Slimes in video games are an interesting concept. Due to their very nature, they hold infinite possibilities. Having no concrete innate form opens the door to any form imaginable. Even their very state of matter is up for potential debate. Slimes can be the weakest stock enemy you defeat by the thousands before forgetting about completely, or they can be a giant, unapproachable menace at the end of a dungeon crawl. As such, playing as one could very well be the single most flexible premise imaginable.
Flexible, like a slime.
Slimed to Meet You
Developed by Neutronized, Slime Labs 3 is your classic stage-based puzzle platformer. You are a round, green slime that crash-landed their spaceship straight into an abandoned yet still functional laboratory and must find your way back to the ship in order to escape. The premise isn’t very important—the entire story is told in cutscenes totaling about 30 seconds. The focus was clearly the presentation and gameplay. But are they any good?
Slime on Ice
Slime Labs 3 is what one would call a retro game. The graphics take inspiration from refined flash games with the unique addition of what seems like a physics-based player character. The slime you play as wobbles and folds in on itself as necessary to emulate, well, slime. This is fun to look at, but can be somewhat detrimental considering the slippery and unpredictable movement it causes.
On the other hand, the soundtrack clearly borrows inspiration from Super Nintendo era music. There are only a handful of tracks in the entire game, but because of the short length of the experience it doesn’t actually get repetitive.
A Slime a Dozen
When I say Slime Labs 3 is short, I mean it is very short. If you know what you’re doing, you can beat the game in about 15 minutes. Even if you’re new to the title and want to collect everything, it won’t take more than an hour or two to do so—and due to the inconsistent difficulty, half of that time will probably be spent on one or two specific levels.
The length of a game is not necessarily indicative of its quality, but it does mean Slime Labs 3 is somewhat lacking in game mechanics it can present and evolve. The slime is able to do the usual slime things: grow, split, stick to walls (when allowed) and sometimes change its consistency. But no game mechanic will ever really surprise with something unexpected.
Arrhythmic Slime
My biggest problem with Slime Labs 3, which I consider a cardinal sin in these kinds of puzzle-platformer games, is that stages do not reset on failure. Obstacles keep moving, hazards continue their current timers. Puzzle platformers often rely on the player learning the rhythm of each stage in order to win. Such a rhythm allows you to beat stages that otherwise look way too much for human reflexes or precision. If the game lacks such a rhythm, victory can often feel up to chance—seeing whether the level decides to cooperate with the player or not.
Slime Labs 3 isn’t difficult enough that the above would matter too much. But the few hard levels it does have can easily emphasize this problem.
For a free game, Slime Labs 3 has everything a game of its ilk needs. It has a pleasant, appealing presentation. It has some fun levels and mechanics. It even has an added challenge for completionists, as the final cutscene can only be seen once you pick up all the collectibles on every level. But that’s all it really has. It won’t surprise, it won’t surpass. If you’re okay with that… might as well download it for a few hours of fun.
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