SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake (Xbox Series X)

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom getting a high definition remake already felt like the kind of thing the games industry never does with licensed video games aimed at a young audience, but when Rehydrated was met positively, the ball got rolling on something possibly more surprising. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is not a sequel to Battle for Bikini Bottom, but the team who developed the remake, Purple Lamp, aimed to build off what they had learned about 3D platform game design through the remaster, charting their own course for a game based on Nickelodeon’s jolly yellow sponge.

 

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake actually waits quite a while to even use the term Cosmic Shake for the type of chaos you’ll be dealing with, but this SpongeBob adventure sees the player taking SpongeBob to all sorts of different worlds where the familiar characters from the cartoon are twisted to match the new theming. Some of these are ideas that have appeared in T.V. episodes before, the wild west world and trip to prehistoric times inspired by related episodes but making divergences in how characters are portrayed to chase new ideas. These worlds are actually created by a series of wishes SpongeBob makes at the game’s start, having accidentally acquired some bubble soap made from Mermaid’s Tears. SpongeBob had made hundreds of wishes before they all start getting granted at once, and while some we actually hear him make do crop up such as his best friend Patrick Star being turned into a balloon buddy who follows him on this adventure, generally the game just seems to enjoy the freedom to implement any idea it likes.

With even the normal version of Bikini Bottom cluttered with debris from the Wish Worlds, SpongeBob learns he must travel to the different universes to collect Cosmic Jelly to set things right. Madame Kassandra, the mermaid who “accidentally” gave him the Mermaid’s Tears in the first place, makes little secret she has other intentions despite the characters not picking up on it, and generally the game’s humor does lean towards more kid-friendly comedy. The jokes aren’t quite as creative as the locations you’ll visit, although the game does make sure to include plenty of references to the show and even some gross close-ups to try and put it in line with the cartoon’s sense of humor. What ends up being more enjoyable is simply seeing familiar locations and faces altered to match a Wish World’s theme, especially since it can often lead to a usually friendly character serving as the area’s boss. Mr. Krabs’s greed has lead to him becoming a cactus juice stealing bandit in the Wild West world, Squidward actually gets to live his artistic dreams out as a movie director as he turns downtown into a karate movie, and SpongeBob’s pet snail Gary takes on a monstrous form in a Halloween twist on the already eerie Rock Bottom. SpongeBob himself even gets a range of costumes that either serve as fun callbacks to iconic episodes or match the world he’s visiting, although they serve no true function when it comes to the 3D platforming.

 

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake makes its Wish Worlds into mostly linear but fairly lengthy stages where SpongeBob usually has to find the version of his friend in that world who is a castaway from his reality. The Wish Worlds are all fairly dangerous though, due in no small part to the jelly that now covers parts of them and can transform into enemies you’ll need to take down. The adventure does do a fairly good job of gradually rolling out new foes and abilities, early fights can be completed without a thought while future foes have specific vulnerable periods you need to exploit or even weaknesses you need to learn. Sadly, the fights do get repetitive fairly fast even as the variety in jelly monsters grows, some of the more complicated foes feeling like they involve a bit too much waiting to take down. Boss battles are usually much better though, many taking place in large arenas that they still make dangerous with a decent range of creative attacks.

Platforming feels more like what Cosmic Shake is aiming to make entertaining, and for that purpose you get quite a few skills that really open up your options for travel. SpongeBob starts with a double jump, a simple attack, and a ground slam, but later situations inspire him to start using a pizza box to glide or a karate kick to quickly home in on nearby targets to assist in midair navigation. Other powers like a bubble blow can be used to hit switches or trap foes, and one nice thing about your expanding offensive abilities is they can speed up some skirmishes with regular foes. Maneuvering around levels with a growing set of navigational techniques does start to make them a bit more interesting, especially since it can open up opportunities to grab collectables, but the level design isn’t always there to get the most out of them. Many times you are jumping and gliding but it’s not really being challenged too deeply, the player often not in much danger and it’s not really required to get tight timing down. There are obstacles like the Sea Bears who try to bite you that felt like they rarely connected even when I was close to them, but there is still a lot of energy to the navigation so you are frequently in motion and using your abilities to move forward. There are times the game throws in a short gameplay shift as well, such as riding a seahorse at high speeds or sliding around on your tongue so things don’t get too stale, and every now and then the game will whip up a more complicated area that asks for a little more work to overcome.

 

Optional objectives could have been where SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake tries to add more difficult or dangerous challenges for skilled players, but it has a rather odd approach to extra content. While you can always scour levels for jelly to unlock some more costumes, usually only after you have completed a stage will you then get requests from characters to go back into it to find hidden items. What’s more, a good deal of Wish Worlds will gate something off until you have a specific ability from later in the adventure, but going back to get it sometimes involves simply using that power to grab the goodie and move along. Other times though, a character you hadn’t previously seen in that Wish World may show up and give you a specific challenge, meaning it’s hard to tell when these extra quests or hidden areas will be meaningful new content or busywork. You can teleport to different parts of a Wish World as you make progress through it so a full replay of the stage isn’t technically necessary, but the additional collectables do seem to nudge you towards doing a second full run through with your eyes peeled for new things to do.

THE VERDICT: Seeing the familiar faces and places of SpongeBob in new and creative contexts does mean fans of the show will likely be charmed by SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, and kids will likely get much more out of it since the platforming challenges are more likely to test their skills than a seasoned gamer’s. Level layouts don’t often give you enough chances to make great use of your enjoyable movement techniques, although bosses and unique gameplay shifts do keep the action from losing its luster even as the enemy combat feels like it lags behind in keeping things interesting.

 

And so, I give SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake for Xbox Series X…

An OKAY rating. If you have a young one who seems like they’d enjoy a 3D platformer, it’s likely they might become just as big a fan of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake as those nostalgic kiddos who helped Battle for Bikini Bottom earn itself a modern remaster. It’s bright, silly, and when it comes to providing fun scenarios for its characters, Cosmic Shake is very creative and even likes to give focus to side characters like the teenage whale Pearl. SpongeBob’s movement techniques do feel like they had a lot more room for exploration though, and that’s one reason the levels can sometimes feel a bit too easy to complete without a lot of struggle. His skills accommodate the more sedate moments of platforming too well and when they open up new avenues, it’s usually because you’ve found your own way to make progress rather than getting tested by a challenge the game laid out for you. Battle for Bikini Bottom did have a few moments that really put your work to the test and SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake feels like it could have done more to weave those into its adventure, but perhaps the linear progression made it feel like tougher trials would not gel well with the younger half of the audience. The adventure isn’t a complete pushover because it does bring some energy to its boss battles and certain platforming sections, and there is enough to the world design that it can still be interesting to move around in them despite the ease with which you do so.

 

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom was mostly exceptional in that it rose above the common trend of licensed games being generic and shallow, and so it’s perhaps not too surprising that a game made by the team who remade that game would still mostly succeed in terms of putting heart into the game. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a celebration of the many characters of SpongeBob Squarepants and it has some fun ideas for new situations to put them in, the action not trying to steal the show from the creative areas and callbacks. There is more room for creativity in terms of how you actually get to use your array of movement abilities, but again, it’s nice to have a decent licensed game that is faithful to its material, looks good, and even plays alright without the brand having to solely rely on references to convince fans they’re having fun.