SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake

Completed as of writing this review: 100%

As one of the people who have completed Heavy Iron’s trilogy (BfBB, Movie and Tr.or Sq.), I think this is a great comeback of the old SpongeBob. Yes, I’ll admit that the charm of BfBB is still yet to be repeated, but it’s really close to it, with many cool references and how a cast of characters is being treated. The levels were very well constructed, even if they’re just a one road now (well like in a movie game basically), they’re still fun to play. The music is fine enough, though nothing special like in BfBB and Movie (the licensed songs comeback is amazing tho). The bosses were really well-designed (for the most part), except for the final boss, which was a huge letdown, most likely rushed for release. The gimmicks are also fun and SpongeBob’s moves are also satisfying to use.

My only gripe with this game, is the replayability though. I’m not having any trouble with being told to collect things everywhere and replay the levels again and again. The problem was with guidance - there is none! My guidance was my friend, who googled everything to tell me the exact location, because I was tired of replaying the same level over and over. One of the doubloons in the first stage was a sick joke, because that’s the only time you use a mechanic (if you know, you know). Yes, I like the style of side-quests and how much they reference, but the quests themselves were so dull and tedious, because they were well hidden, but the game never tells in which part of the level you need to explore, which kinda defeats a whole point of exploration, because you’re empty-handed without any hints. Unfortunately there is no case of giving you a reward for 100% like was in BfBB and Movie game, instead you just get an achievement, like in many other generic games. I’m disappointed with 100% aspect of the game and it counts, because I was satisfied with all this in BfBB and the Movie game, which Cosmic Shake was trying to be a successor to. The other minor nitpick is the difficulty, but that’s a given for games for kids nowadays.

Other than all that, I’m happy that SpongeBob is not in hands of greedy Activision anymore, who didn’t care about SpongeBob for a whole decade. Now we got a real deal after like, what? 20 years almost? (Movie game came out in 2004) So yeah, it’s good to be a SpongeBob fan with this coming out and I can say that SpongeBob’s game series are in good hands once more!