SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a classic 3D platform game set in the world of SpongeBob. The game was announced as the most important game of this franchise, but it's not what they told us.
Starting with the positive aspects of this game: the characters and their charisma. While the story isn't extremely intriguing, it resembles an episode of the cartoon. SpongeBob and his friends exhibit the same humor that we typically see in the TV show, providing some laughs during gameplay.
Unfortunately, the gameplay is rather boring. I had the impression that I was playing a generic 3D platform game from the PS2 era. There's nothing innovative here, and everything that The Cosmic Shake attempts to do has been done much better in many other games.
The Cosmic Shake targets SpongeBob fans specifically. I'm not one of them, so I had an enjoyable time with it, but that's about it. If you're a devoted fan of this franchise, you'll likely have fun observing the characters' interactions. In conclusion, I recommend considering purchasing this game only if you find it at a significantly reduced price; otherwise, it might not be worth it.
Starting with the positive aspects of this game: the characters and their charisma. While the story isn't extremely intriguing, it resembles an episode of the cartoon. SpongeBob and his friends exhibit the same humor that we typically see in the TV show, providing some laughs during gameplay.
Unfortunately, the gameplay is rather boring. I had the impression that I was playing a generic 3D platform game from the PS2 era. There's nothing innovative here, and everything that The Cosmic Shake attempts to do has been done much better in many other games.
The Cosmic Shake targets SpongeBob fans specifically. I'm not one of them, so I had an enjoyable time with it, but that's about it. If you're a devoted fan of this franchise, you'll likely have fun observing the characters' interactions. In conclusion, I recommend considering purchasing this game only if you find it at a significantly reduced price; otherwise, it might not be worth it.
Kind of exactly what you'd expect from a modern Spongebob platformer: Nice 8th Gen spick span and flow, but sorely toothless in the sauce. Just does everything generally worse than BfBB because it's so scared of being even slightly challenging. The shift away from collectathon structure also makes most of the levels extremely repetitive and forgettable. The PS2 movie game still made linear work by way of Goober Tokens and the objectives tied to them. But like, once you beat the main path of each level, there's basically nothing else to do, and said paths are usually hour-long hikes with the same enemies and platform gimmicks.
Wish the humor was up to par, too, 90% of spongebob's dialouge is him making puns out of random shit and patrick obsfucating that wordplay into some dumb lolrandom dredge. Nick still has the same O.G. voice crew working on this, and I respect it, but I think a lot of these guys are ready to retire from this shindig. You can feel Tom Kenny getting seized by coughing fits from straining his voice so high.
And look man, I wouldn't say BfBB has a 'listenable' soundtrack, but it being VG music in the style of Spongebob's stock music fit like a glove. This mobile game orchestral sludge is ass, and throwing in a Sweet Victory or Jellyfish Jam here and there doesn't fix it.
There was basically nothing for me here but I guess it has a nice comfort food flow to it?
Wish the humor was up to par, too, 90% of spongebob's dialouge is him making puns out of random shit and patrick obsfucating that wordplay into some dumb lolrandom dredge. Nick still has the same O.G. voice crew working on this, and I respect it, but I think a lot of these guys are ready to retire from this shindig. You can feel Tom Kenny getting seized by coughing fits from straining his voice so high.
And look man, I wouldn't say BfBB has a 'listenable' soundtrack, but it being VG music in the style of Spongebob's stock music fit like a glove. This mobile game orchestral sludge is ass, and throwing in a Sweet Victory or Jellyfish Jam here and there doesn't fix it.
There was basically nothing for me here but I guess it has a nice comfort food flow to it?
I feel the Cosmic Shake is the type of game that either makes you absolutely happy beyond belief or think is aggressively average, and judging by my rating, I think you can figure out my feelings. I wouldn’t call Cosmic Shake a bad game, but it’s the type of game where i go, “Yeah, i played it”
Which is a shame, because the concept of this game has never been better, I love the idea of multiversal stories, especially ones of pre established properties, taking characters we know and love and putting them into weird and wonderful worlds due to the nature of the dimensions, I love it when Sonic did it (though has a lot of missed potential), I loved it when Ratchet & Clank does it, I loved it when Crash 4 did it and had some of the craziest level ideas/tropes ever in a platformer so, along with Purple Lamp’s experience of remaking BFBB and understanding it’s mechanics, this should have been a slam dunk for me,
This ain’t fully it
While not bad per say, The Cosmic shake is the definition of missed potential, the idea of this game is fresh and could lead itself to so many crazy ideas in terms of gameplay, story and its world and sad to say it feels like that they indeed had ideas and, they had ideas! The story is marginal fine, Spongebob and Patty Star fuck shit up thanks to a Hot Mermiad (who’s the Twist Viallin by the way), dimensions (Or Wish Worlds) galore! I feel like in terms of the comedy, it was marginally forgettable in my opinion, not as quotable or as funny as BFBB or even the Modern Episodes. This is mainly due to the over reliance on references. I'm not gonna go over it here since there’s actually too many, but the references either feel well intended neat little nods or (most of the time) aggressively reminding you of the good ol days instead of standing on its own two legs.
But i will say in terms of graphical fidelity (barring the performance issues and slightly long load times i had on the Switch Version) is really strong, the artstyle feels a lot more refined than Rehydrated, it feels bright and colourful and in terms of the Voice Acting, barring the caveat that these actors are well past their prime/Golden Age due to getting older, do a fantastic job, though i feel the issue of reused voice lines prop up even more than the original game.
In terms of core gameplay and mechanics, The Cosmic Shake is just like BFBB, the game controls a lot better than Rehydrated, the turning feels a lot smoother and acceleration feels more natural but in terms of mechanical improvements, that’s it. The Cosmic shake doesn’t add any new characters, or even has any playable characters, Spongebob is a lone wolf in this adventure with the exception of a Balloon Patrick who is pretty useless essentially.
I’m split on this, on one hand, expanding Spongebob’s Moveset, giving him abilities such as Gliding in the air and additional Bubble Abilities/Combat manoeuvres but on the other hand, a lot of the abilities here are just from Sandy and Patrick from BFBB and the Playable characters were such an integral part of BFBB’s identity in terms of being a great game, it allowed for additional ways to approach a level and were great ways to add variety to the game, I would have loved to see the other playable characters and even maybe 2 news ones (probably Squidward and Mr Krabs i had to choose) have the treatment that Spongebob has had in this game, hell even the Movie game did this with Patrick.
Speaking of the characters, With the Multiverse premise, it should have led to some of the craziest, wildest and most out of the box worlds and characters ever put in a licensed game, it sorta did! There’s only 7 Levels here which is a bit small, but the quality is what matters (which i mean it doesn't but i’ll get into that in a bit), half the levels are literal settings straight from BFBB (such as Jellyfish Fields, Goo Lagoon, Downtown Bikini Bottom, Kelp Forest and Rock Bottom) with 2 new stage ideas, Sulfur Fields and finally, Glove World, which was previously cut in BFBB.
Again, I’m split on this, on one hand, the whole idea of “Because Multiverse” works well here since they’re using the tried and true tropes of Pirates, Wild West, Medieval and Caveman times along with just fresh ideas in general such as a Movie set or… Halloween? In all seriousness the Multiverse setting allows for some slightly out of the box character interactions and ideas. Despite this however, I don't feel like it feels like a reuse of assets or stages because they do actually feel fresh in terms of Level Design (though it isn’t very good but more on that later). On the other hand, they really couldn’t have thought of some unique ideas for stages that use the multiverse setting as well? Why not adapt newer areas introduced in the series or stuff from the movies? Using a lot of the same worlds makes this feels more like an Encore Mode of BFBB and rather than a sequel.
Still, in terms of level designs and core mechanics, I feel this is where The Cosmic Shake breaks. The level design just isn't very good, It feels inherently more linear and restricting than BFBB’s level design but also wants to be a big collectathon game like BFBB so it’s this weird mishmash of level ideas, so it doesn’t feel like you’re overcoming a tough linear obstacle course or exploring a giant world and raiding it of all it’s collectibles.
The mechanics themselves just don’t feel baked, which also goes for the gimmicks in this game, such as the various vehicle/minigame sections with Mystery and the Unicycle, they just don’t have the flow or momentum like the slide sections from the original game, despite the control fixes done to Spongebob, the vehicles still feel like they’re lacking flow.
They’ve also decided to have more Combat here than Base BFBB, I stress “Base” because the over reliance on Combat isn’t too far off from the multiplayer mode added to Rehydrated. Cutting it short, the combat with bosses and especially the enemies is not fun. BFBB also had combat but this game has so many areas that force combat onto the player, the enemies and bosses themselves despite having some great designs are not fun to fight in the slightest, they feel like (ironically) karate sponge enemies to defeat yet it feels so inherently simple.
