Graphics: The game isn’t really cute, but I think it was intended to be. The rendering is fine, and there’s very little pixelation, but it’s somewhat aesthetically unpleasant. The environments aren’t terribly interesting or varied, nor are the character designs. While the visuals don’t fail technically, artistically they’re rather uninspired.

Interface: The designers of Mister Slime have put the DS interface to good use. The implementation of the microphone is a really cool touch, and the overall movement system is well thought out. If the touchpad was a little more responsive, the game would’ve been a lot more fun; movements initiated on the touchpad are slow to register, putting the brakes on a game that already has a deliberate pace.

Gameplay: It’s nice to see designers trying something new, but the novelty here wasn’t enough to sustain my interest for very long. The game is choppy, tedious and not very exciting. The puzzles don’t vary much, and they’re more frustrating than fun. It can be excruciating to figure out a puzzle and then have to spend five minutes executing what should be a simple maneuver. Fighting enemies is even worse, as you can never tell if you’re going to knock out enemies or simply incur damage from touching them.

Multiplayer: I found the slow pace frustrating in Story mode, but in Race mode, it feels like somebody shot Slime with horse tranquilizers. The same applies to Flower and Score modes, with the added frustration of a fickle combat system.

Sound Effects: The sound effects amount to little more than a few cartoonish and stylized blips and squeaks. They are also fairly generic and uninteresting. Again, not technically wrong, just not noteworthy.

Music: The music isn’t inappropriate, but it’s repetitive and vaguely annoying. Even on cutesy platformers, music shouldn’t sound like the composer spent an afternoon punching out random midis on a virtual keyboard.

Intelligence: The game doesn’t ask much of the AI, and the enemies fail to put up much of a fight. They’re generally pretty dimwitted and tend to move in predictable patterns.

Difficulty: The toughest part of Mister Slime is being patient enough to get through it. However, if the controls responded properly, the game would probably be too easy. The puzzles themselves don’t present much of an obstacle, and with a better control scheme, neither would the enemies.

Overall: The developers made a commendable attempt at crafting something new, but the game’s execution should have been more refined before it went to market. Frustrating controls really bog down Mister Slime, but even this problem might’ve been overcome if the interface had been used to make the puzzles more creative.