As mentioned, it shares a surprising amount of DNA with Super Mario Odyssey, thanks to its expansive, varied worlds brimming with areas to explore, collectibles to hunt down, and obstacles to surpass. + 3 Drop on the deck and flop like a fishĮxplore you will, because SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is an impressively enjoyable 3D platformer. If I had a pound for every time I heard SpongeBob say "sticky, sweet," I'd be a rich man. Just don't listen too closely to the dialogue, because you'll become numb to the repetition of certain vocal lines as you embark on your journey. It does attempt the odd twist and big swing, but it's all so safe and easily foreseeable that it's very easy to switch your brain off and explore away. The interactivity and platforming gameplay are the glue that holds this purposefully fractured narrative together, letting the distinct design of each realm tell its own story rather than shoving the narrative down your throat. It's for this reason that The Cosmic Shake makes a far better game than it would a fourth SpongeBob film. Instead, it feels like a SpongeBob-ified version of Super Mario Odyssey, with our yellow hero's interdimensional fiasco resembling Mario's journey across worlds. Save for introductory and conclusory cutscenes for each Wishworld, there isn't an awful lot of story here. The game retains that tone and knows its audience well enough to not waste energy on extraneous plot, character work, or exposition. It plays out like a feature-length episode of the show: our heroes slip up and cause a problem, and resolve it in the silliest way possible. From there, it's a straightforward and often predictable quest to venture into these dimensions with the help of the morally ambiguous Kassandra, rescuing their friends and erasing their haphazard temporal wormhole.įrom a game clearly targeted at less experienced players, you'd be hard-pressed to expect much more from The Cosmic Shake's story. These are called Wishworlds: parallel timelines unearthed after SpongeBob and Patrick inadvertently use Cosmic Jelly to propel their friends into these other worlds. Rather than there being multiple SpongeBob and Patrick variants across the multiverse, The Cosmic Shake instead sends our two bumbling heroes on a trip to disparate and visually diverse worlds. We've seen it on the big screen, we've seen it in game franchises like Bayonetta and Resident Evil, and now the Krusty Krab's best fry cook is getting in on the action. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake hops on the contemporary hot topic of the multiverse. It isn't a revolutionary platformer by any means, and won't blow away players with more than a few years of gaming experience, but it's nonetheless pleasant to see a licensed SpongeBob game brimming with clear reverence for the source material. That all changes with the release of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, a dimension-hopping multiverse adventure that marks the character's first non-remake standalone console release for eight years.Īs an ode to the franchise's history and these characters who have remained popular for more than two decades, The Cosmic Shake undeniably hits the mark. First released in 2003, the game received a modern remake in 2020, but in the years since it's been fairly sparse for the nautical sponge. One game, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, seems to have reigned supreme in players' memories. The years have seen open-world movie tie-in forays, military parodies, and plenty of mid-range licensed fodder to boot. Who lives in a pineapple under the sea and has a long, complex video gaming lineage? SpongeBob SquarePants! One of the most recognisable cartoon characters of the century has hopped across console generations, often falling into the platforming genre.
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