In the 1990s, few game companies were as surefire as Natsume when it came to consistently producing good games, and similarly few managed to break the licensed game curse the way they did. Dr. Slump is no exception, serving as quite possibly the definitive Arale game for fans of the manga and anime.
Criminally left untranslated for 25 years, this is a combination of action platformer, minigames and light RPG, much in the way of the Megaman Legends games. As Arale we will speed around Penguin Village, talking to familiar faces, including fan favorites Suppaman and King Nicochan, and using a wealth of abilities to engage in hilarious shenanigans against the various demented villains that will get in our way in our quest for... well, poking poop, I guess. That always seemed to be Arale's whole motivation anyway.
The presentation steals the show, especially upscaled on modern emulators: thanks to clean, colorful visuals and fantastic facial animations, it really feels like playing the anime, barring the lack of voice acting, which is due to the fact this is a long game as well: easily 6 to 7 hours for something that could easily have been shipped with one hour worth of content. In fairness it is padded with fetch quests and other game stretching means, but the comedic payoffs usually make these activities worth your time.
The only real downsides are the fact the game is based on the 90s anime remake (inferior on many counts to the 80s original), which means bizarre redesigns for several characters, most notably Midori, gone from a Marilyn blonde to a far more generic look. The other, more substantial, issue is that the action stages aren't very good, in part due to the camera angles not cooperating sometimes, but also to an over reliance on instant death pits, which can force a few restarts too many. Minor annoyances, if you are a fan of the series and can get into the groove of the game.
One can only imagine what Natsume could have done with the Dragon Ball license, perhaps making a game like this based on the start of the manga. Sadly we will never know, but we do have this game, and if you have an even passing interest in Toriyama's early work, you should for no reason let this one pass you by.
Criminally left untranslated for 25 years, this is a combination of action platformer, minigames and light RPG, much in the way of the Megaman Legends games. As Arale we will speed around Penguin Village, talking to familiar faces, including fan favorites Suppaman and King Nicochan, and using a wealth of abilities to engage in hilarious shenanigans against the various demented villains that will get in our way in our quest for... well, poking poop, I guess. That always seemed to be Arale's whole motivation anyway.
The presentation steals the show, especially upscaled on modern emulators: thanks to clean, colorful visuals and fantastic facial animations, it really feels like playing the anime, barring the lack of voice acting, which is due to the fact this is a long game as well: easily 6 to 7 hours for something that could easily have been shipped with one hour worth of content. In fairness it is padded with fetch quests and other game stretching means, but the comedic payoffs usually make these activities worth your time.
The only real downsides are the fact the game is based on the 90s anime remake (inferior on many counts to the 80s original), which means bizarre redesigns for several characters, most notably Midori, gone from a Marilyn blonde to a far more generic look. The other, more substantial, issue is that the action stages aren't very good, in part due to the camera angles not cooperating sometimes, but also to an over reliance on instant death pits, which can force a few restarts too many. Minor annoyances, if you are a fan of the series and can get into the groove of the game.
One can only imagine what Natsume could have done with the Dragon Ball license, perhaps making a game like this based on the start of the manga. Sadly we will never know, but we do have this game, and if you have an even passing interest in Toriyama's early work, you should for no reason let this one pass you by.