I remember hearing about this game on YouTube when I was younger, how it's an underrated classic or a hidden gem of the console. As I was a huge fan of the Dragon Quest series, and still am to be quite frank, I was surprised that I never heard about this. So the first chance I got I made sure to pick this up and try it out, and I must say this is easily one of the best spinoff games in the franchise and one of the best games on the console as a whole.
You control a slime named Rocket who had his entire village kidnapped by a gang of Playpunks and it is up to you to find each one of the villagers and stop the evil group, thus saving your village. It plays like a fairly simplistic Zelda game, you explore each region of the map, solving puzzles and fighting enemies by jumping, stretching and throwing objects around.
Each area of a level feels meticulously crafted, built in a way to have a singular solution, and it always feels rewarding to find the next area to go to or to solve a puzzle of an area. You are constantly rewarded with items, enemies, and slimes to bring back to your home village. There are also boss fights that you need to tackle, which are creative.
However, that is only half of the gameplay. You aren't just collecting items to fill out a checkbox. They are instead ammo that can be utilized in tank battles all across the world. I didn't write that wrong, at certain points you will be tasked with managing a mobile tank while going one-on-one with an enemy. There is a great blend of resource management, with how you must use the ammo loadout you've created, strategy, with how you utilize your cannons and later team members for firing, and mastery over the controls to succeed in these sections.
The gameplay truly carries this gem, however the other aspects are still very good. The overall story of this game is pretty silly but effective. All the characters are likable and have that Dragon Quest charm about them. The music, as always, is iconic. Utilizing all the main themes in the different areas of the game, this is a great soundtrack though it is a shame that it is all MIDI instruments. Graphically this game is bright and colourful. The spritework is stunning and you can tell there is a lot of detail that went into this game.
I will be honest, there is one drawback to this game. As it is a game targeted at children, this leans heavily on the easier side of things. Except for some tank battles in the back half of the game, and a few tricky post-game puzzles, this game is not difficult in the slightest. I don't think it is a huge detractor though, as it becomes more accessible for a wider audience.
It is such a shame I am unable to play a modern version of this game. I truly wish we could get a port or a sequel available to us overseas, as this is truly a unique and quirky title that deserves to be remembered within the Nintendo DS' legendary library. If this game looks even remotely interesting to you, I highly recommend it. This is a genuine hidden gem.
You control a slime named Rocket who had his entire village kidnapped by a gang of Playpunks and it is up to you to find each one of the villagers and stop the evil group, thus saving your village. It plays like a fairly simplistic Zelda game, you explore each region of the map, solving puzzles and fighting enemies by jumping, stretching and throwing objects around.
Each area of a level feels meticulously crafted, built in a way to have a singular solution, and it always feels rewarding to find the next area to go to or to solve a puzzle of an area. You are constantly rewarded with items, enemies, and slimes to bring back to your home village. There are also boss fights that you need to tackle, which are creative.
However, that is only half of the gameplay. You aren't just collecting items to fill out a checkbox. They are instead ammo that can be utilized in tank battles all across the world. I didn't write that wrong, at certain points you will be tasked with managing a mobile tank while going one-on-one with an enemy. There is a great blend of resource management, with how you must use the ammo loadout you've created, strategy, with how you utilize your cannons and later team members for firing, and mastery over the controls to succeed in these sections.
The gameplay truly carries this gem, however the other aspects are still very good. The overall story of this game is pretty silly but effective. All the characters are likable and have that Dragon Quest charm about them. The music, as always, is iconic. Utilizing all the main themes in the different areas of the game, this is a great soundtrack though it is a shame that it is all MIDI instruments. Graphically this game is bright and colourful. The spritework is stunning and you can tell there is a lot of detail that went into this game.
I will be honest, there is one drawback to this game. As it is a game targeted at children, this leans heavily on the easier side of things. Except for some tank battles in the back half of the game, and a few tricky post-game puzzles, this game is not difficult in the slightest. I don't think it is a huge detractor though, as it becomes more accessible for a wider audience.
It is such a shame I am unable to play a modern version of this game. I truly wish we could get a port or a sequel available to us overseas, as this is truly a unique and quirky title that deserves to be remembered within the Nintendo DS' legendary library. If this game looks even remotely interesting to you, I highly recommend it. This is a genuine hidden gem.