The biggest issue however is that exploration doesn’t feel rewarding, Unlike BFBB where the collectibles were like the Stars in Super Mario 64 unlocking stages, The Cosmic shake has a linear structure where there’s main missions that progress the story while the collectibles (like Cosmic Jelly, Specific Collectibles or Golden Doubloons) are completely optional. Now this might be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that this feels like a collectathon still, it also doesn’t help that only 2 of these Collectibles give you something, which are just Costumes that don’t have any special attributes. I really feel like this game would have really benefited from having the same structure as BFBB since it would really make these stages worth exploring which, despite the linear structure, are still bigger than say your average Crash 4 or 3D World/Galaxy stages.
To tell you how backwards this is, this like if Super Mario Odyssey still had Moons to collect but all the main moons with the longer fanfare weren’t moons instead and were just Mission Markers. The Moons and Purple Coins were still in the game, but instead of the Moons unlocking new stages, They also unlocked Costumes but they unlocked the costumes themselves and the purple coins were still used to buy the costumes.
It’s such a shame that I feel so lukewarm about the Cosmic Shake, I hesitate to call it a bad game, far from it! When you get down to it, It’s still slightly fun jumping around and playing it but the core mechanics feel undercooked and backwards. Of course without saying, BFBB is the far superior experience, but even The Movie Game, Truth or Square Console or DS, Atlantis Squarepantis DS or even Creature from the Krusty Krab (Purely for the weird factor) will give you your more fulfilled Spongebob Platforming fix.
Which is a shame, because the concept of this game has never been better, I love the idea of multiversal stories, especially ones of pre established properties, taking characters we know and love and putting them into weird and wonderful worlds due to the nature of the dimensions, I love it when Sonic did it (though has a lot of missed potential), I loved it when Ratchet & Clank does it, I loved it when Crash 4 did it and had some of the craziest level ideas/tropes ever in a platformer so, along with Purple Lamp’s experience of remaking BFBB and understanding it’s mechanics, this should have been a slam dunk for me,
This ain’t fully it
While not bad per say, The Cosmic shake is the definition of missed potential, the idea of this game is fresh and could lead itself to so many crazy ideas in terms of gameplay, story and its world and sad to say it feels like that they indeed had ideas and, they had ideas! The story is marginal fine, Spongebob and Patty Star fuck shit up thanks to a Hot Mermiad (who’s the Twist Viallin by the way), dimensions (Or Wish Worlds) galore! I feel like in terms of the comedy, it was marginally forgettable in my opinion, not as quotable or as funny as BFBB or even the Modern Episodes. This is mainly due to the over reliance on references. I'm not gonna go over it here since there’s actually too many, but the references either feel well intended neat little nods or (most of the time) aggressively reminding you of the good ol days instead of standing on its own two legs.
But i will say in terms of graphical fidelity (barring the performance issues and slightly long load times i had on the Switch Version) is really strong, the artstyle feels a lot more refined than Rehydrated, it feels bright and colourful and in terms of the Voice Acting, barring the caveat that these actors are well past their prime/Golden Age due to getting older, do a fantastic job, though i feel the issue of reused voice lines prop up even more than the original game.
In terms of core gameplay and mechanics, The Cosmic Shake is just like BFBB, the game controls a lot better than Rehydrated, the turning feels a lot smoother and acceleration feels more natural but in terms of mechanical improvements, that’s it. The Cosmic shake doesn’t add any new characters, or even has any playable characters, Spongebob is a lone wolf in this adventure with the exception of a Balloon Patrick who is pretty useless essentially.
I’m split on this, on one hand, expanding Spongebob’s Moveset, giving him abilities such as Gliding in the air and additional Bubble Abilities/Combat manoeuvres but on the other hand, a lot of the abilities here are just from Sandy and Patrick from BFBB and the Playable characters were such an integral part of BFBB’s identity in terms of being a great game, it allowed for additional ways to approach a level and were great ways to add variety to the game, I would have loved to see the other playable characters and even maybe 2 news ones (probably Squidward and Mr Krabs i had to choose) have the treatment that Spongebob has had in this game, hell even the Movie game did this with Patrick.
Speaking of the characters, With the Multiverse premise, it should have led to some of the craziest, wildest and most out of the box worlds and characters ever put in a licensed game, it sorta did! There’s only 7 Levels here which is a bit small, but the quality is what matters (which i mean it doesn't but i’ll get into that in a bit), half the levels are literal settings straight from BFBB (such as Jellyfish Fields, Goo Lagoon, Downtown Bikini Bottom, Kelp Forest and Rock Bottom) with 2 new stage ideas, Sulfur Fields and finally, Glove World, which was previously cut in BFBB.
Again, I’m split on this, on one hand, the whole idea of “Because Multiverse” works well here since they’re using the tried and true tropes of Pirates, Wild West, Medieval and Caveman times along with just fresh ideas in general such as a Movie set or… Halloween? In all seriousness the Multiverse setting allows for some slightly out of the box character interactions and ideas. Despite this however, I don't feel like it feels like a reuse of assets or stages because they do actually feel fresh in terms of Level Design (though it isn’t very good but more on that later). On the other hand, they really couldn’t have thought of some unique ideas for stages that use the multiverse setting as well? Why not adapt newer areas introduced in the series or stuff from the movies? Using a lot of the same worlds makes this feels more like an Encore Mode of BFBB and rather than a sequel.
Still, in terms of level designs and core mechanics, I feel this is where The Cosmic Shake breaks. The level design just isn't very good, It feels inherently more linear and restricting than BFBB’s level design but also wants to be a big collectathon game like BFBB so it’s this weird mishmash of level ideas, so it doesn’t feel like you’re overcoming a tough linear obstacle course or exploring a giant world and raiding it of all it’s collectibles.
The mechanics themselves just don’t feel baked, which also goes for the gimmicks in this game, such as the various vehicle/minigame sections with Mystery and the Unicycle, they just don’t have the flow or momentum like the slide sections from the original game, despite the control fixes done to Spongebob, the vehicles still feel like they’re lacking flow.
They’ve also decided to have more Combat here than Base BFBB, I stress “Base” because the over reliance on Combat isn’t too far off from the multiplayer mode added to Rehydrated. Cutting it short, the combat with bosses and especially the enemies is not fun. BFBB also had combat but this game has so many areas that force combat onto the player, the enemies and bosses themselves despite having some great designs are not fun to fight in the slightest, they feel like (ironically) karate sponge enemies to defeat yet it feels so inherently simple.
The biggest issue however is that exploration doesn’t feel rewarding, Unlike BFBB where the collectibles were like the Stars in Super Mario 64 unlocking stages, The Cosmic shake has a linear structure where there’s main missions that progress the story while the collectibles (like Cosmic Jelly, Specific Collectibles or Golden Doubloons) are completely optional. Now this might be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that this feels like a collectathon still, it also doesn’t help that only 2 of these Collectibles give you something, which are just Costumes that don’t have any special attributes. I really feel like this game would have really benefited from having the same structure as BFBB since it would really make these stages worth exploring which, despite the linear structure, are still bigger than say your average Crash 4 or 3D World/Galaxy stages.
To tell you how backwards this is, this like if Super Mario Odyssey still had Moons to collect but all the main moons with the longer fanfare weren’t moons instead and were just Mission Markers. The Moons and Purple Coins were still in the game, but instead of the Moons unlocking new stages, They also unlocked Costumes but they unlocked the costumes themselves and the purple coins were still used to buy the costumes.
It’s such a shame that I feel so lukewarm about the Cosmic Shake, I hesitate to call it a bad game, far from it! When you get down to it, It’s still slightly fun jumping around and playing it but the core mechanics feel undercooked and backwards. Of course without saying, BFBB is the far superior experience, but even The Movie Game, Truth or Square Console or DS, Atlantis Squarepantis DS or even Creature from the Krusty Krab (Purely for the weird factor) will give you your more fulfilled Spongebob Platforming fix.
ah. i was truly suckered into blowing $30 on a rushed licensed product. i really am an adult now.
cosmic shake feels so weird. it constantly feels like it should be a great game. the controls are solid enough, the graphics are appealing, and it's running on the basis of the bfbb remake that i thought was great. yet, the new direction they take with the gameplay feels rushed at best. the game tells you where to go and what to do, and besides some side collectables, it's a straight shot to the finish with little non-visual variety. abilities that spongebob once had in the heavy iron games are no longer around, and you have to progress in the game to learn new ones (artificially making it so that you have to backtrack to previous levels if you want to 100% them). combat is drolling and repetitive, especially when they force you to take down the three-hit tanks. everything just feels worse.
this sentiment extends to the game's identity as well. half of the writing is references, and all of it isn't funny - precisely because it plays it way too safe and hogties itself to what older people might vaguely recall spongebob to be. i don't think anything made me respect the current spongebob crew's aim to give modern episodes a distinct difference from classic episodes than seeing a random european writing group's fanfiction given a budget. to that end, the audio - music is unmemorable, the voice lines play way too frequently, and sound mixing leaves much to be desired.
