This is the one hundred thirty-eighth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. This particular entry is also part of the Keeping Score series about games and their soundtracks. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our next random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is positively gelatinous. It’s Super Slime Arena, by JellyTeam, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

Slimy 16-bit style, party-fighting game using any controller in 2-50+ multipla…

You have probably guessed that the truncated word is “multiplayer”, which poses a bit of a problem for me trying to play it for this series.

Super Slime Arena is a party game that, allegedly, scales up to 50 players, as long as you have enough controllers for that. Yes, it is primarily intended for local multiplayer (i.e. everyone physically using the same computer and screen), although it does have an online multiplayer option in the menu that’s listed as being in beta. Selecting that, however, showed zero players online, and there’s no singleplayer option at all. To start the game I had to pretend to be two players, one using my keyboard and one using my gamepad.

As you might guess, this didn’t really work for actually playing the game, so I can’t report on how this feels to play with a bunch of other people. Which is unfortunate, because I really like the look of Super Slime Arena. It has beautiful pixel art in the style of the 16-bit console generation, bright and colorful. The twelve single screen arenas on offer are wonderfully dynamic, both in terms of gameplay elements like moving platforms or obstacles, and in incidental background details. An underwater stage features a huge squid that fades in and out of view due to its natural camouflage. In the theater stage, the curtains periodically open to reveal different performance acts. One stage is described as a “surprisingly busy transit hub” and has buses, trains and trucks barrel across the screen at different intervals, sending players’ slimes flying.

Yes, players control slimes, in the vein of Dragon Quest’s cute slimes. There are 32 of these in total, of varying colors and sizes, each with a unique attack. Every attack is a 1-hit knockout, and in the default game mode players respawn as a new, random slime every time they’re eliminated. With a large number of players, I imagine this gets very chaotic indeed, and suspect many players may find themselves eliminated before they’ve even figured out how their new slime works. This is intentional, I’m sure, inviting players to revel in the pandemonium.

The slimes are surprisingly imaginative. Sure, there are some standard projectile attacks, but there are also slimes who lay traps or leave trails of corrosive acid. Some attacks are clearly more effective than others, but often come with long cooldown times, and many of the hard hitting slimes are larger (and therefore easier to hit) too, and have shorter jumps. In fact, there are a few different jump styles, which I did not realize at first: most slimes perform a standard platformer leap, soaring higher the longer the jump button is pressed, but the small selection of wizard slimes (each sporting a fancy wizard hat) have double jumps. Another slime has wings which will kick in shortly after jumping (if the button is held), providing a second, slower bit of upward thrust. One of the biggest slimes has a pathetically short jump but can use its attack as a further vertical boost, letting it reach platforms that would otherwise be too high.

Will these subtleties be lost in the chaos of an actual match? Sadly, I cannot say. But there are alternate game modes on offer, including a draft mode that lets players build teams of their favorite slimes, or a mode that pits everyone as the same slime in a free-for-all bout. Those might be suited to groups who want to really get to know the different slimes. Super Slime Arena is, overall, a slick production that both looks and sounds great, and while I couldn’t get an actual match going, I can report that the slimes feel good to control as they leap around the colorful arenas. If you’re looking for a frenetic and silly game to play with friends, definitely give Super Slime Arena a look. If you missed it in the bundle, it’s sold for a minimum price of $14.99, including versions for Windows, Mac and Linux, as well as the soundtrack in MP3 and FLAC formats. Which brings me to…

The Score:

Titled “Slime Sounds – Super Slime Arena OST”, the soundtrack to Super Slime Arena consists of 15 tracks spanning nearly 53 minutes, which is more music than I expected. Most of the music is chiptune, again evoking the 16-bit console era, in particular the early sample-based synthesis of the S-SMP chip in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES for short). This chip made the SNES the only 16-bit console (except those with relatively rare CD-ROM add-ons) that could reasonably approximate musical instruments like horns or strings, setting it apart from the music of rival systems. The tracks here are a love letter to this sound, which was hugely influential in videogame music.

They also come from no fewer than thirteen artists, all recruited to compose music specifically for Super Slime Arena: Sean Thornton & Robert Karpay, Alex Mor, Alejandro Moros, Jean of mArc, Slime Girls, Red&Green, Pongball, commandycan, Harry Lodes, Ruri Matsumura, Rachel Hartanto, and Kommisar. Given this large roster, the music is surprisingly cohesive. Each of the twelve arenas gets its own music that matches its theme, like the castle siege which is accompanied by blaring horns and a marching beat, or the bubbly dance number for battles atop a giant pink cake. The soundtrack is rounded out with a few tracks that accompany the introductory cinematic sequence and different menu screens. Yet despite the stylistic differences and the personal touch of each of the composers, the tracks all work together and never feel out of place.

Which isn’t to say there aren’t a few that stand out. “Country Smile” by Harry Lodes plays in the transit hub arena, which is clearly modeled after a Japanese town. It adds some real piano into the chiptune mix, as well as Japanese vocals from Ruri Matsamura, to transform it into more of a J-pop ballad. “Instrumental Intestine (Digested Mix)” by Kommisar, which accompanies the arena set inside the digestive tract of some huge creature, goes for a squelchy, aggressive sound that reminds me a bit of Chipzel’s work in Super Hexagon, all synth with no recognizable instruments at all. And yet both of these still fit the overall sound of the game.

In fact, I was impressed by just how well the soundtrack works when listened to on its own, as an album, separate from the game. Most of the music is bouncy and upbeat, appropriate for a frantic multiplayer brawl, but tracks like “Lost in Rainbow Jungle” by Alex Mor & Alejandro Moros and “Graveyard of the Deep” by Red&Green are more relaxed, making me think of peaceful explorations in a role-playing game rather than fast-paced action. It’s possible that, if I had played Super Slime Arena a lot with a group of friends, the music would feel inseparable from the different arenas we’d spent so much time battling across. As things stand, I hear the soundtrack as more of a general ode to the glory days of SNES music. And a really good one at that. This is great work from all parties involved, and is one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a while. All the more impressive given I was barely able to dip my… pseudopod? … into the game itself. I can therefore recommend checking out the soundtrack even if you aren’t interested in the game, and luckily it’s sold separately on Bandcamp so you can do just that, if you are so inclined. Or, if you do want the game, the soundtrack comes bundled with it. Which means if you got the bundle you already have it!

That’s 138 down, and only 1603 to go!