The game follows the adventures of one Slime in particular, the character of Rocket from the title. Living in tranquillity in the town of Boingburg with all his slimy chums, the peace is shattered by an invading army of Plobs, bumbling Platypus with a mean streak. Using a huge mechanised tank they smash their way through the town looking for the Slimes magical Hero Flute. When they can’t find it (despite it being right under their nose – they aren’t the sharpest tools in the box) they decide to trash the place and kidnap the residents of the town, leaving it up to Rocket to rescue them. Who’d have thought that the life of a Slime was a lot more complicated than avoiding being smacked about by some low level dungeon crawling adventurer?

This mammoth rescue attempt takes Rocket from the ruins of his town and out into the world of Slimenia through forest, desert and mountain. Here he eventually manages to use the Hero Flute to summon the Schleiman tank and this massive mobile fortress enables him to tackle the various other tank commanders that are keeping his kith and kin hostage.

Rocket Slime’s gameplay is split in to two different types. The first is the scrolling areas of Boingburg and Slimenia which Rocket can explore to find objects, captured townsfolk and enemies. Since Rocket doesn’t have any hands, carrying items in the normal sense is impossible. Instead he is able to catch up to three items and balance them on his head. As a shapely mass of jelly, no hands also means no pockets so if he wants to store these items in town for later use then he needs to deposit them on the rail carts which run through the levels at regular intervals. Retrieved objects can either be used as ammo for the tank or later combined to make more powerful munitions. Enemies and Slimes that have been returned to town can be used to man the tank.

Despite its beginnings, the game is orientated much more towards action rather than RPG so inventory management is limited and can even be auto managed. There are also no RPG-typical random encounters with enemies populating a clearly set area. Neither is it a game that makes the most of the DS format as there is no stylus control element. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it all works as it should. The D-pad is used to move Rocket, while the A and B buttons are primarily used to make him jump and float or to stretch him out like a rubber band. Letting go of the button when stretched causes him to twang forward in that direction, damaging any enemies in the way and breaking any items. Hitting collectable objects tosses them up in to the air for Rocket to carry.

The second gameplay element involves defeating the various tank commanders found throughout Slimenia. Here Rocket and his crew (up to a maximum of three) man the Schleiman, firing collected objects to do damage. Everything from fruit to other slimes, clubs to missiles can be fired and depending on their type, these objects take time to make it across the battleground to their target with an upper or lower trajectory available. The trick is to make sure the projectile gets through and avoids coming into contact with any incoming fire which will knock it out of the sky. Once a tank has taken enough damage and its hit points are drained, Rocket needs to make a dash inside to the unlocked engine room to damage the heart shaped engine and finish it off.

These tank sections are where the game gets a little bit more tactical, with a number of different play options available to the player. They can choose to stay inside the tank and help manually load the cannons by stacking and throwing the items that fall out of the chutes, deciding which items to throw and when in a bid to make sure they hit their target. Or they can decide to disrupt the enemy tank crew by infiltration, damaging their supply chutes or beating up the crew to prevent them firing back. The player will quickly come to realise that the second tactic works best with Rocket able to over-power the attacking tank crews with relative ease and leaving their own to load the cannons. The more slimes that are rescued or enemies that are sent back to town, the more the player can flesh out their crew with different attributes and orders, such as stealing ammo, preventing enemies from entering their tank, healing their own tank HP or just firing like crazy.

These sections make for an entertaining break from the hunt for Slimes and items but once the effectiveness of the fool proof infiltration tactic has been discovered it takes very little effort to overcome most of the tank battles. Although this simplicity is something which could levied at the whole game.

Puzzles are limited and bosses are straight-forward so it is entirely possible to play through the game without getting stuck or seeing the Game Over screen. The game guides the player by the hand with plenty of save points and very little back-tracking required, due to the plentiful placing of train carts to deliver objects. However, it is arguable that this is the game's intention in order to distance itself from its RPG linage and that it purposefully takes a more relaxed and approachable stance. This is also reflected in the corny sense of humour which has some genuinely amusing gags, funny characters and clever word-play that will at the very least raise a smile. It’s a style that definitely works, making Rocket Slime enjoyable and entertaining if you want to play something that isn’t all “crash, bang, wallop” and level grinding.

While collecting all the 100 kidnapped slimes and taking part in the optional tank battles will take roughly 12 hours to complete, the main story itself can be done in far less time, so how much the player will get out of the game will depend on how repetitive and entertaining they find it. For those who want to take on a friend in Tank Battles there is also a local multiplayer option which is a pleasant distraction.

Rocket Slime is a game which was largely overlooked on release, a shame given that, despite its younger target audience and the departure from the typical Dragon Quest RPG stylings, it’s shamelessly entertaining. Which makes it a game recommended for both long time Dragon Quest initiates and those just looking for some throw away entertainment that isn’t going to tax them too much.