When I think of Square-Enix, I think about the breathtaking FMV cut-scenes from Final Fantasy, and I think about the traditional Role-playing mechanics of the Dragon Quest series. Well, this game has none of that. However it does have everyone’s favorite baddies, slimes, as the title would suggest. You’re probably thinking why you should read a review about a Square Enix game if it isn’t an RPG with breath taking cut-scenes; well you should because this game is actually pretty darn good and of course because I’m writing this review!

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (Yeah I know, it’s a mouthful) follows Rocket on his quest to save his friends and take down the Plob. Rocket is a small little slime that can do big things. If you’ve ever played a Dragon Quest game, you know how weak slime can be. But Rocket is far from being a weak slime; he’s actually one tough cookie that happens to be in the shape of a Hershey kiss! The evil Plob attacked his home and kidnapped his family and friends. So now Rocket is out to bring down the Plob, get his loved ones back, and this time Rocket is playing for keeps! But he can’t do it by himself, he’ll need friends, and most importantly he’ll need his tank! Yes ladies and gentlemen, Rocket has a tank! I’ll talk a bit more about that later.

There really isn't much to the gameplay and its fairly simple once you get the hang of things. But some of the best things come in simple packages (except for controllers, those packages are hard to open). The game has you exploring different levels, in search of your friends, different items, money and baddies. Your main goal is obviously to save your friends. They’ll help open up new areas in your town and some will even help fight. But the items you collect can be used as ammo for your tank. Almost anything can be used as ammo, such as broken pillars, bombs, and even rocks. You can even combine your items to create even better ammo. So you’ll do a lot of collecting and searching if you plan to have a strong tank. Money is also another thing that needs to be collected which is used to upgrade your tank. Treasure chests are riddled across each level with money hidden inside. So it shouldn’t be hard to find cash. As for searching for baddies, well you can collect them too. You don’t really need to collect the enemies, but it’s a nice little extra. The more baddies you collect, the more your village is filled up. After collecting so many baddies, statues are built in your village for your accomplishments. Some baddies are easy to collect, while others can be trouble. You have to collect a lot of them to get all the statues, so it can be tedious. But if you’re all about getting 100 percent completion in your games, this will keep you busy for a while.

Aside from all the collecting, there are hurdles in each level for you to overcome. Each level has its fair share of puzzles. But in all honesty the puzzles aren’t too tough. You’ll be lining up canon shots, bouncing off of walls, and collecting things to open up gates. Learning a new technique can help you unlock new areas as well. It’s all a little too easy. I wouldn’t say the difficulty of the puzzles take away from the game, but it may have been a deeper experience if the puzzles had been a bit more challenging.

Thankfully though, the real meat of the game lies within the tank battles. Each level is filled with baddies that want to challenge you to tank battles. If you manage to win, you get one of your friends back along with some items. Using the tank is child’s play, it’s that simple. Don’t get me wrong though, that’s not a bad thing. As I recall, playing as a child was fun and so are tank battles. Pretty much all you seem to do is run around your tank, picking up ammo that comes out of your ammo pipes. Then you take the Ammo and throw it into your cannons. You have two cannons, one that shoots straight and one that shoots upward. If an opposing tank shoots at you, you can block or deflect it by putting some ammo into your cannon. Obviously, you don’t want to waste a bomb to block your enemies fire, that’s just wasting a strong attack. There is a strategy to the ammo system. Though bombs are strong, you probably wouldn’t want to fill your tank up with all bombs, because they tend to explode in your own tank. So you kind of have to think about what kind of ammo you’re going to use. That’s not all there is to it, you have to get yourself a crew too. You can only have three members, so pick wisely. Each member has their own set of skills. As the leader, you pick out three members and assign jobs to them depending on what they can do. For example you can have someone man the canons or heal other crew members. Sorry though, you can’t make them mop the poop deck. With crew members you can perform my favorite aspect of the ship battles, sabotaging the other tank. You can send a crew member over to go sabotage the other tank, or you can do the dirty work yourself. Whichever way, you’ll eventually have to go over to the other tank. After you deplete the other tanks health, you must raid the other tank and destroy its heart. But if your own tank’s health is depleted, you’ll have to protect your own tank from the opposing crew. Once you get a hang of the Tank battles, it begins to feel way too easy. But the last tank battle is ridiculously difficult. The game transitions from being incredibly easy to incredibly hard in a near split second, which can catch you off guard.

Sadly, that seems to be the only really difficult tank battle the game offers. Luckily, there is a multiplayer mode included in the game. You can gather up a few friends and get some actual challenging tank battles in. It’s not so easy when the other person in the other tank has an actual brain. You can play this one with a friend for a while, if you can actually find a friend that has another copy of the game of course. There is absolutely no online component in this game. If your friends don’t have the game and they have a DS, they can only download a demo from your game.

Overall, this is a very solid and well made game. It is complimented by its pleasing music and eye catching visuals. You may even hear a familiar tune or two or even catch yourself humming the tunes. The look of the game is exactly like the gameplay, which is simple. It’s another 2D offering for the Nintendo DS, and it looks very pretty. It’s not a game that pushes the DS graphical abilities to the limit, but it’s easy on the eyes. That’s good when you’re going to be playing this game for sometime, especially when the game will probably take you over 8 hours to complete. Then if you add in all the collectibles, and multiplayer, you’ll be playing this game for quite sometime. Overall the game is fun, but a little too easy, but its definitely a good game for a relaxed day. So don‘t worry about that controller that’s still in its package, and sit back, relax, and enjoy Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime.