Developer – Purple Lamp

Publisher –THQ Nordic

Platforms – Xbox One (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is officially here from Purple Lamp and THQ Nordic with the goal to save Bikini Bottom from the Cosmic Shake that destroys the underwater city and it’s your job to restore it.

The Cosmic Shake occurs in the most SpongeBob and Patrick way possible as they are greeted by mermaid, Kassandra where they receive a bubble wand where they are allow to have three wishes. The two friends didn’t realize what they said would actually happen and it causes for Bikini Bottom to get destroyed while Patrick turns into an actual balloon. That scenario pretty much sets the entire journey of the game.

Before entering this game my expectations might’ve been a little high since I was a fan of Battle for Bikini Bottom as it took you into the actual world of SpongeBob like we always knew from watching the show. You got to explore the well-known buildings in Bikini Bottom, but in The Cosmic Shake it’s a little different as you won’t even be able to go into SpongeBob’s actual house.

SpongeBob and Patrick travel across 8 different worlds with the objective to save certain friends and buildings including Sandy Cheeks, Squidward, The Pineapple, Krusty Krab, and more. You’ll be provided a set amount of missions per world and they all have their own final boss which aren’t as difficult as you think.

Missions

Every portal you step through that takes you to a new world will bring you new objectives and it’ll also bring you a new ability that will help you fight enemies. While playing through each world I found it to get very repetitive at some points with how you get through everything in order to reach the boss battles.

Yes, I understand this is a game aimed for a younger audience so it was very simple playing these missions having to follow the same patterns. Usually each world has a theme to its pattern with each ability you learn. The first few worlds have more unique missions in my opinion until you get to the final world which I think is the best in the game.

Boss Battles

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake consists of many boss battles throughout the game and some stand out better than others. During the first “boss battle” I couldn’t tell you with full confidence that I was in one. Though, as I went further into the game it was clear when you got into a battle and there are some that are quite interesting and some that felt boring.

The best boss fight in this game from my experience? It happens in the last world and once again I praise that part of the game because I do think it’s a location fans of the SpongeBob series can appreciate and finally experience in a video game.

Overall, I think the boss battles in this game could’ve been more challenging, but this is me, an experienced adult that is saying this. For the younger crowd there could be some difficulties making their way through missions fighting enemies and figuring out slight puzzles.

Visuals & Cutscenes

The visuals in this game can be seen as a positive with its classic SpongeBob art style. Everything in this part of the game came as expected. What stood out to me the most were the cutscenes. Now with this being a game based off a popular television series it shouldn’t be too shocking that the cutscenes were spot on or even better.

Would I call SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake stunning? No, It’s just good looking.

There are zero complaints from me when it comes to this part of the game.

Performance & Gameplay

What matters most to a video game these days is how does it perform and how’s the gameplay? Well, let’s talk about the performance first. I did experience a few issues during my playthrough the major one being several game crashes while playing on Xbox Series X. An example would be doing a boss fight and all of a sudden the game crash and I am sent to the Xbox dashboard.

When it comes to frame drops I did experience that as well at some parts of the game where there seems to be too much going on at once. It isn’t surprising to see frames drop when there are tons of things going on around the atmosphere of a game as it happens everywhere. A game is never perfect.

As far as the actual gameplay is concerned, it’s as simple it can get for a platformer. It was cool to see some of the new platforming skills such as the Fishhook Swing and Karate Kick which help make some parts of the game fun with the way you can fly through parts of the game. Like I’ve said about this game, it can be very repetitive. Another cool feature as part of the gameplay was gliding with the pizza box.

Audio

I have no complaints about SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake’s audio and the music it comes with. If you know the famous music from the show you’ll recognize it all throughout your playthrough of this game including the songs that are played in the credits.

Conclusion

In the end, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake struggles at keeping you engaged the entire playthrough. At times while playing this game it became more of ‘I can’t wait for this to end’ while being bored of doing the same easy steps in order to complete a mission.

It is very clear that this SpongeBob title is aimed for a younger audience, but I wish there was a mode available for those that are experience gamers because SpongeBob has been around for multiple generations. It would be nice to see a hard option for adults since there are many who grew up with this iconic figure including Battle For Bikini Bottom.