Since Super Meat Boy hit the scene, a series of difficult platformers with short levels have been released in the hopes of hitting the same levels of success. While Celeste has certainly reached that level, other games like Octahedron changed things up but didn’t appeal to everyone, even though we enjoyed it. A developer can’t blatantly rip off the base and expect the same kind of success without adding their style to it, and that flare is where a game may live or die.
Slime-san: Superslime Edition is what you loved about the original version of the game plus more. It has all the extras that you can unlock, the three campaigns, and several extra levels to bust your thumbs on. Quite honestly, the amount of content in this game is staggering. The levels themselves offer a decent amount of replay value with speed runs, extra challenge items, and secret areas. You can use the items from the secret areas (coins) and levels (apples) to purchase extra content, such as arcades and game filters, respectively. The arcade games are actually mini-games like kart racing, all of which stand out being a completely different look from the game you were just playing. These extras serve as an incentive to collect the apples and coins when you can, or at least gives players a reason to go back to the levels later on in the hopes of getting everything.
Just because a game has a lot doesn’t mean that it’s all good. Luckily, it appears that is the case here. Whether you’re traveling through the giant worm, kraken, or facing Sheeple in his new appointed role of villain, everything plays well and is fun to take on. At the end of a series of levels you’ll be faced with a boss, which doesn’t involve too much out of the ordinary on your end, but it is fun to see how they incorporate all the skills you’d normally use to pass through a level against a large foe.
As this is a game that focuses heavily on twitch gameplay (not the streaming service, although it would make for a good game on the platform), it’s important that the controls are tight and responsive. Any lag can mean death and unending frustration, and I’m happy to say the main disappointment you’ll face here is your own lack of ability. In addition to the obvious moving around, jumping, and wall jumping, you’ll have the ability to dash and phase through green objects that would otherwise be solid. That all sounds pretty basic, but it’s when you see how the abilities interact with the levels that things really start to get interesting. When you take into account that the phase ability also slows down everything including yourself, it allows for some pinpoint action – or will result in an untimely death.
If you think you’ll have the ability to spend time on each level, think again. After a short period the level will begin to fill up with stomach acid. In some levels, this is necessary for progression as it’ll change the make-up of the level. In most it’ll merely serve as a timer forcing you to hurry through the level. The only time this will really cause any issues is for some of the apples you’ll be collecting. While there seems to be a lot of variation in the levels in what you’re asked to do, the tasks can become repetitive. While SMB has distinctive levels one after another, you’ll start to see double while playing Slime-san. One thing that will stand out amongst the repitition is the soundtrack, which is absolutely stellar. Make sure you have the volume up for this one.
It’s no wonder that Slime-san is getting a new edition after spending some time with it. There’s so much to love about it, and while it does have a few flaws, the positives far outweigh the negatives it has. If you’re big into platformers and missed this the first time around, I implore you to get slimy with the Super Slime Edition.
9 out of 10
Pros
- Soundtrack
- So Much Content
- Enjoyable Mechanics
Cons
- Occasionally Repetitive
- Forced Time Limit
Slime-san: Super Slime Edition was developed by Fabraz and published by Headup Games. It was released on PC and Switch in 2017, with the X1 and PS4 versions releasing on June 22nd and 26th, 2018, respectively. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. For more on Slime-san: Super Slime Edition, visit its official site
Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.
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