i could be much meaner. i thought i was going to be meaner. i also thought this might have turned out better than it ended up. i had high hopes for at least another solid spongebob adventure. i pre-ordered this for $10 less than msrp. unfortunately, when i finally got around to this, all i ended up with was a disappointment.
cosmic shake feels so weird. it constantly feels like it should be a great game. the controls are solid enough, the graphics are appealing, and it's running on the basis of the bfbb remake that i thought was great. yet, the new direction they take with the gameplay feels rushed at best. the game tells you where to go and what to do, and besides some side collectables, it's a straight shot to the finish with little non-visual variety. abilities that spongebob once had in the heavy iron games are no longer around, and you have to progress in the game to learn new ones (artificially making it so that you have to backtrack to previous levels if you want to 100% them). combat is drolling and repetitive, especially when they force you to take down the three-hit tanks. everything just feels worse.
this sentiment extends to the game's identity as well. half of the writing is references, and all of it isn't funny - precisely because it plays it way too safe and hogties itself to what older people might vaguely recall spongebob to be. i don't think anything made me respect the current spongebob crew's aim to give modern episodes a distinct difference from classic episodes than seeing a random european writing group's fanfiction given a budget. to that end, the audio - music is unmemorable, the voice lines play way too frequently, and sound mixing leaves much to be desired.
i could be much meaner. i thought i was going to be meaner. i also thought this might have turned out better than it ended up. i had high hopes for at least another solid spongebob adventure. i pre-ordered this for $10 less than msrp. unfortunately, when i finally got around to this, all i ended up with was a disappointment.
The PS2 is back, folks. We got PS2 ass shooters with Gungrave 2, PS2 ass action games with HFR, and kind of middling PS2 character 3D platformers back with Spongebob in the seat. Obv rough around the edges, game has skung for days, but it's packed to the gills with charm and love for the series it's just sort of infectious. All the VAs and a lot of the music are back from the series (no weird ass Mr. Krabs imitation), and there's a lot of incidental and moment specific dialogue that's generally pretty funny!
It's notably lesser than BfBB, which had tons of small interior areas and moments, vs here where you get to see more landmarks in Bikini Bottom but not actually go in so it just feels a lil hollow. Also can't see this game taking off with the speedrunning scene since it's super linear. One of the weirdest things is they populate the levels with side quests after you beat them, so the first time you go through there's just obviously empty spots in secret areas or tricky platforming sequences that don't get used till later. Super weird! Also while the cutscene animation here is excellent, super expressive and in line with the newest movie, it def feels like they just rushed it out the door, no nice 100% cutscene like BfBB.
The levels themselves are great though, lots of variety and neat themes. The replaying stages thing is clearly to pad the runtime (did everything in the game in like 6 hours), but they make good use of it, with some funny objectives, new dialogue and characters, and new platforming challenges. And sometimes it's just lock and key padding shit... can't win em all 😓. Patrick and Sandy are missed, but the grappling hook and kick moves feel good in their simplicity. If something like a Hat in Time is a game for people who want a new and improved modern collectathon, this is a game for people for whom the warts on those old games is part of the charm. It's skung, and it's loving skung
It's notably lesser than BfBB, which had tons of small interior areas and moments, vs here where you get to see more landmarks in Bikini Bottom but not actually go in so it just feels a lil hollow. Also can't see this game taking off with the speedrunning scene since it's super linear. One of the weirdest things is they populate the levels with side quests after you beat them, so the first time you go through there's just obviously empty spots in secret areas or tricky platforming sequences that don't get used till later. Super weird! Also while the cutscene animation here is excellent, super expressive and in line with the newest movie, it def feels like they just rushed it out the door, no nice 100% cutscene like BfBB.
The levels themselves are great though, lots of variety and neat themes. The replaying stages thing is clearly to pad the runtime (did everything in the game in like 6 hours), but they make good use of it, with some funny objectives, new dialogue and characters, and new platforming challenges. And sometimes it's just lock and key padding shit... can't win em all 😓. Patrick and Sandy are missed, but the grappling hook and kick moves feel good in their simplicity. If something like a Hat in Time is a game for people who want a new and improved modern collectathon, this is a game for people for whom the warts on those old games is part of the charm. It's skung, and it's loving skung
TL;DR : Your kid will enjoy this game. You probably won't.
I gave up upon getting mid-way into the second level. It's just so linear. There's nothing really new, it's a basic 3D platformer with Spongebob's universe plastered on it. The controls aren't satisfying at all, and I often fought with them to make Spongebob do what I wanted him to do.
There's no reasons to farm the ressources other than to unlock costumes. The collectibles only allow you to unlock even more costumes. The game has a whole 'We couldn't finish in time' vibe, which is saddening and is seemingly becoming a norm nowadays.
The rhythm of the game and jokes just feels... off. It's as if they made this game thinking this was just another Spongebob episode. Which makes some interactions just so clanky.
One perfect example is a random fish PNJ saying 'Oh boy, they sure beat me up bad!', then cut to the famous overly detailed pictures that we can get in the show, without any sound, music or any kind of ambiance. The frame stays on until you actually press on a button. It's just so incredibly off.
It's visually enjoyable however, and I'd even dare to say charming. My sister is having a blast with the game. But I won't.
I gave up upon getting mid-way into the second level. It's just so linear. There's nothing really new, it's a basic 3D platformer with Spongebob's universe plastered on it. The controls aren't satisfying at all, and I often fought with them to make Spongebob do what I wanted him to do.
There's no reasons to farm the ressources other than to unlock costumes. The collectibles only allow you to unlock even more costumes. The game has a whole 'We couldn't finish in time' vibe, which is saddening and is seemingly becoming a norm nowadays.
The rhythm of the game and jokes just feels... off. It's as if they made this game thinking this was just another Spongebob episode. Which makes some interactions just so clanky.
One perfect example is a random fish PNJ saying 'Oh boy, they sure beat me up bad!', then cut to the famous overly detailed pictures that we can get in the show, without any sound, music or any kind of ambiance. The frame stays on until you actually press on a button. It's just so incredibly off.
It's visually enjoyable however, and I'd even dare to say charming. My sister is having a blast with the game. But I won't.
in many ways this is a true representation of modern spongebob: self indulgent and constantly referential towards “the good stuff” taken from over twenty years old media. it clearly cannot stand on its own two legs without the original show and indeed the original game to lean on either shoulder, stealing jokes from one and direct gameplay and assets from the other without putting forth much effort to create anything itself. what new ideas do exist are half baked at best and buggy at worst, like the karate kick that can either speed up platforming or throw you down an invisible pit despite its fully automated nature. much like the show, again, this game does not understand when to stop with the obnoxiously exaggerated animations or incessantly droll if not purely regurgitated dialogue. i’ll relay to you now what this game took several hours to relay to me: just watch the first three seasons and movie of the show, and replay battle for bikini bottom (the original, not the watered down, over saturated garbage this studio tried to peddle.) tom kenny is so fucking old now
It starts kinda eh... BUT this game picks up its pace and finds the groove from the third Stage on. Probably because the tutorials stop there.
It's a nifty, nice platformer with all the fan service you can get from a Spongebob Game. The "ugly stills" remind me a lot of the gross out humour from Ren & Stimpy. I simply love how all the music from the TV series is in there. <3
The devs have put a lot of love in this. I can understand why people dismiss it a bit as it doesn't bring a lot of new stuff to the table but Cosmic Shake is a worthy sequel to "Battle for Bikini Bottom". Definitely!
