Slime Rancher was always a game that I really wanted to try out but never had a chance to play. When it first came out, I would watch a ton of videos by guys like Jacksepticeye because I really loved how unique and clever the game was. Not only was the game so cute looking, but it was also a kind of simulation game that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.

The only problem was that I wasn’t really able to try it out on Steam and when it came out on PS4, it was always a lot more expensive than what I was really willing to pay. But then the Plortable version came out and one day last month, it was on a big sale for only around $12.49 and I figured it was finally worth the shot so I picked it up and when I started playing, I wasn’t able to put it down for hours at a time.

GRAPHICS: 9/10

The game really looks great, especially on the OLED Switch because it really helps the colors pop. The game itself is very bright, colorful, and cute 99 percent of the time. There’s a bunch of different slimes for you to collect and they all have a very unique design that’s either cute, cool, or terrifying. The best part is that there’s a bunch of ways to make them look even better.

You can unlock different secret skins and when you do this, each type of slime will have a different look that you can choose from. Plus you can also mix and match different slimes together to get hybrids that all have unique designs. The environment also looks pretty good and the game runs very well and that’s a very good sign because you might find yourself cramming a dozen slimes or more into such a small area.

I think at one point, I had 120 to 15 slimes crammed into the six starting cages in the opening area and the game still ran fine. But aside for that, when it comes to graphics, the color and charm is what really gives the game its flair.

SOUND: 8/10

Slime Rancher does a very good job with its sound. Whenever you’re walking around your main ranch area, you’re not going to have any quiet moments because all of the slimes are going to be making all sorts of noises. You’re going to hear them jumping around, or you’ll hear the adorable sounds that they make. It doesn’t get cluttered either. Let’s say you have 30 slimes in an area, the game does a very good job at making sure that you don’t hear a ton of overlapping sounds all the time.

There’s also a few nice songs that play in the background, but they’re very quiet compared to the slimes and other game noises. If you’re trying to hear the music, it’s almost always going to be drowned out by the slimes or by your vacpack. You do get full audio control though, so you can change the volume of the sounds and music individually or together as a whole. But finding a happy medium can be a bit hard at time and it’s a shame that there’s no voices.

ADDICTIVENESS: 9/10

Slime Rancher has many different things going on that make the game fun. At its heart, it’s basically a clicker game and/or idle game. The concept is that you collect slimes, use those slimes to make money, and then use that money to make upgrades so that you can get even more slimes. But there are two main aspects that make this much better than those kinds of games.

The first is the adventure aspect. You get a large world to explore, and not only do you get to explore, but there’s also a large number of threats to you, which is why you have a health bar to begin with. There’s going to be a bunch of slimes that can be harmful if you come in contact with them, and a few that will be actively trying to kill you. It’s a simulation game that has both exploration and survival, which adds a lot of fun to the mix.

The second aspect is the actual collecting of the slimes. Collecting, raising, and making money off of all the slimes is one thing, but the slime ecosystem is a lot bigger than you think. Some slimes are only at night, some are only in certain parts of the map, and some are super rare and valuable. That means you have to do a lot of exploring to find all of them. Plus you can mix slimes together to make them bigger or to make new hybrid slimes which adds even more to the formula.

Maybe you end up with an area that’s just for hybrids of Pink slimes and Tabby slimes. You wouldn’t have those if you didn’t start experimenting, and it’s lots of fun to do so. There’s also three different game modes to choose from, so it will be a while before you get bored.

STORY: 8/10

The foundation of the story is pretty simple. You travel 1000 light years to a far away planet to live the life of a slime rancher. There isn’t much else to it, but while you play, you’re going to get dozens of messages from random people. Reading all these messages gives you an idea of what the people, plantet, and your home are like.

DEPTH: 8/10

I already talked a bit about how big the world is and how many slimes there are. In total, there’s probably dozens of different slimes between regular slimes, hybrid slimes, and large ones. There’s also a ton of places across the world to explore. Some of them require you to pay to unlock them while others require keys. In total there’s nearly a dozen areas to visit.

You also have a large amount of buildings to construct and a ton of food and animals to find across the world. There’s also a ton of in game achievements for you to unlock. There are some very easy ones like Plort Peddler, which require you to sell 100 plorts at the market, which took like 10 minutes to acquire. Then there’s the hard ones like collecting 3 gold plorts from a gold slime, which are already rare. There’s dozens of achievements in total for you to unlock.

Lastly, there’s also three main game modes for you to choose from. The basic one is the adventure mode which has the survival aspect but the casual mode has that turned off and is a lot more relaxed. The third mode is called Rush, which is basically a time travel. Overall, there’s lots to do in Slime Rancher.

DIFFICULTY: 3

The game is very easy. If you’re playing in Adventure mode, the only thing that you have to really be constantly worried about is running out of food to feed the slimes and accidently running into a slime that does damage like the rock ones. But even if that happens, you gain your health back quickly. Then, every now and then you have to start worrying about Tarr slimes which can eat your slimes and can damage you and you will have to worry about some big hostile slimes too but those are only in certain areas. If it’s too hard for you, you could always play casual instead of adventure and that would make the game a lot easier.

OVERALL: 8.5/10

Slime Rancher is a very cute and charming game that’s full of color and lots of fun. Even with the Tarr and hostile slimes, the game is meant to be relaxing and played at your own pace. The game is fun enough that you could build up an army of slimes that you really like, and if a tarr ever got to them, you would be devastated. It’s the kind of game that you might not think you’d like, but then once you start playing, it will be hard to put down and you’d end up playing for hours at a time.

I would definitely think that it’s worth full price, but if you ever see that it’s on sale, you shouldn’t even hesitate to pick it up, because it can easily get you many hours of enjoyment. My overall grade for Slime Rancher: Plortable Edition is an 8.5 out of 10.