Jelly Troops gives us the opportunity to control a small, cute gelatinous army in a colorful fairy world. The game draws inspiration from Nintendo's Pikmin series: we control a bunch of slimes, sending them to collect magical fruits, capture flags scattered across the map, and engage in a small "capture the flag" war, leading them as... some sort of undefined fairy wizard? Fabio and I decided to try the game, each with a family member, and we bring you this joint review!
Fabio:
“Adrian! I have a game to try, you might like it.”
“What's it called?”
“Jelly Troops.”
“Ooo, I love jellies, it’s going to be great!”
We start the game, noticing that there’s no intro video or even an attempt at a story, but it throws you directly into the main menu. “Dad, look, just like Pikmin!” The tutorial explains the basic commands and the principle of the game: find three flags and bring them to your base before your opponent does the same. Sounds pretty simple. You lead an army of slimes across the map, searching for flags, collecting some green fruit that gives you additional slimes when you return it to the base, thus increasing your troops. The more you send to complete the task, the faster they are.
Come golem with me, let’s take you to the enemy base. You’ll have a great time there. Trust me.
“Look dad, Iron golem!”
To ensure that everything isn’t too simple, there are Guardians that attack as soon as you get close and follow you until you leave their line of sight. One of the useful strategies is to lure them to follow you and then take them to the enemy base, while you explore the map without interruption. The map is, to be honest, monotonous and boring, and besides the randomly generated positions of bases, fruits, and flags, there is absolutely no other difference. There are also scattered spell books on the map that give you certain powers: invisibility, speed, additional slimes, and you can even create two guardians at a desired location.
Kuky:
I agree with the team, the strategic elements are minimized, the matches are very short and often boil down to a race and a game of luck to see who will collect more units first and capture the flags near the base, without any significant conflict.
There is also the option of a so-called Knockout victory if you manage to capture the main flag from the opponent's base, but that rarely happened in my matches. In some games, I barely saw the opponent - the maps are relatively large, so it's often more rewarding to stay in your corner and capture flags than to seek a frontal confrontation. There are also single-player challenges available that are there to teach you how to play the game better, but I mostly stuck to online play. Online matches offer the possibility of leveling up and gaining some ranking, but it doesn't bring anything new.
Bigger fruits will give us more units, but it takes more slimes to carry it
The game features a typical cell-shading style that looks solid, but the design of the map and characters gives the impression of a mobile game. You will constantly play the same map, which is just differently generated. The slimes are cute and charming, but my fairy leader looks like a placeholder. I quote my wife: “Everything feels kind of generic, without real character.”
Victory is mine! Again! But I don't feel that thrill and happiness.
My opponent was a bit less motivated to play than Adrian: “Are you seriously exploiting me for your business purposes?” We played a couple of matches in split screen, quickly gave up, and returned to other games. Despite the large TV, visibility is poor, and the camera is unintuitive. “We bought a huge TV and I still can't see what I'm doing.” The online experience is somewhat better, but after a few victories, I didn't feel a greater need to continue. The game doesn't offer enough tactical depth or progression to keep me engaged.
Fabio:
“Dad, let's try split screen!”
We played a few matches and realized that it's best not to worry about what others are doing, but to quickly go find the flags and bring them to your base, which sometimes depends a bit on luck since the flag positions are randomly generated. The battle lasts a few minutes, and if the result is tied at that time, Sudden Death is played, meaning whoever brings a flag to their base first or removes one from the enemy base wins. This is where the so-called strategizing comes into play, as you can create walls with your slimes to block the enemy's passage, or attack with two groups of troops: while one creates a diversion, the other steals the flag. It's also possible to win by bringing the main enemy flag to your base, but we never did that since it doesn't make sense to waste time going to the enemy when flags are available near your base. You will often send your slimes to the wrong place because aiming with the controllers is quite clumsy, causing the reticle to jump from target to target.
Our conclusion – a charming idea, but still too simple for a longer game
Kuky:
Jelly Troops takes the basic ideas of the RTS genre and serves them up like candy, light, fast, and accessible. But just like candy, you quickly consume it and are left hungry. If you are a veteran of classic RTS games, especially if you grew up on Starcraft or Age of Empires, this will probably seem too shallow to you. It seems to me that the game is aimed at younger audiences, both graphically and mechanically.
Fabio:
If you are a parent looking for a carefree game to play with the kids, Jelly Troops is an option to play a few rounds at home with family members (preferably the younger ones) on a big screen. But it lacks variety and content. With only one map, everything boils down to the same thing, and even a larger number of spells in the game doesn't make a big difference. My eight-year-old son got bored after an hour, and I did after the second battle.
A copy of the Switch version of the game was provided for review purposes by the publisher Phoenixx