It's a nifty, nice platformer with all the fan service you can get from a Spongebob Game. The "ugly stills" remind me a lot of the gross out humour from Ren & Stimpy. I simply love how all the music from the TV series is in there. <3
The devs have put a lot of love in this. I can understand why people dismiss it a bit as it doesn't bring a lot of new stuff to the table but Cosmic Shake is a worthy sequel to "Battle for Bikini Bottom". Definitely!
i liked the more linear approach this game takes, it made for some fun little set pieces and gimmicks within levels. tongue sliding is as fun as ever, riding the seahorses was fun, i liked the bubble surfboards a lot, and running on boulders was also a solid addition! i mainly think the collectathon aspect of battle for bikini bottom isn't as good because the worlds just weren't particularly interesting so slimming it down and keeping you moving along works in this games favor a lot IMO. even just visually these are more exciting for the context of a video game. none of them are bad either, i don't think back on any and go "man that was rough!" the strongest ones for me were prehistoric kelp forest, medieval sulfur fields, karate downtown bikini bottom, and wild west jellyfish fields. that's like 80% of the levels but they all had some cool themes/ideas that make me remember them pretty fondly!
this game looks pretty solid and has a very spongebob OST (some songs ripped straight from the show), i think there's some weird lighting here and there and the animation when in engine can look a little stiff but i was shocked at how good the pre rendered cutscenes were. they're genuinely really good! this game panders to that early spongebob nostalgia a lot more than BFBB which i can see being slightly annoying but i personally loved since that's my demographic. touches like the loading screens and incorporating classic spongebob close up super detailed drawings were cool to see and made me smile! the only negative i have towards the audio is some cutscene audio was bugged. lines would repeat or just not happen at all. it wasn't too often, and a reset seemed to fix it but it was a little annoying.
spongebob controls pretty identically here to how he did in the BFBB remake, and that's to say it's pretty good! not anything future 3d platformers are gonna take inspiration from or anything, but he's satisfying to control and all of his new moves are fun to use! i didn't find patrick or sandy particularly fun compared to spongebob in BFBB so i was very fine with this game just being entirely spongebob.
the big standout about what i preferred from battle for bikini bottom is the bosses, i think the bosses here are all mostly whatever and BFBB had much more fun ones. the final boss in that game is genuinely super sick and fun and this one was just alright. BFBB also got a bit crazier with the platforming in some optional sequences and i liked those a lot, so it has some higher peaks in that regard but i think the more consistently fun platforming of this one edges that out.
as someone with no real nostalgia for battle for bikini bottom, and only played the remake they're pretty exactly on par quality wise for me. that being said, i liked cosmic shake a tad more. i had a good time here, it's a solid middle of the road 3d platformer, a bit steep for $40 i'll say (i got it half off due to a best buy price error which feels pretty fair for this game) but if you're a fan of spongebob you'll have a good time here! similar to battle for bikini bottom, if you aren't a fan of spongebob you aren't getting anything special.
this game looks pretty solid and has a very spongebob OST (some songs ripped straight from the show), i think there's some weird lighting here and there and the animation when in engine can look a little stiff but i was shocked at how good the pre rendered cutscenes were. they're genuinely really good! this game panders to that early spongebob nostalgia a lot more than BFBB which i can see being slightly annoying but i personally loved since that's my demographic. touches like the loading screens and incorporating classic spongebob close up super detailed drawings were cool to see and made me smile! the only negative i have towards the audio is some cutscene audio was bugged. lines would repeat or just not happen at all. it wasn't too often, and a reset seemed to fix it but it was a little annoying.
spongebob controls pretty identically here to how he did in the BFBB remake, and that's to say it's pretty good! not anything future 3d platformers are gonna take inspiration from or anything, but he's satisfying to control and all of his new moves are fun to use! i didn't find patrick or sandy particularly fun compared to spongebob in BFBB so i was very fine with this game just being entirely spongebob.
the big standout about what i preferred from battle for bikini bottom is the bosses, i think the bosses here are all mostly whatever and BFBB had much more fun ones. the final boss in that game is genuinely super sick and fun and this one was just alright. BFBB also got a bit crazier with the platforming in some optional sequences and i liked those a lot, so it has some higher peaks in that regard but i think the more consistently fun platforming of this one edges that out.
as someone with no real nostalgia for battle for bikini bottom, and only played the remake they're pretty exactly on par quality wise for me. that being said, i liked cosmic shake a tad more. i had a good time here, it's a solid middle of the road 3d platformer, a bit steep for $40 i'll say (i got it half off due to a best buy price error which feels pretty fair for this game) but if you're a fan of spongebob you'll have a good time here! similar to battle for bikini bottom, if you aren't a fan of spongebob you aren't getting anything special.
Bob Esponja é o meu desenho ocidental (estou desconsiderando animes) favorito de todos os tempos, é o desenho que mais assisti e ele fez parte da minha vida. Até hoje eu reassisto os episódios mais antigos do desenho, que acho sensacionais.
Como Bob Esponja fez e faz um enorme sucesso, obviamente a Nickelodeon não deixaria passar e investiu em trocentos jogos sobre o Calça Quadrada, e um dos mais recentes é Bob Esponja Calça Quadrada: O Abalo Cósmico, produzido pela Purple Lamp, a mesma desenvolvedora que produziu o remake de 'Battle for Bikini Bottom', de 2020.
Por conta dessa desenvolvedora já ter uma certa experiência com Bob Esponja, já que ela desenvolveu esse remake que citei e ele em si é um bom jogo (apesar de até o momento eu desisti de jogar ele), era de se esperar que 'Abalo Cósmico' fosse bom. Porém, o que a Purple Lamp fez com esse aqui é algo surreal.
O jogo como um todo foi feito com muito amor, dá pra ver que a empresa teve cuidado e esmero em desenvolver um jogo não só fiel ao desenho, mas também com uma história mirabolante, simples, e divertida. O jogo em si é muito divertido (pelo menos pra mim, mais divertido que o remake de 2020).
Ele segue a mesma gameplay do remake de 2020, porém com adições que achei bem bacanas, pois serviram para a história que o jogo quer contar. A ideia de inserir novas dimensões baseadas em episódios icônicos do Bob Esponja foi sensacional, e cada um dos mundos são muito bonitos, cheios de detalhes e fiéis aos episódios que abordam.
Outro show foi a dublagem: o jogo veio dublado com as vozes originais em português, e isso foi espetacular. É muito bom ver que a THQ Nordic (publisher) conseguiu a localização do jogo em português e a dublagem pra esse jogo, coisa que não tem no remake de 2020, e isso torna tudo mais divertido.
Além disso, apesar de esse jogo ser feito para um público mais infantil, ele traz um certo desafio. Ele não é mais um desses jogos mega fáceis para permitir qualquer criancinha de 10 anos zerar sem dificuldade.
Claro, o público-alvo são as crianças, mas o jogo em si não é extremamente fácil, o que poderia tornar a gameplay por parte de adolescentes e adultos entediante. Isso é um ponto positivo desse jogo.
Enfim, eu adorei esse jogo. É visível que a desenvolvedora se divertiu com a produção do jogo e que eles foram muito criativos e cuidadosos em torná-lo um jogo simples mas divertido. Foi muito legal rever Bob Esponja e sua turma em português dublado, e passar por episódios lendários do desenho.
Acredito que vale a pena jogá-lo, caso goste do desenho, até porque o preço do jogo (na Steam) é bem mais barato que a maioria dos jogos, até mesmo aqueles lançados pela própria THQ Nordic em 2023.
Como Bob Esponja fez e faz um enorme sucesso, obviamente a Nickelodeon não deixaria passar e investiu em trocentos jogos sobre o Calça Quadrada, e um dos mais recentes é Bob Esponja Calça Quadrada: O Abalo Cósmico, produzido pela Purple Lamp, a mesma desenvolvedora que produziu o remake de 'Battle for Bikini Bottom', de 2020.
Por conta dessa desenvolvedora já ter uma certa experiência com Bob Esponja, já que ela desenvolveu esse remake que citei e ele em si é um bom jogo (apesar de até o momento eu desisti de jogar ele), era de se esperar que 'Abalo Cósmico' fosse bom. Porém, o que a Purple Lamp fez com esse aqui é algo surreal.
O jogo como um todo foi feito com muito amor, dá pra ver que a empresa teve cuidado e esmero em desenvolver um jogo não só fiel ao desenho, mas também com uma história mirabolante, simples, e divertida. O jogo em si é muito divertido (pelo menos pra mim, mais divertido que o remake de 2020).
Ele segue a mesma gameplay do remake de 2020, porém com adições que achei bem bacanas, pois serviram para a história que o jogo quer contar. A ideia de inserir novas dimensões baseadas em episódios icônicos do Bob Esponja foi sensacional, e cada um dos mundos são muito bonitos, cheios de detalhes e fiéis aos episódios que abordam.
Outro show foi a dublagem: o jogo veio dublado com as vozes originais em português, e isso foi espetacular. É muito bom ver que a THQ Nordic (publisher) conseguiu a localização do jogo em português e a dublagem pra esse jogo, coisa que não tem no remake de 2020, e isso torna tudo mais divertido.
Além disso, apesar de esse jogo ser feito para um público mais infantil, ele traz um certo desafio. Ele não é mais um desses jogos mega fáceis para permitir qualquer criancinha de 10 anos zerar sem dificuldade.
Claro, o público-alvo são as crianças, mas o jogo em si não é extremamente fácil, o que poderia tornar a gameplay por parte de adolescentes e adultos entediante. Isso é um ponto positivo desse jogo.
Enfim, eu adorei esse jogo. É visível que a desenvolvedora se divertiu com a produção do jogo e que eles foram muito criativos e cuidadosos em torná-lo um jogo simples mas divertido. Foi muito legal rever Bob Esponja e sua turma em português dublado, e passar por episódios lendários do desenho.
Acredito que vale a pena jogá-lo, caso goste do desenho, até porque o preço do jogo (na Steam) é bem mais barato que a maioria dos jogos, até mesmo aqueles lançados pela própria THQ Nordic em 2023.
