Slime-san: Sheeple's Sequel (PC) Review

From Slime-san, to Blackbird's Kraken, and now Sheeple's Sequel, Fabraz has managed to keep the spirit and quality of the base game intact throughout every update. Its first piece of DLC, Blackbird's Kraken, took the established formula and refined it with a few new levels to platform in. It was exactly what the first major add-on should have been. Now, tackling its second piece of DLC, Fabraz has taken a more "out of the box" approach to the titular Slime's adventure. With a creative, and almost unexpected approach, Sheeple's Sequel stands out as a refreshing update.

Gameplay is divided between three characters this time around: the titular Slime-san, Red Shadow, and Marble-san. Along with having their own play-styles, each character's stages differ in terms of design. Slime-san can still jump, dash, and phase through walls, but now his levels implement some proper puzzle-solving in addition to the platforming; Red Shadow can alternate between red and green colour schemes by dashing to allow him to climb and traverse across insta-skill platforms; and Marble-san gets through his stages by rolling up walls and on platforms in stages where building up and maintaining speed is necessary for completion.

While the added brainteasers to Slime-san's stages might seem like adding too much to a good thing, the traditional platforming is still there and these levels do make for a nice change of pace after Blackbird's Kraken's more traditional approach. Light puzzle-solving fits perfectly with the Slime-san formula, and adds a new layer to levels.

Red Shadow's and Marble-san's stages more than make up for the addition of puzzles with pure, raw skill. Red Shadow's dashing mechanic is genuinely difficult to get accustomed to, and it will take time to properly master. Needing to dash to change colours while also phasing through walls becomes a challenge, especially later on. Red Shadow's stages are littered with insta-kill obstacles, making them visually intimidating, but he always has the tools necessary for survival. In an area with green insta-kill blocks, he just has to turn red. Later on, he will have to be dashing to shift colours just about every few seconds, but this makes for some engaging and high-octane platforming.

Marble-san's stage, as previously mentioned, is more about picking up speed and maintaining it to properly platform. Since he's far heavier than Slime-san and Red Shadow, he can only traverse vertically by building up speed and rolling up walls. His stages aren't as daunting as Red Shadow's, but they're still rather difficult as learning to play him requires a considerable amount of patience. Learning the new mechanics will be a challenge at first, as freshness seems to be the common thread throughout the DLC, but that just makes progress feel all the sweeter.

One downside of note is that, thanks to the nature of splitting the campaign in three equal parts, Slime-san is lacking in stages compared to the previous DLC. For fans looking solely for the base game, they can find themselves disappointed. At the same time, though, the stages here are nonetheless fantastic and arguably better than Blackbird's Kraken in terms of pure design. Sheeple's Sequel is a genuinely creative add-on that puts a new spin on Slime-san without compromising its core identity.