Slime Adventure

Although most platformers are designed to be challenging in certain regards, it’s important for them to be entertaining at the same time, otherwise people get too frustrated to keep playing. Exploration is important as well, although that is difficult to achieve in a 2D game. Hence, there are only a couple of ways you can make a 2D platformer fun enough to keep people playing.

Slime Adventure is a retro platformer in which you play the role of a slug trying to get to heaven in order to retrieve a powerful crystal. Unfortunately, the mechanics are as simple as they can get, which stops being fun after a few minutes. There’s nothing to do besides jumping and collecting coins, but this too can be entertaining for a few minutes until boredom sets in.

There’s not much of a story, as mentioned before, but the journey itself is quite intriguing if you take a few seconds to think about it. Obviously, the illusion is shattered in the first few minutes of gameplay, but you can at least find some purpose for each level. Moreover, the levels get more intricate later on, indicating the fact that you are nearing your destination.

You can also collect gold coins along the way, which do not come in handy at first, but they can be used to unlock certain bonuses when you have enough of them. It feels rather futile and slow, on the other hand, given the fact that you can only collect a few coins throughout each level. Coupled with the very basic-looking stages, the experience gets boring in a rush.

As for the graphics, they are about as simple as you can imagine, with no kind of artwork or animations to talk about. Basic colors are used throughout the game, which can make you feel like you are exploring the same stages over and over again. Not much can be said about the sound effects either, but at least those can be disabled entirely when you start the game.

In the end, Slime Adventure is not exactly a good game, but it can be improved with enough work and dedication. On the other hand, almost every part of the game needs work, so maybe a better sequel would be the right idea in this case.