Um jogo muito bom que é DERRUBADO por problemas técnicos. Quedas de frame rate, travamentos, jogo crashando... mas ainda assim é super divertido.
A movimentação do personagem é boa, as cutscenes são incríveis e eu curti muito ele.
A movimentação do personagem é boa, as cutscenes são incríveis e eu curti muito ele.
This review contains spoilers
Not too bad of a 3D platformer, and wow, I'm playing a game that came out recently for once? That's a bit of a shock.
Flawed story and the gameplay and audio can be a bit buggy on the PC release anyway. Quick playthrough for anyone that has touched videogames before (it's not hard at all, even the final boss was very easy). I like the metroidvania elements, however I have no desire to come back to this one whatsoever, I got my fun out of it, in fact by the Halloween stage I was getting pretty sick of it. Don't even get me started on the caveman stage! Dialogue is not fun if it's just caveman grunts and imaginary words for the entire level. Spongebob and Patrick's banter is funny enough to keep you entertained, and fans of the OG show will find enough enjoyment out of this through callbacks, but there's something for all generations of Spongebob fans here. If you've never seen the show or played any of the games, you might not get as much mileage and just see it as a mediocre 3D platformer.
2 things that irked me:
-Why is Pearl such a major character in this game? She's a BOSS on one level for crying out loud, and shows up in pretty much every level in the game. She has the most screentime by far for such a minor character in the show.
-This game suffers from repetitive dialogue from Spongebob every time he picks up Jelly or kills an enemy, it was getting REALLY on my nerves hearing "A lil' dab'll do ya!" for the 500th time by the time I was almost done.
Anyway, that's my venting. Aside from almost 0 incentive to replay the game and a copout ending, I really have no qualms with this game. It's short, you can beat it in about 2 days if you have enough free time, it's cheap enough. If you like the show, give it a go! Bear in mind I've never played the game this was a 'spiritual successor' to and probably owe it to myself to do that, so my opinions will probably differ from yours. But yeah, not bad. Beaten on 2/1/23 with a total playtime of 6 hours or so, not 100%.
BEATEN
Flawed story and the gameplay and audio can be a bit buggy on the PC release anyway. Quick playthrough for anyone that has touched videogames before (it's not hard at all, even the final boss was very easy). I like the metroidvania elements, however I have no desire to come back to this one whatsoever, I got my fun out of it, in fact by the Halloween stage I was getting pretty sick of it. Don't even get me started on the caveman stage! Dialogue is not fun if it's just caveman grunts and imaginary words for the entire level. Spongebob and Patrick's banter is funny enough to keep you entertained, and fans of the OG show will find enough enjoyment out of this through callbacks, but there's something for all generations of Spongebob fans here. If you've never seen the show or played any of the games, you might not get as much mileage and just see it as a mediocre 3D platformer.
2 things that irked me:
-Why is Pearl such a major character in this game? She's a BOSS on one level for crying out loud, and shows up in pretty much every level in the game. She has the most screentime by far for such a minor character in the show.
-This game suffers from repetitive dialogue from Spongebob every time he picks up Jelly or kills an enemy, it was getting REALLY on my nerves hearing "A lil' dab'll do ya!" for the 500th time by the time I was almost done.
Anyway, that's my venting. Aside from almost 0 incentive to replay the game and a copout ending, I really have no qualms with this game. It's short, you can beat it in about 2 days if you have enough free time, it's cheap enough. If you like the show, give it a go! Bear in mind I've never played the game this was a 'spiritual successor' to and probably owe it to myself to do that, so my opinions will probably differ from yours. But yeah, not bad. Beaten on 2/1/23 with a total playtime of 6 hours or so, not 100%.
BEATEN
Asoingbob and Patrick when they accidentally tear the fabric of reality
This game was THQ Nordic's attempt to make a new game in the same vein as Battle for Bikini Bottom. Apparently the remaster of BFB did well enough that Cosmic Shake got greenlit. And I did enjoy Cosmic Shake as a big BFB enjoyer, but eh... it just lacks a lot of heart the original had. SpongeBob is the only playable character this time around, and while the world design is cool, the game is much more condensed since it doesn't have the progression of the Spatulas that BFB has.
It almost feels like THQ Nordic got too excited to make a new BFB spiritual successor that they didn't stop to think about what made BFB so charming. And as a result, they made a solid game, but one that pales in comparison. Overall, good game, but disappointing and has plenty of wasted potential should they have spent more time with it.
God, am I getting this nuanced talking about a SpongeBob game?
Score: 75
It almost feels like THQ Nordic got too excited to make a new BFB spiritual successor that they didn't stop to think about what made BFB so charming. And as a result, they made a solid game, but one that pales in comparison. Overall, good game, but disappointing and has plenty of wasted potential should they have spent more time with it.
God, am I getting this nuanced talking about a SpongeBob game?
Score: 75
good bob
So, Spongebob is back with a new game, and despite having not watched the show in a long while, I still kept some tabs on it here and there and even preordered it. I mean, it's THE Millennial and Gen Z icon after all, how could I not! But wait, something's off here. A strictly linear structure, forgoing the open-ended ethos? Prominent utilizations of gimmicks and minigame segments? A downscaled focus on optional knick-knacks, usually centering the maguffins on one item? Why, this isn't quite the (spiritual) successor to BfBB as I was led to believe, instead this is taking cues from the far, far inferior descendants Movie Game and Creature From The Krusty Krab! Oh, the hu-manatee! I kid, it's not that bad, but it could stand to be a little better.
Spongebob's doing a solo venture this time around, and he controls pretty adequately thankfully. Jumping and attacking is just as good as ever, turning's a little heavier than before but I got used to it, and ground pounding has never felt more satisfying and cartoony, and he has a new dodge ability that's quick to pull off and covers decent distance. That said, however, some of his returning and new moves are a little odd. The karate kick is pretty slick, having a nice flow and feel to it... when activated properly. When you press its button a little too early or a little too close to something, he sorta slowly glides across the way to it, which while not awful can be pretty annoying. The swing though, sucks shit, it's automated and super exaggerated about it, and turning is sluggish as hell. I've never come to regret seeing when a section uses it, but I sigh anyway since it could've been much better. You can use the Reef Blower to suck things up and fire it back at objects and enemies, and it's certainly a thing that exists considering you unlock it right at the final level. Tangentially, there's an unusual centering of combat here, with enemies having health bars capping out at about four, even the Duplicatotron/Spawner equivalent having them, and it's just as tedious as you'd expect with a limited attacking pool at your disposal even compared to BfBB and Movie Game due to only having the pounds, circling attack, a bubble move that'll trap enemies and can stun them once it pops, and a karate kick for the smaller foes. Even with ways to mitigate the waiting periods, I groaned each time I got placed onto a combat room spontaneously appearing with jolted pacing between it and the platforming. What helps to alleviate some of these woes is that the core of it is indeed surprisingly pretty well done. I dunno, while these levels have some spotty pacing and attributes attached from all I've said, I can't deny I had some fun just going through them when all the pieces clicked in, due to the feel again being adequate all around and how they're established just being fun to explore and complete. I mean, this game's Kelp Forest level is actually the best one unlike in BfBB, that's insane!
I mentioned the gimmicks and minigames, and speaking seriously here I gotta give props for how they wanted to implement them. How it works is that each world showcases them as its own little slice, that then gets transferred over onto the Bikini Bottom hub for one reason or another, and perhaps even for a quick segment in a later world. In Western Jellyfish Fields you can use a seahorse once obtaining the license to do so, in Prehistoric Kelp Forest you roll around on a rock to traverse past the lava below, Pirate-riddled Goo Lagoon has you hoisting up flags and utilizing the swings in order to go around and attain rep, etc. etc. I guess I'm a bit of a weirdo and don't entirely bemoan these sorts of things in 3D Platformers - you can blame Sonic and Sly Cooper for that - but I'll still call them out if they're not handled properly, which is unfortunately a bit of a case here. Controlling the seahorse doesn't have the best sense of weight and momentum, some of these minigames amount to simple button mashing like the flag hoists mentioned earlier, and listen, I know this is a kid-centric game and all, but when puzzles can have the solution written either scarcely tucked away (I destroyed the tikis in front of this for instance) or in plain sight, I gotta question the level of trust and forethought put on display. To its credit, I don't think these slumps are that frequent, and there were legit some shakeups I found pretty interesting and cool, like in Downtown Bikini Bottom playing around with movie stardom and filmmaking or the more whimsical approaches found in Medieval Sulfur Fields.
