a critic, I’m frequently faced with a dilemma—when is it all right to view something as a product, and when should something be critiqued as an experience? How should I rate something that aims only to be a finely polished romp without any intention of pushing boundaries or exploring new territory? Although my true love of videogames comes from projects which are different, unusual, or experimental, I also have my pragmatic side.

Though it brings very few new concepts to the table, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime is the perfect example of superior craftsmanship and an obvious enthusiasm for gaming coming together in a project that’s superbly polished and guaranteed to bring a smile or two to anyone’s face. Is this high art? Clearly not, yet it’s impossible to deny its appeal.

The game’s story means little, a quickly-sketched effort describing the usual tale of evildoers invading a kingdom and an “unlikely” hero restoring peace to the homeland. The slant is that instead of the standard spiky-haired teenager, Square-Enix has done the unexpected and turned one of Dragon Quest’s lowliest enemies—the little blue blob that’s usually the most meaningless bit of combat fodder—into the star of the show.

With a limbless bubble of jelly for the hero, the adventure’s lighthearted feel and non-serious tone are set almost immediately. It’s clear from the start that players will be in for a goofy, comical ride, and that’s exactly what they get. However, the bright colors and cutesy Toriyama artwork are merely the candy-cute veneer laid atop an extremely solid, intelligently refined foundation.

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime is a cleanly defined action-adventure in the Zelda vein. The hero, Rocket, can stretch and shoot himself like a rubber band rather than employing traditional weaponry such as sword and shield. The levels are superbly designed. Easy to understand and navigate on the DS’s screens, they manage to contain enough secrets, nooks, and crannies to satisfy anyone who likes simple environmental puzzles.

To be honest, neither the puzzles nor the rubber-band-fwipping combat is especially challenging. However, it’s to Square-Enix’s credit that everything feels so silky-smooth and so finely tuned that the forward momentum of discovery and progress never lets up. Once past the starting segment, I felt like it was harder to not play than it was to continue.

While its rendition of Zelda-lite would be fine enough to make a solid DS title, the real hook to Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime and its standout feature is the large-scale combat. For some bizarre reason, a huge number of gigantic battle tanks exist in the Rocket Slime world. When facing off against another piece of mobile artillery, Rocket and collected teammates man his vehicle while preventing enemies from entering. At the same time, all of the items that Rocket has found in his travels can be used as ammunition for the huge cannons.

Plants, bombs, hot peppers, rocks, spiked iron balls, and any number of things that were picked up while wandering the overworld can be stuffed into a barrel and launched for various effects (including Rocket himself). Although these sorties basically boil down to who can fire the most stuff the fastest, these battles never failed to keep my interest. For players who are especially motivated, quite a bit of time can be sunk into upgrading the ammunition to potentially add several hours of extra play.

It’s obvious that the people behind Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime are masters at their craft. There really aren’t any rough edges or complaints to be lodged against it, save perhaps for the fact that it’s an extremely friendly game and doesn’t present much of a challenge for people who don’t feel satisfied without sweating and stressing out over difficulty spikes. Personally, I’m not complaining at all. Although it’s true that I take the most satisfaction from games that bring new things to the table, there’s simply no denying a project that’s as superbly crafted and well-designed as this one.