SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake – Review
For those who haven’t heard, Purple Lamp Studios produced a game called SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom a few years ago. A good refresh of an old 3D platformer from the 90s, Rehydrated. The announcement of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, a brand-new sequel, came just over a year after the remaster’s release, suggesting that sales were strong enough to warrant making the game. This new release is a complete rewrite optimised for today’s hardware that stays true to the original’s spirit while adding a slew of new features. While The Cosmic Shake doesn’t do anything groundbreaking for the 3D platforming genre, it does provide a fun and charming experience that no fan of the genre should pass up.
When The Cosmic Shake resumes, SpongeBob and Patrick have just met a mystery mermaid named Kassandra, who gives them a bottle of mermaid tears to use as bubble soap. The tears are said to be enchanted and have the power to fulfil wishes, but when SpongeBob and Patrick use them excessively, they end up ripping the universe apart. All of SpongeBob’s and Patrick’s buddies are now dispersed across the different Wishworlds that opened portals all across town as a direct result of their blunder, which has resulted in Bikini Bottom becoming bathed in cosmic jelly and invaded by bizarre jelly creatures. Thus, the two of them set out to fix the damage and get jelly for Kassandra, who has no hidden agenda.
While the tale itself isn’t very memorable, it does a great job of recreating the tone and humour of a classic SpongeBob episode, particularly from the show’s first three seasons. Fans of the show will enjoy the numerous references and inside gags, but anybody may enjoy the silly and irreverent humour on display. The dialogue between SpongeBob and Patrick as they explore the worlds works nicely to break up the silence, and the fact that all of the characters (even minor ones like Fred or the chocolate vendor) are spoken by their original voice actors adds a welcome layer of authenticity.
The Cosmic Shake’s gameplay is standard fare for a 3D platformer; you’ll be exploring enormous playgrounds, fighting enemies, and collecting a tonne of goodies. Unlike the first game, in which players took control of three different characters, now you control simply SpongeBob, who gains new abilities as you play. As an example, one stage may instruct you on how to grasp and swing between fish hooks, while another stage may grant you access to a bubble surfboard that can be used to travel predetermined distances. The monotony of the main quest is broken up with basic minigames where you have to do things like make Krabby Patties or outdrink Sandy in a saloon.
Each level features its own unique set of challenges that, in addition to testing SpongeBob’s ever-expanding arsenal of skills, add a lot of exciting variety to the gameplay. While another level has you ‘acting’ in a karate movie, complete with auto-scrolling platforming and combat sequences, the first has multiple stealth passages where you need to sneak around foes and terrify them. Although while you never go too far from the main 3D platforming, we like the game’s gameplay variation, which gives each Wishworld its own flavour and provides you a reason to revisit old levels with new powers to find trinkets you couldn’t reach previously.
It feels like a happy medium was found while designing the levels, with enough concentration to feel like Demon Turf but not so much that it feels like Donkey Kong 64 with too many items. There is a main mission and a set course across each Wishworld, but there are also many side quests and detours to do if you’re looking for a little something extra. Other items, such as pennies for Mr. Krabs or “Good Noodles” stickers for Mrs. Puff, are typically hidden in inaccessible locations across multiple Wishworlds, and individuals back in Bikini Bottom (the hub world) will often throw out side quests requesting you to gather stuff for them. The main questlines don’t typically test your technical prowess too heavily, but the side quests’ optional content can include some demanding gauntlets that put your reflexes to the test.
Jelly creatures of all types stand in your way, and while battle isn’t the game’s main focus, it’s fun enough to keep you interested without being the game’s main focus. SpongeBob’s combat abilities, which include a dodge roll and a Sonic-like homing attack, allow him a lot of flexibility, and the increasing diversity of his foes over the several Wishworlds keeps things interesting. One variety of foe, for instance, can spawn more of its kind and just takes a few hits to eliminate, while another often hides in an inaccessible area and provides cover fire for its buddies with a tartar sauce gun. Once in a while, you’ll be confined to an arena where you’ll have to survive a brief combat with jelly monsters before moving on, and we liked how these bouts became more varied and challenging as new opponent types and SpongeBob skills were introduced.
Cosmic jelly and doubloons are two of the most important items in The Cosmic Shake, and they are closely related to the game’s cosmetic economy, which is used in both platforming and combat. The game’s basic money is cosmic jelly, which can be discovered everywhere over, and is used to purchase new outfits. Doubloons, on the other hand, are harder to come by and are typically only found at the end of challenging platforming parts, but they are used to access higher tiers of costumes. We liked that collecting jelly wasn’t a pointless activity; costumes are recycled from across the series and have no purpose beyond aesthetics. It will take you about as long to collect all the costumes as it does to finish the game itself, so there’s always something else to work towards.
As far as presentation goes, The Cosmic Shake is a marked improvement over the Battle for Bikini Bottom remaster, which was already a very fine version of the classic platformer. The original’s stiff animation has been replaced by far more fluid movement, allowing for more expressive cutscenes. Furthermore, the planets are significantly larger than previously, and the use of a darker colour palette gives each one a distinct and eye-catching appearance.
The improved aesthetics unfortunately seem to have come with some performance concerns, which is the only real downside. While we did not experience any game-breaking bugs like those found in Battle for Bikini Bottom’s launch version, we did notice that the frame rate drops when the screen becomes too crowded, and that there are graphical hiccups such as the fog that surrounds an arena fight suddenly appearing without a fade in. Hence, The Cosmic Shake has some rough spots, but we wouldn’t call them deal breakers.
The Cosmic Shake is a game with a remarkable sense of tempo and continuity throughout. Once you’ve completed the primary tasks on several worlds, you’ll unlock a wealth of side quests, collectibles, and costumes that would have otherwise been inaccessible. Nonetheless, the game never drags on for too long or feels like it’s just filling time; there’s a lot going on, but it never feels like too much. It’s evident that a lot of effort was put into creating this the best SpongeBob platformer yet, so we hope that Purple Lamp Studios gets more opportunities to work on SpongeBob games.
No lover of the series or the genre should pass up on SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, a triumphant and varied 3D platformer. If 3D collectathon games aren’t your thing, this won’t be the game to convince you otherwise, but it proves at every turn that it isn’t a cash grab. One of the best SpongeBob games ever thanks to its well-thought-out level design, plentiful gameplay variation, responsive controls, and endearing cast spoken by the original voice actors. We nevertheless suggest it to everyone who enjoys 3D platformers and Krabby Patties, despite the game’s occasional performance difficulties.
