This delightful new adventure game feels like a long-lost PS1 classic

I always appreciate a video game that feels like a long-lost classic from another time. I’m not talking about games that deliberately chase a retro aesthetic for nostalgia. Rather, I appreciate ones that feel naturally shaped by history, where childhood influences show. That’s the kind of game Slime Heroes is, a good-natured adventure starring colorful cartoon mascots. If you told me it was a remake of a forgotten PS1 game, I might believe you were it not for some of its modern giveaways.

A debut project for indie studio Pancake Games, Slime Heroes is an open-world adventure game about an adorable slime ball on a quest to save its home from corrupted monsters. Its cheery visuals, whimsical music, and clumsy UI make it feel exactly like a game from the era of mascot-driven platformers. Don’t let that bright surface fool you, though: Slime Heroes is a surprisingly tough game powered by some deceptively deep combat hooks.

When my adventure begins, everything seems straightforward enough. I get some inscrutable lore to set my journey up and then I’m crawling through the jungle with a sword in hand (or whatever slimes hold things with). I slash monsters in my path and move on to checkpoints. Easy enough!

The modern influences quickly seep in. When I get to my first save station, I realize that Slime Heroes is actually molded from the Dark Souls school of thought. I can upgrade stats like attack power and speed when I get to a checkpoint using resources I’ve collected. If I die, I drop everything I’m carrying and need to retrieve it all or lose it. Considering that there’s some imperfect platforming to be done here and there, coupled with clumsy physics, I find myself dying quite a bit. It’s a bit infuriating and certainly a tonal mismatch for what’s otherwise an adorable, kid-friendly game.

That frustration begins to ease the more I see the full picture. Slime Heroes is an open-world game in the same vein as Nobody Saves the World. I can go anywhere I choose, tackling bosses and challenge shrines in any order. That freedom helps rewire my brain, as I hunt around for checkpoints and grab as many upgrade points as I can along the way. If I hit a battle arena that’s too tough, I simply keep exploring and come back when I’m stronger.

Progression isn’t just about leveling up, though, and that’s where Slime Heroes’ hidden weapon comes in. As I explore, special abilities are drip fed to me as random drops. I get simple equippable powers like projectile blasts and whirlwind attacks that I can place in three different button slots. As a twist, each ability can be paired with another to combine them into a new power. Then, I can also add an additional effect on top of that, like fire or poison damage. It’s a system that rewards experimentation, pushing players to find combinations that can mitigate the challenge.

And let me tell you, there are some delightfully busted combos out there. My proudest creation came when I paired an attack-buffing circle with a whirlwind and a life steal perk. Activating it would create a circle with a tornado at its center, which would suck in nearby enemies. That would allow me to bash them all with my increased power and refill my hearts in an instant. To make that even more effective, I equipped a hat that heals me on successive hits. Combat encounters that seemed impossible at first became a snap thanks to my creativity. That’s only one example, too. From flaming fireballs to meteor storms that turn foes into allies, there’s a lot to tool around with.

While its weightless combat and sloppy traversal can dampen the fun, I still find myself compelled to pick away at Slime Heroes as a casual Steam Deck game. I discover something new every time I turn it on, whether it’s an unexplored area or an overpowered ability combination. I haven’t even spent time with its co-op play yet, which especially feels like the ideal way to play for parents looking to play with their kids. What really calls to me most, though, is the warm feeling that I’m playing the kind of beloved childhood game that would have been in my PlayStation collection as a kid. You can call that nostalgia, but it’s the simple joy of living in a bubbly cartoon world that really speaks to me. I’m just happy to inch around as a little blob and soak in the whimsy.

Slime Heroes is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.