Spongebob Squarepants and Friends Unite!
Verdict: Spoon-fed fun for friends
Platform: GC, PS2.
Rating: 2½/5
From the moment I stepped into these blue suede reviewing shoes it was inevitable that I would review a ‘kids’ game (no, not all games are for kids Mr and Mrs Jones so don’t go buying little Jimmy that 18 rated GTA game and get upset about it’s unsuitable content). As a fan of the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon though it’s a lucky point to dive in and apply my FPS addled brain to something simpler and brighter.
Unite! brings together four popular Nickelodeon cartoons (Spongebob, The Fairly Odd Parents, Jimmy Nuetron and Danny Phantom) in a royal rumble between the heroes and villains. It’s a mixture of simple combat and puzzle solving in the 3rd person, allowing up to four people to play together co-operatively (or unco-operatively depending on your friends).
From the outset though I had my doubts - the stylisation didn’t seem quite right. It’s another 3D game based on a 2D cartoon and although the backgrounds and environment are successful in capturing that look, Spongebob and co just look odd - cell shading is there for a reason people!
Aesthetic preferences aside it’s a well made game with some genuinely inventive puzzles that utilise each characters powers - Jimmy Neutron can shrink things, Spongebob can soak up water etc. so you have to work with your friends to progress through the game and if you’re playing on your own you can easily switch between the characters.
Spongebob is fleetingly comical with his giant red hands waving around and bloating features - it’s amazing how much fun Lydia got from bouncing him on a trampoline - again and again and again - the other characters however don’t have enough personality to shine through and that’s one of the problems with the game as a whole - it doesn’t shine.
For a kids (or anyone’s) game it seems woefully dull, there’s none of the excitement or attitude of any of the characters’ cartoons, let alone much of the humour. I expected something with a little more life than this clinical adventure - trampolining shouldn’t be the best bit.
Ancient Chinese proverb say ‘sponge that is not funny is just sponge’.