Flying Slime is a cute, little game about a cute, little slime looking for orange, glowy things with its cute, little… tentacles. Despite the title, our titular, goopy hero doesn’t fly so much as it does swing, and the momentum generated by its tentacle-y antics is the core of the experience here. While I appreciate the ambition on display, particularly the pleasant, whimsical visual style, Flying Slime has some issues holding it back from a prime spot in my games folder.
Flying Slime makes enough sense without a tutorial, but it isn’t as accessible as it could or should be. Translation issues mar the sparse text, making learning one’s way around the game’s modes and options a chore. That said, the main mode is simple enough, a list of increasingly difficult “get from one end to the other within the time limit” challenges. Relatively simple controls are betrayed by more and more lethal obstacles, and of course lives are limited unless the player is willing to fork up some cash.
There are two glaring issues here. First of all, a game like this with one core mechanic should be intuitive, especially on a mobile device. Instead, Flying Slime opts for virtual buttons: one set for vertical movement and one set for swinging right or left. Similar mechanics in other games handle swinging quite differently, and this approach is far from innovation.
Second, the physics. This is the real killer. Obviously, momentum is a key element of getting around and avoiding (or failing to avoid) obstacles. Shooting a tentacle out and latching onto something instantly kills momentum, and the only way to get it back is moving up or down on a line. Completing a swing hardly contributes, if at all, which just doesn’t make sense. Imagine being on a swing at a playground and having to pull up on the chain to swing faster. No thanks! The Amazing Spider-Man this is not.
Flying Slime has great production value, and functions well as designed. However, the depth of its available features is not communicated clearly, and said design is inherently flawed, making an ostensibly simple game more complicated than necessary. Flying Slime is hard to recommend, even if it is kind of adorable.
