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Here's to you, SPONweaver!
This is a review of Slimeomancy.
Where to begin? This here's a nifty li'l puzzle game made in the same genre as Lemmings and March of the Minis. The gist is very basic: Using a limited assortment of tools, guide a bunch of (somewhat) powerless/mindless critters (Slimes) through an obstacle course to a designated exit (labeled EXIT for your convenience.)
Perhaps the beauty of this game is its simplicity. The above is pretty much all you need to know for the bulk of the game. Aside from new tools, obstacles, and Slime transformations, nothing about your mission changes until the absolute last level (which I'll explain later.)
Brief diversion: Slime Transformations are as such:
Green-flavored, the default.
Red-flavored, induced by the Red Food Coloring tool, which makes a Slime invincible and fast. Watch out for fire though.
Blue-flavored, induced by the Blue Food Coloring tool, which makes a Slime immune to fire and gives it healing abilities.
Fire-flavored; a slime that touches fire will FLAME ON and run around like mad until it is healed or hits an Oil drum.
Dead-flavored, the result of a Fire-flavored slime that hit an Oil drum. Immobile until healed.
As I say, it's so simple, it's very easy to get hooked in the first half of the game. This game has a wonderful learning curve and most of the stages won't take too long to figure out, even the later ones. (Exception is Level 34, which I spent days on until Spoons released a special walkthrough video.) The game can also be very forgiving, where if you decide that the "correct" way of getting through a level is too tough, there's often an easier but tricky-to-discover alternate path to take. You'll learn how to make the most of your limited toolset and even your own reflexes very quickly. In this way, it sorta reminds me of Portal.
By the way, let's talk about story for a while. SLIMES! seems to have no story, it's very arcade-like in that you have a goal, now go and meet it. Get those slimes over there. But, surprisingly, it turns out there is an ulterior motive behind this simple task! And it's evil-flavored! But you won't find that out until the last level, so I'll stop before I make a Another name for this game might be REVENGE OF THE SLIMES!
Next up is music. It's awesome, and it's all original to this game. Every 10 levels, the music changes along with the environment, and I'd say at least 60% of the tracks are worthy of repeated listening. (I really wish the game had an option to play any music that you've uncovered by playing.)
It feels particularly awesome when you hear the last 10 levels, then the credits, and then hear the first level's music again when you're going to the level editor. You start to understand that all of this music is related, and then you just might find that SLIMES! has its own melody! That rarely happens in any sort of game, OHR or otherwise.
Maybe the composers will open up a soundtrack for download in the future?
That's about as far as I'll go, the reader here ought to get on his tuchus and play this game. It's short and sweet, won't take too long to beat, and then comes the Level Editor. As James put it, "Making a game-editor with a game-editor is deliciously meta" and it is. It's about as meta as the OHRRPGCE has ever gotten; as we all know, editors are the epitome of the metagame. Make a level, send your SAV file to Spoonweaver, and he might just add it into the next update of the game! Give it a shot!
WARNING: SLIMES is not part of a balanced meal and should not be played in lieu of one.
