Slime Rancher 2 will serve up familiar and adorable goo this autumn

It was easy to miss amid the onslaught of trailers, but Slime Rancher 2 got a new release window during this past week’s not-E3 shenanigans. In a new trailer showing more of its colorful goo-hoovering, the previously vague “2022” was upgraded to the somewhat more specific “fall 2022”.

Here’s the trailer itself:

The first Slime Rancher was a surprise delight: a first-person farming game in which you gather unpredictable jelly creatures, spit them into pens you’ve built, feed them crops you’ve grown for them, and earn money with which to further expand . It’s relaxing and moreish which Pip (RPS in peace) called “a delightful, irrepressible thing” in her Slime Rancher review:

I had thirty wonderful hours collecting/harassing/cleaning up after slimes. The world itself drip-fed me secrets at a really pleasing rate for my pottering playstyle and I got so many thrills of real delight as I made my way through the alien world. A particular relationship which plays out in the form of letters delivered to Beatrix’s house gradually wormed its way into my heart and, the way I read it and Beatrix left me feeling really warm and happy as the credit sequence played out.

Slime Rancher 2 looks, honestly, like more of the same, as the same protagonist ventures to a new environment with new slimes and softer lighting but the same set of activities. I’m not complaining. When it arrives this autumn, it’ll also be available on day one via Game Pass – hence its appearance this past week during the Xbox Extended showcase.

Slime Rancher 2 also seems to take place on Rainbow Island, which is excuse enough to link this earworm I’ve had for 30 years now.