There's also criticisms I can't quite articulate well here, cause they can easily be lobbied onto BfBB and Movie Game. The abundant uses of voice lines? I mean, that's bad, but I also grew up with Spongebob exclaiming how sometimes pushing a simple button is the most satisfying (push, push, push push) in BfBB or Patrick talking about pain trains in Movie Game, so yea. References? I mean, this whole game is supposed to be a throwback, so it makes sense, plus it isn't the first Spongebob game to do such a thing. Lackluster boss fights? Yea, cause Robo-Sandy, Robo-Patrick, Dennis, and Flying Dutchman were such exhilarating foes. I suppose one frame I can pitch, excluding bosses, is that the frequency of them can be a bit much. Simply doing a glide has a high chance of Spongebob doing the Krusty Krab Pizza line, falling off a ledge has him talking about what a great friend Patrick is ad nauseum, I got sick of this and I'd like to think my patience for these things is pretty high. BfBB had just under three seasons worth of material to work off of when it released on Oct. 29th 2003, something its Rehydrated remake mostly stuck with outside a couple of meme stuff in illustrations and idle animations, and more specific instances had manually triggered Easter Eggs like the Rock Bottom bus, which CS also does. Alongside this, it has triple the amount to work under, yet not only does it pull from that same set, it outright showcases them more like with Fred "My Leg" Fish, Tom The CHOCOLATE Enthusiast, or even one minigame instance where the whole point is doing The Popular Meme Animations numerous times in a button mashing minigame, five separate times. It's jarring cause they can indeed do more lowkey inferences to the source or even put them under a new spin, like reusing Prawn as a boss Flying Dutchman has to face to get his groove back, or plastering the set of DBB with Handsome Squidward and Master Udon on the walls. A better balancing of this sort of thing was in order for sure, but hey, I got some laughs.
The biggest issue though, is the visual oddities and quirks. BfBB Rehydrated got some flack for this as well, and much like that game, I haven't gotten anything too nasty but I still faced hiccups regardless. Spongebob's body and wand disappearing, cutscenes jarringly stopping all of a sudden without my input, tikis sometimes floating when they should be falling down, weird boundary detection causing me to get hit, cutscenes not having any sort of sound or music cue making them feel weirdly empty, frankly rather befuddled over what's happening here considering they had nowhere near the same predicament as Rehydrated, a game that suffered from being shoved out the door despite its planned movie tie-in deal not coming through from Sponge On The Run's delayed premiere. It's understandable this is a budgeted release, which is why the standard cutscene animation reuse and more compact feel doesn't bother me so much, but that line of reasoning can only underline a game's woes for so long. The DLC practice is also a legitimate scam, from preordering or now paying 10 additional bucks, you get seven additional costumes to wear despite the fact they have no real difference in utility, the world-specific one takes up all the showcasing, and one of them is just outright the same thing as something already available. Considering how easy it is to stack up on jellies and doubloons, I sincerely have no real clue as to why these are separated from the pack, especially since if I recall, these were shown in trailers!
Honestly, the only reason I'm not too bitter is because at the end of the day, I'm way past the age demographic this is appealing to, even in their attempts to try and do so considering BfBB's popularity, but more importantly its a case that can rarely be replicated in the modern age. That game's quality and sheen was, if I may be so bold, a bit of a lightning in a bottle; it's not at all the first good licensed game, hell it could be argued it wasn't the first good one in the 6th Gen line, but it was one of the more faithful outings due to its usage of the source material concocting for a great experience fan or otherwise, as well as its shockingly intact polish and physicality, which landed itself as a mainstay for speedrunning enthusiasts. While you can expect that sort of thing for more high-maintenance studios such as Insomniac, that's not quite the case for AA-tier calibers like Purple Lamp. Don't get me wrong, I am not excusing these technical issues and my confusing state over them still remain, I'm just saying that I wasn't expecting the same level that came before irregardless of the fact. If kids are gonna grow up with this game, I'm genuinely thankful its at least a commendable effort, and not the shlock I had to face following up such as Movie Game and CfKK to reiterate, Truth Or Square, and especially Atlantis Squarepantis. Funny how people got mad over an IGN employee giving it a 5/10 though, like come on lol there's other type of people to get mad over if you wanna do so.
Spongebob's doing a solo venture this time around, and he controls pretty adequately thankfully. Jumping and attacking is just as good as ever, turning's a little heavier than before but I got used to it, and ground pounding has never felt more satisfying and cartoony, and he has a new dodge ability that's quick to pull off and covers decent distance. That said, however, some of his returning and new moves are a little odd. The karate kick is pretty slick, having a nice flow and feel to it... when activated properly. When you press its button a little too early or a little too close to something, he sorta slowly glides across the way to it, which while not awful can be pretty annoying. The swing though, sucks shit, it's automated and super exaggerated about it, and turning is sluggish as hell. I've never come to regret seeing when a section uses it, but I sigh anyway since it could've been much better. You can use the Reef Blower to suck things up and fire it back at objects and enemies, and it's certainly a thing that exists considering you unlock it right at the final level. Tangentially, there's an unusual centering of combat here, with enemies having health bars capping out at about four, even the Duplicatotron/Spawner equivalent having them, and it's just as tedious as you'd expect with a limited attacking pool at your disposal even compared to BfBB and Movie Game due to only having the pounds, circling attack, a bubble move that'll trap enemies and can stun them once it pops, and a karate kick for the smaller foes. Even with ways to mitigate the waiting periods, I groaned each time I got placed onto a combat room spontaneously appearing with jolted pacing between it and the platforming. What helps to alleviate some of these woes is that the core of it is indeed surprisingly pretty well done. I dunno, while these levels have some spotty pacing and attributes attached from all I've said, I can't deny I had some fun just going through them when all the pieces clicked in, due to the feel again being adequate all around and how they're established just being fun to explore and complete. I mean, this game's Kelp Forest level is actually the best one unlike in BfBB, that's insane!
I mentioned the gimmicks and minigames, and speaking seriously here I gotta give props for how they wanted to implement them. How it works is that each world showcases them as its own little slice, that then gets transferred over onto the Bikini Bottom hub for one reason or another, and perhaps even for a quick segment in a later world. In Western Jellyfish Fields you can use a seahorse once obtaining the license to do so, in Prehistoric Kelp Forest you roll around on a rock to traverse past the lava below, Pirate-riddled Goo Lagoon has you hoisting up flags and utilizing the swings in order to go around and attain rep, etc. etc. I guess I'm a bit of a weirdo and don't entirely bemoan these sorts of things in 3D Platformers - you can blame Sonic and Sly Cooper for that - but I'll still call them out if they're not handled properly, which is unfortunately a bit of a case here. Controlling the seahorse doesn't have the best sense of weight and momentum, some of these minigames amount to simple button mashing like the flag hoists mentioned earlier, and listen, I know this is a kid-centric game and all, but when puzzles can have the solution written either scarcely tucked away (I destroyed the tikis in front of this for instance) or in plain sight, I gotta question the level of trust and forethought put on display. To its credit, I don't think these slumps are that frequent, and there were legit some shakeups I found pretty interesting and cool, like in Downtown Bikini Bottom playing around with movie stardom and filmmaking or the more whimsical approaches found in Medieval Sulfur Fields.
There's also criticisms I can't quite articulate well here, cause they can easily be lobbied onto BfBB and Movie Game. The abundant uses of voice lines? I mean, that's bad, but I also grew up with Spongebob exclaiming how sometimes pushing a simple button is the most satisfying (push, push, push push) in BfBB or Patrick talking about pain trains in Movie Game, so yea. References? I mean, this whole game is supposed to be a throwback, so it makes sense, plus it isn't the first Spongebob game to do such a thing. Lackluster boss fights? Yea, cause Robo-Sandy, Robo-Patrick, Dennis, and Flying Dutchman were such exhilarating foes. I suppose one frame I can pitch, excluding bosses, is that the frequency of them can be a bit much. Simply doing a glide has a high chance of Spongebob doing the Krusty Krab Pizza line, falling off a ledge has him talking about what a great friend Patrick is ad nauseum, I got sick of this and I'd like to think my patience for these things is pretty high. BfBB had just under three seasons worth of material to work off of when it released on Oct. 29th 2003, something its Rehydrated remake mostly stuck with outside a couple of meme stuff in illustrations and idle animations, and more specific instances had manually triggered Easter Eggs like the Rock Bottom bus, which CS also does. Alongside this, it has triple the amount to work under, yet not only does it pull from that same set, it outright showcases them more like with Fred "My Leg" Fish, Tom The CHOCOLATE Enthusiast, or even one minigame instance where the whole point is doing The Popular Meme Animations numerous times in a button mashing minigame, five separate times. It's jarring cause they can indeed do more lowkey inferences to the source or even put them under a new spin, like reusing Prawn as a boss Flying Dutchman has to face to get his groove back, or plastering the set of DBB with Handsome Squidward and Master Udon on the walls. A better balancing of this sort of thing was in order for sure, but hey, I got some laughs.
