Spongebob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
Verdict: A cake that needs a little icing.
For PS2, also PC, GC, Wii.
Rating: 3½/5
Ah Spongebob, there’s nowt finer than the antics of Nickelodeon’s aquatic fanatic. A regular fixture of our household, he’s brightened many a morning yet when it comes to videogames he’s always been a bit of a damp Squidward.
To tackle Spongebob’s virtual plight, Blitz Games have attempted to capture the essence of the cartoon and worked closely with Nikelodeon to recreate the sense of humour, imagination and surrealness of Bikini Bottom.
Drawing inspiration from a number of episodes, the game takes place over a series of dreams and nightmares with an over-arching B-movie theme. While allowing the designers freedom to cook up crazier than normal situations like Plankton wreaking havoc Godzilla style, it also allows them to experiment visually as in the case of Spongebob’s disfigured Hotrod levels and Patrick’s 50’s comic book style adventures, replete with authentic print dots.
As the dreams create visual diversity they also create variety in the gameplay as each level attempts to try something new. Mixed in with the overly traditional ‘go here, press that’ platforming levels are racing, flying and side scrolling levels alongside a whole host of minigames and the inclusion of motion sensing controls on the Wii version will certainly spice things up.
Unfortunately, while each dream offers a change of pace it tends to over milk it with some repetitive gameplay, tired objectives and overlong levels marring what could be an altogether sweeter but shorter cake.
The ease at which progress is made helps lighten the repetition and the abundance of save points means all but the most aquaphobic of gamers will make it through to the multiple endings but on the other edge of the swordfish lies a game that presents little challenge - the promise of a new dream is always just enough to keep you going though.
The true litmus test is if the fans are happy and judging by the grin on my girlfriend’s face I’d say that was a yes.