TGS 2005: Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 2 Hands-On

TOKYO--The noble Dragon Quest slime has been part of the famous series from the very first installment. Round, wide-eyed, and always wearing a beautific smile, the cute little monsters come in increasingly varied shapes, sizes, and colors. As simple foes that get in the way of your adventures, these little guys rarely get their proper due. In Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 2 for the Nintendo DS, though, you get a chance to play as a slime and help out your fellow monsters. We eagerly pulled up a round-cushioned seat at Square Enix's TGS booth to give this game a try.

The controls for Slime Morimori are pretty simple. You can make the slime hop, and you can have the slime squeeze itself down closer to the ground. Once you're flat on the ground, you can then use the directional keys to stretch the slime in any direction. If you then release the button to flatten yourself, the slime will get catapulted in whatever direction it was facing when it got stretched. Hopping and stretching allows the slime to perform a variety of tasks.

There were two different areas in the demo we played. One was inside a giant fortress armed with cannons. The slime's duty was to load the cannons with ammunition that would then be fired at the enemy. The ammunition fell from supply pipes throughout three different rooms, and the slime would have to pick them up and carry them back to the gun. How does a slime pick up anything? Well, using the catapulting maneuver we mentioned earlier lets the slime ram itself into objects, which then go spinning into the air. All you need to do then is to move the slime underneath the object, and he'll catch it on his little head and will then be able to ferry it wherever it needs to go. Once you get back to the weapons, the slime can throw the objects into the cannons, and they can be launched forth.

The second area of the demo allowed exploration of an area just outside of town, dominated by green fields and plenty of fellow monsters that are in trouble. Someone's going around locking drakees and the like in chests, and the slime needs to rescue them and bring them back to town. By charging into their prisons, you can cause the chests to burst open, freeing the occupant, which you can then whisk onto your slime's head and return to town. Chests also sometimes have helpful items and currency inside them, so we spent a lot of time bumping into things, looking for goodies.

Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 2 for the DS is a cute little game that fans of the Dragon Quest series should keep an eye on. If and when we get any details on a domestic release, we'll update this gamespace accordingly, so keep coming back for more slime updates.