The biggest issue though, is the visual oddities and quirks. BfBB Rehydrated got some flack for this as well, and much like that game, I haven't gotten anything too nasty but I still faced hiccups regardless. Spongebob's body and wand disappearing, cutscenes jarringly stopping all of a sudden without my input, tikis sometimes floating when they should be falling down, weird boundary detection causing me to get hit, cutscenes not having any sort of sound or music cue making them feel weirdly empty, frankly rather befuddled over what's happening here considering they had nowhere near the same predicament as Rehydrated, a game that suffered from being shoved out the door despite its planned movie tie-in deal not coming through from Sponge On The Run's delayed premiere. It's understandable this is a budgeted release, which is why the standard cutscene animation reuse and more compact feel doesn't bother me so much, but that line of reasoning can only underline a game's woes for so long. The DLC practice is also a legitimate scam, from preordering or now paying 10 additional bucks, you get seven additional costumes to wear despite the fact they have no real difference in utility, the world-specific one takes up all the showcasing, and one of them is just outright the same thing as something already available. Considering how easy it is to stack up on jellies and doubloons, I sincerely have no real clue as to why these are separated from the pack, especially since if I recall, these were shown in trailers!
Honestly, the only reason I'm not too bitter is because at the end of the day, I'm way past the age demographic this is appealing to, even in their attempts to try and do so considering BfBB's popularity, but more importantly its a case that can rarely be replicated in the modern age. That game's quality and sheen was, if I may be so bold, a bit of a lightning in a bottle; it's not at all the first good licensed game, hell it could be argued it wasn't the first good one in the 6th Gen line, but it was one of the more faithful outings due to its usage of the source material concocting for a great experience fan or otherwise, as well as its shockingly intact polish and physicality, which landed itself as a mainstay for speedrunning enthusiasts. While you can expect that sort of thing for more high-maintenance studios such as Insomniac, that's not quite the case for AA-tier calibers like Purple Lamp. Don't get me wrong, I am not excusing these technical issues and my confusing state over them still remain, I'm just saying that I wasn't expecting the same level that came before irregardless of the fact. If kids are gonna grow up with this game, I'm genuinely thankful its at least a commendable effort, and not the shlock I had to face following up such as Movie Game and CfKK to reiterate, Truth Or Square, and especially Atlantis Squarepantis. Funny how people got mad over an IGN employee giving it a 5/10 though, like come on lol there's other type of people to get mad over if you wanna do so.
What a disappointment for a game I was hoping could at least be passable. I should have expected this, and I partially did, but wow.
Cosmic Shake claims to be the sequel to Battle For Bikini Bottom, but it's not the sequel to that beloved classic from our childhood, no it's for the overly saturated slow and clunky remake we got a few years ago. 3 years later and we not only have the same bugs and glitches but completely new ones to this game. You're not supposed to go backwards like that! It honestly just reeks of a strained budget and a team who doesn't know what they are doing at this point, which seems to be a thing with most modern Nickelodeon games.
Gameplay is...there? Yeah you platform across big levels, but there is just this emptiness that exists in each area. What made BFBB so much of a joy is that while there was a main objective to each area, there were still side objectives and goodies to find that were mandatory to beat the game, incentivizing exploration. Here it's just jellies and doubloons which are only used for an optional costume shop. Without the incentive of primary (golden spatulas, goober tokens) or secondary (socks, extras) collectables and all we have are the tertiary ones, there just feels like there is no point to going around looking for secrets or doing anything but the main objective. So you are just left in large linear areas with the most forgettable music of all time and nothing to do besides barebones platforming and combat that was nerfed from BFBB. Yeah let's get into the combat...
There are now set action scenes that require you to fight enemies to progress. Sure that's fine, but the issue lies when the enemies in this game are not fun to fight. They're all loosely based off robots from BFBB, but they just feel worst to fight. The duplicatotron expy has 3 hit points and between each hit has an aoe unblockable stun attack, or the giant beefcakes who can't be damaged until they just conveniently do that one attack that makes them able to take damage, who also have 3 hp. It makes combat a slog when it was very snappy in other Spongebob games, not just BFBB or Movie but like Creature as well. Sure, you unlock new abilities in each level, but they all feel clunky to use like nearly everything else in this game.
This show also has that modern Spongebob folly to never stand on its own two feet and must rely on stuff from the show to keep going. While I understand it's cool to have references in a license game, I loved when BFBB did that, it is just so ham fisted that nearly everything in this game was "LOOK AT THE THING! ITS THE THING FROM THE SHOW/BFBB!!!!!" and it feels like this game barely has an identity to stand on. I think the trailers mainly using Band Geeks music as well as showing off all the costumes from other episodes really shows how little creativity went into this game. It hopes you cling onto your nostalgia the entire time without any substance.
Oh yeah speaking of those costumes, fun fact. This game came with a day 1 DLC for all the costumes you would most likely want that were shown in trailers mind you. Kind of fucked to see that you can play as spongegar in the trailers and then realize hes locked behind a $10 paywall. I know it's not important but this kind of backhanded marketing kind of fucked me up. Like there is already an in game costume shop but w/e.
I was originally going to give this game a 5/10 / 2.5/5, and in my mind it still is that. That is basically the dead zone of games for me, those that do absolutely nothing and while are technically functional give me nothing to enjoy or even really hate besides a massive blah. That swamp of mediocrity where games are forgotten, the worst fate any media could have. The only reason I gave this game a lower score was mainly because of how much it pisses me off, how the bugs are even more apparent, how there's DLC that isn't needed, how this is supposed to be a sequel to one of my favorite games of all time without knowing what made that game great. It all just breaks my heart and I wish I had bought Pizza Tower or fucking hell even Fire Emblem Engage over this, at least that game would've been funny bad with good gameplay as I've heard.
Do yourself a favor and just play BFBB. The original, the one that's actually good. Or even the movie game, which is a lot better of a sequel despite its flaws.
We owe that IGN guy an apology.
Cosmic Shake claims to be the sequel to Battle For Bikini Bottom, but it's not the sequel to that beloved classic from our childhood, no it's for the overly saturated slow and clunky remake we got a few years ago. 3 years later and we not only have the same bugs and glitches but completely new ones to this game. You're not supposed to go backwards like that! It honestly just reeks of a strained budget and a team who doesn't know what they are doing at this point, which seems to be a thing with most modern Nickelodeon games.
Gameplay is...there? Yeah you platform across big levels, but there is just this emptiness that exists in each area. What made BFBB so much of a joy is that while there was a main objective to each area, there were still side objectives and goodies to find that were mandatory to beat the game, incentivizing exploration. Here it's just jellies and doubloons which are only used for an optional costume shop. Without the incentive of primary (golden spatulas, goober tokens) or secondary (socks, extras) collectables and all we have are the tertiary ones, there just feels like there is no point to going around looking for secrets or doing anything but the main objective. So you are just left in large linear areas with the most forgettable music of all time and nothing to do besides barebones platforming and combat that was nerfed from BFBB. Yeah let's get into the combat...
There are now set action scenes that require you to fight enemies to progress. Sure that's fine, but the issue lies when the enemies in this game are not fun to fight. They're all loosely based off robots from BFBB, but they just feel worst to fight. The duplicatotron expy has 3 hit points and between each hit has an aoe unblockable stun attack, or the giant beefcakes who can't be damaged until they just conveniently do that one attack that makes them able to take damage, who also have 3 hp. It makes combat a slog when it was very snappy in other Spongebob games, not just BFBB or Movie but like Creature as well. Sure, you unlock new abilities in each level, but they all feel clunky to use like nearly everything else in this game.
This show also has that modern Spongebob folly to never stand on its own two feet and must rely on stuff from the show to keep going. While I understand it's cool to have references in a license game, I loved when BFBB did that, it is just so ham fisted that nearly everything in this game was "LOOK AT THE THING! ITS THE THING FROM THE SHOW/BFBB!!!!!" and it feels like this game barely has an identity to stand on. I think the trailers mainly using Band Geeks music as well as showing off all the costumes from other episodes really shows how little creativity went into this game. It hopes you cling onto your nostalgia the entire time without any substance.
Oh yeah speaking of those costumes, fun fact. This game came with a day 1 DLC for all the costumes you would most likely want that were shown in trailers mind you. Kind of fucked to see that you can play as spongegar in the trailers and then realize hes locked behind a $10 paywall. I know it's not important but this kind of backhanded marketing kind of fucked me up. Like there is already an in game costume shop but w/e.
I was originally going to give this game a 5/10 / 2.5/5, and in my mind it still is that. That is basically the dead zone of games for me, those that do absolutely nothing and while are technically functional give me nothing to enjoy or even really hate besides a massive blah. That swamp of mediocrity where games are forgotten, the worst fate any media could have. The only reason I gave this game a lower score was mainly because of how much it pisses me off, how the bugs are even more apparent, how there's DLC that isn't needed, how this is supposed to be a sequel to one of my favorite games of all time without knowing what made that game great. It all just breaks my heart and I wish I had bought Pizza Tower or fucking hell even Fire Emblem Engage over this, at least that game would've been funny bad with good gameplay as I've heard.
