"Are you ready kids?"
"Aye Aye Captain!" Screams an adult me who's never watched SpongeBob as a kid.
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom" follows SpongeBob as he attempts to defend Bikini Bottom from an invasion of robots created by Plankton with a machine called the Duplicatotron 3000, with the help of his friends Patrick and Sandy.
The core gameplay involves collecting items and defeating robots across various areas in Bikini Bottom, whilst crossing platforms and avoiding environmental hazards like spikes and flames. Some areas require different characters to beat, as each playable character - SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy - have their own unique abilities.
The game is a 3D platformer collectathon, requiring players to collect three main types of items. 'Shiny Objects' are the game's currency and can be used to pay tolls within game areas or to buy golden spatulas from Mr. Krabs. 'Golden Spatulas' are used to grant access to new areas, being hidden throughout the game and can also be earned by completing tasks set by several characters from the cartoon.
This isn't the only SpongeBob game that I've played, but it's the only one that kept me engaged for more than an hour and finish the storyline of the game. This game is immensely fun, possibly even addicting - as I spent hours and hours immersed into exploring the levels, collecting and solving challenges by jumping, beating and swinging my way through the levels.
What makes the game so tempting to revisit, is its sheer diversity of level design - varying from a downtown city and forest, to a beach, ski hills, etc. It's refreshing to play a visually and tonally 'light' themed level after coming from a 'darker' themed level, and vice versa. This variety adds to the colorful, fun visual aesthetics and sound design that has made the show itself popular for years - ultimately making this a faithful game adaptation.
The ability to play as Patrick and Sandy, who each have their own unique abilities, keeps the gameplay experience fresh and distinctive.
There are a few chuckle worthy moments that carries the wit of the show - with its humorous dialogues, character exchanges and their dynamics (it's always funny to see Squidward getting annoyed by literally everything).
Honestly, I love a game when it's not too difficult to play through, or at least when it provides difficulty options for me to choose the easiest from. It's easy to complete the storyline of this game, which made it pleasant enough for me to keep playing despite some rage quit moments. The boss fights are challenging yet beatable in 2-3 tries, and the game's mostly non-linear with its levels - meaning that you can skip a task if it's too difficult, and collect the required Spatulas from some other task or level (or even buy them from the ever-greedy Mr. Krabs).
If you're a collectionist, the game offers a good replay value with the ability to go back to previous levels and collect remaining items.
The cons are few. The camera becomes an issue at tight spaces (a common problem among platformer games), and the platforming aspect itself can get frustratingly difficult - especially with lack of frequent checkpoints, forcing you to start a challenge from the beginning.
I recommend this game not only to kids or fans of the show, but to gamers who like good platformer games with unique aesthetics. I played the GameCube version of this game using the Dolphin Emulator for Mac, which works amazingly.
