Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime - hands-on

Being a slime, Rocket is not an offensive powerhouse. He can, however, charge into objects to knock them into the air and catch up to three such things on his head. Rocks, enemies, random objects... anything's fair game. From there he can throw them around or toss them onto a passing mine cart back to town. Captured enemies become allies, while other objects provide the ammo pool for your tank.

Wait, tank? Yep, early on Rocket finds his own set of treads, just the ticket to go offensive and take the fight to the Plob. Rocket Slime 's tank battles are unique affairs. In the opening phase you have to scurry around the interior of your tank picking up all of those pre-loaded ammo items, and toss them into your two differently-angled cannons to launch them at the Plob. The top screen shows the two tanks from afar, and lets you see incoming enemy shots so you can you fire off counter-attacks to deflect them. Once the enemy's hit points are depleted, it's time for phase two: the rushdown. You'll need to get your wobbly self over to the enemy tank, via your cannons or otherwise, and break into their engine room. Therein lies the fragile core of the tank, and destroying it spells victory.

All of this wackiness is supported with beautifully animated, hand-drawn graphics and a pleasingly witty English translation. Oh, and there's also a multiplayer tank battle mode for up to four combative slimes. Yeah, Rocket Slime is a cool little package. It drips onto shelves on September 19th, so be on the lookout for our review.