Take the core formula from the original Slime Mori-Mori and throw in the tanks, and you've got Rocket Slime. Off the bat, there are already a ton of quality-of-life improvements, especially regarding the dungeoneering. All the trains cars/cargo floats now have a max capacity of four items (including yourself if you want to make a quick getaway while holding three items), so no more waiting around or meandering about to offload your goods! There's also no time-limit present in the dungeons anymore, so feel free to explore as long as you want while keeping in mind the day-night cycle that can affect enemy spawns. While there are still some instances of needing to carry around Bomb Rocks to blow up barriers or collecting other assorted objects to imitate totems and unlock doors, there's definitely a lot less of the former and the latter is simplified since objects are now located within nearby rooms instead of having to travel across the whole map. I also appreciate that much of the slower-paced platforming from the original has been replaced with movement-oriented obstacles (such as using the Rollerdash to traverse steeper slopes, or using cannons to both destroy sand castles and shoot yourself across fast-moving water), and that unlike the original, all destroyed and interactable hazards stay destroyed for good upon return trips (looking at you, Plob Balloons). The boss fights are every bit as ridiculous as the original: my personal favorite here has to be Pot Belly, who you must defeat by catching the materials he throws out of his magic urn and then chucking them back at him as he romps about. Finally, the transition from the GBA to the DS has not been missed: the visuals have gotten a nice bump with the DS's higher resolution, and there's a satisfying "YEEEEEOWWWCH" cry every time you slam into an enemy with the Elasto Blast. Just considering the basics that made the original so memorable, I can conclude that the sequel absolutely does all that and more.

What really add much more meat to the game, however, are the tank battles. It cannot be understated how much depth this adds to the core loop: in the original, materials sent back to town could only be used to repair the town (for aesthetics and to unlock some mini-games) or were to be sold for money. This time around, materials harvested from dungeons can now be transmuted with the magic urn once you've gained the corresponding recipes to produce more valuable material that you can use as tank ammo. Additionally, kidnapping monsters becomes much more valuable: send back at least 30 of any species, and you'll create a Bronze statue of that species in the art museum, allowing you to recruit that monster as a crew member for your tank. It's much more worthwhile as a result to forage about the dungeons and send back everything you find, knowing that it'll contribute to improving your tank warfare in some fashion. The tank battles themselves are the perfect mix of controlled chaos: you must fire upon enemy tanks in real-time, managing both the upper and lower cannon while fighting off any invaders trying to infiltrate your own tank and stealing ammo/destroying your interior. While most fights aren't particularly difficult, there is an element of strategy from figuring out exactly what to fire and when (ex: should I use shields to block off an entire line of enemy fire, or should I use carefully placed Kaboomamite instead to create a temporary wall of explosions while firing with the top cannon instead?), and if all else fails, you can just infiltrate the enemy tank yourself and blow up all their machines for the kicks. It never gets old engaging in these over-the-top fights, and the materials gained both for the fights and as a result of winning the fights makes the game's centralization around the tank battles that much more rewarding.

I've played hours upon hours of this game, both in my childhood and recently, and the only pertinent complaint that comes to mind is that the game is a bit too easy. In particular, most tank fights can be cheesed by infiltrating the tank via destroying the door/immediately shooting yourself out of the cannon and landing in the opponent's cannon room, and then just guarding the enemy cannon room to prevent anyone from firing at your tank. It doesn't take much more than a pulse to do so, since enemies can take a while to react to your Elastoblast and killing enemies will put them out of commission for a solid minute or two. I think this could have been alleviated if there were more fights that didn't rely on an enemy crew to fire or if there were more solo fights involved (i.e. just you as the only crew member vs someone else). Regardless, Rocket Slime is an incredibly entertaining and cozy experience that is every bit as charming as the original with tons of upgrades, and while there isn't much post-game to be found outside of the Tank Masters Tournament (which does at least have some entertaining tank battle variations, in fairness), I can respect a game that draws itself to a natural close and never outstays its welcome. It's even better if you can find a friend to play against via local multiplayer Wi-Fi so you can really get a taste of how crazy and complex tank engagements can become. Though, maybe don't pull out the Chili Pepper + Vulcan Bullets strategy if you still want to be friends afterwards. I learned that the hard way.

This game has no right to slap as hard as it did. The tank battles are actually fun and in-depth; trying to look for and find every secret is satisfying, and each slime has its own personality. Being able to recruit the enemies by capturing them and sending them back to town is a fun idea, and well worth it. Really, the only bad thing I can think of is that the music could be more diverse and expansive. Actually, scratch that; the fact that none of the other games in this trilogy made it out of Japan is also bad.

CWs for Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime: fatphobia

An extremely cute and very slight 2D Zelda-like where you slingshot around as the DQ Slime and get into manual Tower Defense-offs with other DQ monsters. The sense of character is joyous in the expected cutesy ways that doesn't ever get old, but the tank fights have an RPG-y resource grind tacked onto them that doesn't ever really expand how the encounters work. The grind is avoidable, but it makes the late tank fights really drag on because of how numbers scale. Can't complain too much because of how forgiving and brief the whole thing is, but it's also def not like some hidden masterpiece of the franchise.

This is my first time playing through this game in maybe 11 or 12 years? I found it for $7 at a GameStop years ago back when $10 games were all I could afford as a kid and big-name JRPGs were the apple of my eye. It’s some of the best sprite work I’ve seen in a 2D game on the DS. Great animations and designs for characters and the tanks. I wish so badly that this used the touch screen more since there are clear opportunities for it, but for a goofy spin-off aimed at younger audiences it is a great RPG and honestly stays really true to the Dragon Quest series, as well. I think where I have issues is that the tank battle gameplay is the only interesting gameplay, and exploring the overworld doesn’t come with many hurdles besides it being a bit of a slog and its puzzles a little obvious. But the tank gameplay is just stellar and I wish this game was out and about more because it seems like something that could’ve really developed a meta! Now that I’ve completed the story and saved all the slimes, I might take a break from this one, but I’d really like to come back and finish a lot of the side-stuff and dig my teeth deep into this one.