Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS) Preview
Posted by Shawn Struck on 08.29.2006
A PREVIEW approaches. COMMAND?
For decades, you, as the hero of Dragon Quest games, would battle your way through an army of randomly encountered Slimes to save the day. In the newest Dragon Quest spinoff, you play AS a slime, in an action game!
Rocket Slime is set in the kingdom of Slimenia, a once peaceful land that was suddenly invaded by The Plob, who has kidnapped all the slimes in the capital city of Boingburg. You play Rocket, the only slime left in the area. Your mission is to embark on a long journey through the kingdom to foil The Plob's plot. You are also given the task to rescue a colorful cast of 100 unique slimes and call aide to select heroes, each with their own AI to help you in heated tank battles.
Plenty of familiar enemies from the series make an appearance in the game, aside from the title character: Drakees, Mimics, and Brownies, just to name a few.
The game will be divided into adventure stages and each stage concludes with Rocket hopping abroad a huge slime-shaped war machine called the Schleiman Tank, battling enemies along the way. The Plob members' tanks range from looking cute like "The Purrsecuter" and "The Platypanzer" to the rather steampunk-ish Mimic Tank. A fierce tank battle unfolds and you have to depend on collected items such as ammunition to strategically load two cannons designed to counterattack enemy missiles. As the game unfolds, slots are opened up for allies with specific strengths to help load, heal, or attack. Developers say there will be a total of sixty items that you can acquire to help power-up your tank, from bullets to Slime plush dolls, all provided to the hero by the grateful villagers he saves in the overhead missions.
Taking the same strategy as the war machine battles found in the single player mode, Rocket Slime is also planned to support a four player version of multi-tank battles via the DS' wireless capabilities. Players can select from any unlocked war machine, and use it for one-on-one (or two-on-two) battles. Other download play modes to be offered, are a selection of mini-games, and an AI-controlled battle mode where you use computer-controlled enemies and allies to face off against the slime war machine.
Rocket Slime is shaping up to be a light-hearted action game with some surprisingly nuanced battle strategy, plus really, really big tanks with really, really big guns. Be sure to check back here at 411 for a hands-on review when it's released!
