SpongeBob SquarePants has had a hit-or-miss history in video gaming. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom is a fan favorite that generated so much nostalgia that it warranted a remaster in SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated back in 2020. I had a blast with that title without even growing up with the game. Its’ impressive visual overhaul exuded what the game brought to the table nearly 20 years prior and captured the source material’s essence majestically. Now, the developer of the remaster, Purple Lamp Studios, has the chance to shine in a new game: Cosmic Shake. Does this title retain the quality present in the remaster?

SpongeBob SquarePants: Cosmic Shake sees our titular protagonist return to Bikini Bottom after ruining the town in a jelly-related mishap. His best friend Patrick tags along as a balloon while SpongeBob enters seven levels to rescue his friends. Each level gets its own charming theme, such as the medieval sulfur fields or a Halloween Rock Bottom.

These areas are quite sizeable, but they’re also disappointingly linear. SpongeBob will unlock more abilities as the game progresses that could warrant returning for completionists, but those that are just here to enjoy the game from start to finish at their own pace will find going from point A to point B in a series with an expectation of a collect-a-thon will find little to come back to.

That’s the big issue with SpongeBob SquarePants: Cosmic Shake that Battle for Bikini Bottom doesn’t have: there’s not much to do other than go from level to level in this game. While Bikini Bottom serves as an open-world overworld between levels with some side activities to do, there’s not much incentive here as the only things you can unlock are more costumes for our yellow sea-sponge.

The core gameplay loop across levels switched up enough to keep me interested from start to finish in Cosmic Shake, but my adventure was over in six hours even at a leisurely pace. With a lot of the game reusing the engine/mechanics of Battle for Bikini Bottom and it lasting a few hours less, it leaves me feeling like this is more of an expansion than a continuation of a treasured series.

The dialogue within SpongeBob SquarePants: Cosmic Shake is about what you’d expect from a game aimed at children. It is as goofy and appropriately crass as it can be. There are a ton of callbacks to the early seasons, like the quick bus in Rock Bottom and the Krusty Krab pizza jingle when you glide.

However, there are also only four or five lines for when you pick up jelly, repeated ad nauseum to a level of annoyance that I deliberated turning off voices completely. The 30th time I heard “Sticky sweet!” and “A little dab’ll do ya!“, I was beyond frustrated at one of my favorite characters in all of media. This absolutely needs to be patched as it surpassed Bubsy’s levels of painful.

There’s no shortage of nostalgia for the collect-a-thon genre or SpongeBob SquarePants for those that grew up in the early 2000’s. Unfortunately, SpongeBob SquarePants: Cosmic Shake doesn’t quite hit the mark on either of those fronts. While it’s perfectly playable and the voice crew performs their heart out, it feels like a hollow imitation in comparison to its predecessor. It can’t match Battle for Bikini Bottom’s charm, level design, or humor.

If you can stomach fighting the same enemies, platforming in a straight line, and can’t get enough SpongeBob in your life, this might be worth it on a sale. Sadly, SpongeBob SquarePants: Cosmic Shake could use some more time in the oven and some more freedom if it wants to match up with other collect-a-thons 20 years after the genre’s prime.

A PC review copy of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake was provided by THQ Nordic for this review.

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SpongeBob SquarePants: Cosmic Shake

39.99

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Stellar Voice Acting
• Vibrant Presentation
• Strong Soundtrack

Cons

• Monotonous Gameplay
• Not Much Collecting
• Tiresome Enemies
• Annoyingly Few Voice Lines