SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake - Review
For a number of years, you couldn’t walk into a games store or department and not see a new SpongeBob SquarePants title, the guy was everywhere. In the space of 15 years there were 40 videogames released, across a number of platforms and then came a long break. 2020 saw that end with the release of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated and now the developers of that game are back with something all new. Does The Cosmic Shake deliver the goods, or is it more stirred than shaken?
The story on offer here has a very simple setup, SpongeBob and Patrick take home some bubble solution from a mysterious lady, the catch is that it is wishing bubbles. The pair quickly begin to wish for silly things and then keep making more bubbles for the entirety of Bikini Bottom. However, it turns out the bubbles were actually the property of King Neptune and they are magic powered, with the limit of only a few bubbles to be done at any one time. Of course, the pair have used all the bubbles, which has caused an explosion or something and now all of Bikini Bottom and the residence within have been trapped in new worlds. Given the quest by Kassandra, the mysterious lady who sold off the bubbles in the first place, SpongeBob and Patrick venture into portals to save the residents and return the lost parts of the world back to their own.
Gameplay here is fairly basic, as far as 3d platformers go, SpongeBob has a few basic skills at the start, jumping, spinning attacks and so on. As you begin to explore new worlds, he gets instructed in new methods of causing chaos, like being taught how to karate kick or super slam. Beyond the moves, there is nothing to different here from any of the dozen other SpongeBob platformers over the years. The studio knew the game they wanted to make, and they did a solid job, bringing classic gameplay to a modern audience. While SpongeBob gets special outfits for each world, they don’t really do much of anything, at least I never noticed anything. The worlds themselves are quite fun, from the spooky themed world to the world of the Neanderthals. While the worlds provide a pretty set path to follow, what with generous objective markers on screen, there is still a fair bit to do in each one.
The bulk of the adventure is connected to following the main objective of the world, but there are times when people will give you small tasks to do in Bikini Bottom. Sometimes they are straight forward, other times they will test your platforming prowess and that is where the struggle can come in. For perhaps 80 percent of the time, the game has no issues with its platform, you can jump and glide without issue, but the rest of the time, there are issues. The most common one that I encountered was that after a double jump, the glide mechanic wouldn’t kick in. Given that a lot of the world design was done to accommodate for some ‘just made it’ glides, not having it kick in and having to try to just make the jump. These moments were nothing but pure frustration, which was made all the more infuriating when it’s an instant reset and you have to do some work to get back to that point again.
Sadly, those issues pale to the number of technical issues that I encountered in playing the game on the Switch. You may recall during the story portion above, I made the comment that the bubbles caused an explosion or something, that was not attempting to be funny, but rather that I honestly have no idea. The game went from SpongeBob and Patrick reacting to it being bad, to everything just being ruined, there was no cutscene in between. Now this could be something address by a day one patch, but it was not the best start to the game and things only got weirder from there. There were more instances of cutscenes ending soon or not feeling complete, which left some confusion as to the story that was taking place. Those however were not the worst, that honour goes to the constant and random slowdown of the game. Without any reason, the game would just buckle and while I usually don’t care if a game has a moment or two of slowdown, when this game did it, it felt like the game might crash. It wasn’t just a once or twice issue either, it happened quite often and when I was in the spooky world, it happened 7 times in the space of 20 minutes, I know as I counted.
When the game wasn’t having performance issues, it honestly presented very well, with some great animations and worlds that felt full. Of course, as I was playing on the Switch, so there was noticeable pop-in, but nothing that would raise any concern. The worlds are large and while sometimes the runtime in some can feel a little low, there are others that are just gigantic by comparison. The characters that fill in the background of both Bikini Bottom and the various worlds, look good and the enemy design is equal parts gross and interesting. There is a nice level of detail on the main characters, from SpongeBob and his many outfits to Patrick in both his regular and balloon forms. Mr Crabs, Plankton, Squidward, Sandy and the rest, all have unique looks in some worlds, which manage to keep their personality, but also add to it. It is a fine line, but one that I think the team have managed to walk perfectly.
The games soundtrack is decent, the music feels like it’s comprised of songs you would find within the television series, which due to its 24-year run, still feels fresh. The voice cast is mostly spot on, and the reason why it is a little weird and it might just be me, but SpongeBob doesn’t sound right to me. That is not a knock against veteran actor Tom Kenny, who has been doing the voice since day one, but rather that it just doesn’t sound like the SpongeBob I know. The reason why it stands out is that the rest of the characters all sound just like I expect. This might only be an issue for me, but it is one that stood out. An issue that will likely annoy some players is the quips that SpongeBob says when doing things, picking up jelly, gliding and more. The lines are few in number and repeat often, so much so that a patch had to be released to reduce it. The problem is even with that reduced count now, the lines still repeat, and my mind has heard them enough already. The developers may make more changes post release to this, but for now, the repetition is too much and will likely annoy you as it did me.
SpongeBob SquarePants The Cosmic Shake is a solid platformer that is one of the better ones made in the last few years. It has a good number of decently sized worlds to explore and a hub that it is ever changing. Where it stumbles though is within its execution, there are far too many times when the game buckles, something that isn’t exclusive to Switch. It also has a consistent issues with pulling off some moves and then there is the repeating voice work. If you are a SpongeBob fan, there is a lot to enjoy here and even if it’s been a while since you asked who lived in a pineapple under the sea, the game still has lots of charm. The Cosmic Shake may not be the ultimate platformer yet, but if they can get those performance issues corrected, it might very well rise to the top.
The Score
7.5
Review code provided by THQ Nordic
The Pros
+Worlds are large and offer plenty of secrets to discover, once you explore them
+Characters look great in both their regular and otherworldly forms
The Cons
-The game buckles constantly and randomly, which dampens any sense of fun
-The repetitive voice work for SpongeBob is just frustrating
