Played the Japanese version with a fantranslation.

Dr. Slump is an action/platformer videgoame released by Bandai in 1999 and developed by Natsume; based on the manga/anime series by the late Akira Toriyama.

You play as this young robot girl named Arale while she explores life and makes friends with the people of Penguin Village.

The whole town is divided in sections, although you can explore one at a time, for example, you can go only to the bank, and if you want to visit another place, then you must use the sign that exists in every section that serves only for travelling, then choose the location you want to go. The catch is that you can't go to every place from any sign, the places are connected as if they have roads to them, so for example you can go from your house to the school, but you can't go from your house to the secret lair cause in order to to that you must first go from house > school > hills > secret lair.

The flow of the game is the same throughout the whole 7-8 hours that takes to complete it. Dr, Slump is divided in 7 chapters, and all of them repeat the same steps over and over and makes the game boring in that sense. You always have to watch some cutscenes, then go to places, do something, see cutscene, touch some pink poop, go to another place, then another, then another, get some ability, and suddenly a platforming stage like a real videogame.

These stages are the real fun part of Dr. Slump, they are fun, beautiful looking with a nice boss at the end, not too long, and after that, you sadly repeat the same steps described above. It feels like if you played 2 chapters then you played the whole videogame cause nothing changes for good. Sure the plot goes forwards and you get more skills, unlock more places, but the entertainment part of Dr. Slump does not advanced with the game.

I saw the anime as a kid and enjoyed it, the goofy humor (and Arale of course) are the protagonist of the series. Here the humor is present everywhere and it's fun, it's just the rest is not.

I would say that the most outstanding part of the game by far is the graphics and the visuals. It has that Megaman Legends type of art and graphics so eye-catching, specially played using some emulator and tweaking some parts.

Overall I would say that if you are not fond of the manga/anime or the type of humor the series brings to the table, then skip this one for sure. If you enyojed the anime/manga give it a try at least 1-2 chapters, if after you have some doubts about continuing playing, then just drop it for your own good.