Fortunately, combat really isn’t a central focus of the game. The real challenge is in navigating through mazes and finding ways to open the various doors blocking your path. Additionally, you look for flowers throughout the levels to unlock secrets.

The designers have managed to work a few other interesting elements into Mister Slime. If you fall, you can soften Slime’s landings or make him float by blowing into the DS’s microphone, and in some levels, you can help him swim or warm up his hands by rubbing the stylus on the screen. In addition to story mode, there is a single-player mode that allows you to revisit levels you’ve already beaten in an effort to improve your completion times, but you can only do this with levels in which you’ve collected all of its flowers, so you’ll want to be thorough your first time through.

Mister Slime also sports a two-player multiplayer mode for both online WIFI and local offline play. As is typically the case, all parties in the multiplayer matches must have their own copy of the game. Multiplayer modes include Race, Flower and Score. Race mode, as you might expect, is simply a dash to beat the level before your opponent. Flower mode is a timed competition in which you try to find the most flowers. Score mode is a variation of Flower mode that allows you to earn points both by eating flowers and defeating enemies.