Slimes and video games go together like pineapple and pizza. Alright, I know that one is debatable, but what can’t be argued is that slimes have been a part of video games for as long as I can remember. From Dragon Quest to the Shin Megami Tensei series, slimes have appeared in countless RPGs. In the indie scene, who could forget the Slime Rancher series?
Why am I going on about slime, you might ask? You already know why—you clicked on a review for a game called Slime Heroes! But is Slime Heroes an ooey-gooey pleasure to play, or did it get all caught up in my hair? Let’s find out in our full review!
Slime Heroes is a 3D action-adventure title brought to us by Pancake Games and published by Whitethorn. This appears to be the developer's first major title, but Whitethorn Games has certainly published plenty of wonderful indies, including Magical Delicacy and Evan’s Remains, just to name a few.
Slime Heroes takes place in a magical world where Gods have created all living creatures. Side note: for some reason, everyone in this game talks like Yoda, but that's beside the point. Suddenly, the Gods vanish seemingly out of nowhere, leaving behind six guardians to oversee and protect the world. And for a while, they do just that. But you know where this is going—the peace comes to an end when little slimes somehow manage to royally tick off the fire guardian, who annihilates all but one slime. This surviving slime, against all odds, rises from the goo to become the protector and hero of this game!
The story in Slime Heroes isn't particularly compelling, nor did it need to be, but for some reason, the developers are convinced otherwise. The game bombards you with senseless lore, subjects you to long boring stretches of dialogue, and ultimately, for as cute as it could have been, it becomes an annoyance you'll tune out within the first twenty minutes of gameplay. There was potential for a really cute narrative here, but instead, you get a bunch of mumbo jumbo about gods and guardians that feels far too serious for something that strives to be adorable.
Plot issues aside, as long as a game is fun to play, gamers can typically overlook narrative shortcomings. However, gameplay is perhaps where Slime Heroes struggles the most. Essentially, what we have here is a 3D action game with light RPG elements that can be played in either local or online co-op. The game features overworld exploration, combat, and dungeons full of puzzles across its varied landscapes.
Things start out cute and innocently enough as you're prompted to create a slime. The "Slime Creator," as I'll now call it, merely involves cosmetic changes—so don't expect anything too deep here or any classes to choose between. You can toggle through colors, pick a few different sets of eyes and a mouth, and that's about it. Once you've created your squishy friend, you, and potentially a friend who shares loot alongside you, will begin your quest. I tried the game locally myself, where SilentSigns was able to join me easily enough with the press of a button.
Slimes naturally feel a bit slippery to move around. They come with standard attacks, more powerful secondary attacks, and various skills, some of which need to be earned and equipped throughout this roughly 12-hour game. As you land attacks, you can replenish your skill bar, which depletes with each skill used. Players are encouraged to equip skills in various ways and even pair them with different elemental abilities. For example, your slime has a tornado attack that can eventually be infused with ice. Skills aren’t the only thing you can equip either. You'll also unlock new hats, which come with different perks, and weapons that vary in range and the amount of damage they dish out. Leveling up your slimes is a fairly straightforward process. As you defeat foes, you'll collect currency that can be spent to improve your speed, attack, energy, and magic. It’s a basic leveling system with no real hidden surprises.
All of that sounds well and good until you actually encounter enemies and discover that the combat doesn’t feel particularly fluid, impactful, or enjoyable to engage with. Skill attacks are boring, enemies are spongy and annoying to kill, and the dodge mechanic isn’t particularly great either. Enemies are often overly aggressive, especially when hurling projectiles in your path. I took enough cheap hits and became so frustrated at one point that I had to adjust the accessibility options to take a bit less damage, which, mercifully, is an option.
The actual act of equipping items isn’t particularly accessible either. In two-player mode, you don’t get separate menus and have to take turns both leveling and equipping. This slows the pace of the game and feels tedious and clunky.
Exploration and dungeons in Slime Heroes don’t fare much better. The world map does a decent job of showing you locations and where you’ve previously visited, but the world itself feels a bit lifeless. The dungeons often feature tedious puzzles that rely on the game's very poor combat and horrendous platforming. Yes, your slime's jumps feel just as terrible as you would imagine, leading to countless plunges to my death—most of which weren’t my fault. I'd be the first to admit if they were.
Outside of dungeons, you have buddies that can be saved across the overworld, which, again, involves killing annoying enemies, and there are also tomes that can be collected. This is the main gameplay loop of Slime Heroes and it isn’t a very compelling one. While playing with a friend makes it somewhat more tolerable, it’s simply not a very fun game to play, to put it bluntly.
So, obviously Slime Heroes doesn’t play very well, and unfortunately, it’s not a great-looking title either. Low-res textures stick out like an oversized sombrero, and the environments just aren’t very interesting to look at. You have your generic forests and fire worlds, but really, everything—even down to the enemy designs—looks blah and made on a pretty tight budget. The slimes, however, are admittedly cute—at least what you can see of them—and they do make some pretty adorable sounds. Outside of that, there’s just nothing all that interesting here visually.
But on the subject of sound, yes, the slimes do make some very cute squeaks, and the sound design in general isn’t bad at all. There are some decent orchestrated pieces throughout the game, and overall, the sound team has done a nice job of making the game sound sweet and squishy. Voice performances were pretty good too, though again, not sure what the whole Yoda thing was all about.
In terms of performance, I encountered quite a few bugs in Slime Heroes. From falling through environments to floating through the skies, the game felt pretty rough at times and in need of a few patches. However, framerates stayed high for the most part, which is always a good thing. On Steam Deck, you’ll take both a visual and framerate hit, but for what it’s worth, the game was functional on Valve’s handheld. Personally, I can’t fully recommend playing this way because it makes an already bad-looking title look even more like a blurry mess on a smaller screen.
I was really excited for Slime Heroes, but recommending it right now is like trying to sell ice cream cones during a winter storm. The combat is as smooth as a porcupine, the platforming is a comedy of errors, the puzzles are poorly designed, and the exploration is as exciting as watching the golf channel. It’s a game that looks cute on the exterior, but beneath its adorable, gooey shell, it’s a hot, goopy mess. There are definitely more thrilling ways to spend 14 hours—like watching grass grow—but if you absolutely must have this game for some inexplicable reason, I’d suggest waiting until it’s on sale, a very steep sale.
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