Deck-building dungeon crawlers are common enough these days, but few are as cute as Rise Of The Slime, and I'm not just saying that because I like the Dragon Quest series. Seemingly inspired by Slay The Spire, it's a deck-building dungeon crawl RPG starring an innocuous little blob-monster. Or at least a cardboard cut-out of one glued onto a stick—truly a work of the Dark Arts And Crafts.
While it looks broadly similar to Slay The Spire, it seems like Rise Of The Slime has a few ideas of its own, including the occasional bit of real-time obstacle dodging as you traverse its maps, and some positional elements in its tactical turn-based combat. Objects can be dropped on enemies, certain floor tiles can become hazardous and some spells have limited areas of effect. In danger? Swap positions with a monster and laugh as it catches the bomb meant for you; it's always nice to have a fresh layer of depth to explore.
It also helps that the whole thing is cute as a button, with charming character art, and a lack of animation elegantly explained away by the characters just being little cardboard puppets.
Developer Bunkovsky Games reckon that there's a lot of meat (jelly?) on Rise of The Slime's bones already, with four zones to explore and 36 enemy types spread across them. By the time the game launches in full next year, they plan on adding more environments, more baddies and more cards. A bit more of everything, then.
Rise Of The Slime is available now on Steam for £7.49/€7.99/$9.99 with plans to leave early access in the first quarter of 2020.