Do yourself a favor and just play BFBB. The original, the one that's actually good. Or even the movie game, which is a lot better of a sequel despite its flaws.
We owe that IGN guy an apology.
I was very excited when they announced that a sequel to a game I grew up playing was coming out 20 years later. Battle for Bikini Bottom is a gem of the early 2000s that was very overlooked, and it finally was getting a well deserved sequel.
Cosmic Shake feels like an extension of BFBB in so many ways. Plays just like it, very similar(although enhanced) graphics, great SpongeBob comedy, and more. Where this game excels over its predecessor is the level designs. Each one is so unique and vibrant in its theme and I had so much fun exploring them all. It also has PLENTY of collectibles, and while some of them are really fun to discover/ look for, others are kind of tedious.
I really enjoyed the removal of other playable characters, and how they basically just give SpongeBob all the abilities the others had in the first game as you progress. It felt seamless and streamlined whereas the first game had you stopping and looking for a bus stop for you to switch characters just for one little thing. I also seriously enjoyed the different costumes you unlock throughout the game, most paying homage to the episodes of the show we all know and love.
The story is meh, about what you would expect for a game like this. Not much to say there. I do wish that the combat was a little more evolved, but it mostly felt the same as BFBB. There were some unique enemies, but none that were impressive, and the combat is laughably easy. But I get it, this is a game that is targeted towards children.
Much like BFBB the boss fights are some of the best parts of the game. While some of them were ok at best there were a few that I truly had fun with. Unfortunately, the final boss was an extreme let down for me. It kind of just, happens all of a sudden, and it’s over as quickly as it began, leaving me unsatisfied and wanting more. Honestly I thought the penultimate boss was much better and a more fitting “Final Boss”.
All in all, I am very pleased with this sequel, and it managed to recapture what made BFBB so fun and memorable, hitting my nostalgia bone just right. I would love if this series continued in the future (and not 20 years from now) but for some reason I feel like this is the end of the line. If that’s true, I am happy that we were given two awesome, solid SpongeBob games in this style.
Cosmic Shake feels like an extension of BFBB in so many ways. Plays just like it, very similar(although enhanced) graphics, great SpongeBob comedy, and more. Where this game excels over its predecessor is the level designs. Each one is so unique and vibrant in its theme and I had so much fun exploring them all. It also has PLENTY of collectibles, and while some of them are really fun to discover/ look for, others are kind of tedious.
I really enjoyed the removal of other playable characters, and how they basically just give SpongeBob all the abilities the others had in the first game as you progress. It felt seamless and streamlined whereas the first game had you stopping and looking for a bus stop for you to switch characters just for one little thing. I also seriously enjoyed the different costumes you unlock throughout the game, most paying homage to the episodes of the show we all know and love.
The story is meh, about what you would expect for a game like this. Not much to say there. I do wish that the combat was a little more evolved, but it mostly felt the same as BFBB. There were some unique enemies, but none that were impressive, and the combat is laughably easy. But I get it, this is a game that is targeted towards children.
Much like BFBB the boss fights are some of the best parts of the game. While some of them were ok at best there were a few that I truly had fun with. Unfortunately, the final boss was an extreme let down for me. It kind of just, happens all of a sudden, and it’s over as quickly as it began, leaving me unsatisfied and wanting more. Honestly I thought the penultimate boss was much better and a more fitting “Final Boss”.
All in all, I am very pleased with this sequel, and it managed to recapture what made BFBB so fun and memorable, hitting my nostalgia bone just right. I would love if this series continued in the future (and not 20 years from now) but for some reason I feel like this is the end of the line. If that’s true, I am happy that we were given two awesome, solid SpongeBob games in this style.
Essa é a história do mexilhão feio: Era uma vez um mexilhão feio. Ele era tão feio que todo mundo morreu. Acabou.
I really wanted to come away from this game loving it more than I did, especially having enjoyed my time with BFBB: Rehydrated so much. Unfortunately this game clearly could have used more time in the oven.
During my playthrough of the Cosmic Crunch on PS5 l encountered frequent stuttering, audio glitches galore, and a handful of other bugs. The audio glitches were the most grating and really dampened the experience. Lines repeating themselves, dialogue skipping, sound effects NOT playing, sound effects playing on repeat throughout a cutscene, music skipping. Just about every type of audio bug is present in this game and they occurred frequently for me.
Spongebob controls better and has an expanded moveset but the absence of multiple playable characters was missed.
BFBB had superior level design and levels in general. Outside of glove world, BFBB allowed you to visit the major locations of the show. About half of the levels in the Cosmic Crunch are themed versions of levels found in BFBB but done worse.
I noticed mermaid man and barnacle boy were completely absent from the game, but besides that, most of the characters are here. It was nice to see Mr. Krabs voice done right this time.
The Cosmic Crunch felt dated and unlike Rehydrates doesn't have the excuse of being a remake. We have seen this game dozens of times before and many of those times it was done better or at the very least had less bugs. If you are looking to scratch that SpongeBob itch and have already played rehydrated then Cosmic Crunch can provide a decent 10 to 12 hours of fun. If you haven't played rehydrated then I would definitely go for that over this and if you are just looking for a new 3D platformer then there are many other better options.
During my playthrough of the Cosmic Crunch on PS5 l encountered frequent stuttering, audio glitches galore, and a handful of other bugs. The audio glitches were the most grating and really dampened the experience. Lines repeating themselves, dialogue skipping, sound effects NOT playing, sound effects playing on repeat throughout a cutscene, music skipping. Just about every type of audio bug is present in this game and they occurred frequently for me.
Spongebob controls better and has an expanded moveset but the absence of multiple playable characters was missed.
BFBB had superior level design and levels in general. Outside of glove world, BFBB allowed you to visit the major locations of the show. About half of the levels in the Cosmic Crunch are themed versions of levels found in BFBB but done worse.
I noticed mermaid man and barnacle boy were completely absent from the game, but besides that, most of the characters are here. It was nice to see Mr. Krabs voice done right this time.
The Cosmic Crunch felt dated and unlike Rehydrates doesn't have the excuse of being a remake. We have seen this game dozens of times before and many of those times it was done better or at the very least had less bugs. If you are looking to scratch that SpongeBob itch and have already played rehydrated then Cosmic Crunch can provide a decent 10 to 12 hours of fun. If you haven't played rehydrated then I would definitely go for that over this and if you are just looking for a new 3D platformer then there are many other better options.
Spongebob and the cosmic references.
Spongebob Squarepants plays a big part of my childhood. I watched the show when it aired, Played the games like battle for bikini bottom and the spongebob the movie game and a few others. I haven't watched newer spongebob episodes. It kinda lost its passion when The creator Stephen Hillenburg (rest in peace) and the team left, I felt hopeful for the game and see what it has to offer and it was Ok.
The story starts like other spongebob episodes. Spongebob and Patrick find magical bubble soap and make wishes just to turn all of bikini bottom into chaos and now has to fix it. You'll be playing spongebob threw the whole game, no Patrick or sandy to help. Spongebob brought his spin attack and ground pound as for his other abilities are new. he'll karate kick enemies in the air or shoot bubbles to trap them. For a story about bubbles Spongebob does not have a good bubble arsenal.
The Cosmic shake should be called references cause that will be threw out the whole game. spongebob does not be quiet in this game and has to make a comment on picking up jelly or glinding around with the krusty krab pizza. spongebob can also wear different costumes but it does not effect gameplay and they are references to old spongebob ( WE GET IT! OLD SPONGEBOB WAS BETTER!) If a kid haven't even watch spongebob in their life they would not understand the jokes. Is this game for adults who grew up with it or for the kids? And stop with the grotesque up close characters, It comes out of nowhere and felt like jump scares.
Some of The levels in cosmic shake are fun. going threw Rock bottom during Halloween and Glove world were my favorite. The game does freeze sometimes but it never crashed. Spongebob did disappear in one cutscene. I can't say this game is the return of spongebob but I didn't have a bad time with it. Watch youtube videos of it or get it cheaper.
Spongebob Squarepants plays a big part of my childhood. I watched the show when it aired, Played the games like battle for bikini bottom and the spongebob the movie game and a few others. I haven't watched newer spongebob episodes. It kinda lost its passion when The creator Stephen Hillenburg (rest in peace) and the team left, I felt hopeful for the game and see what it has to offer and it was Ok.
The story starts like other spongebob episodes. Spongebob and Patrick find magical bubble soap and make wishes just to turn all of bikini bottom into chaos and now has to fix it. You'll be playing spongebob threw the whole game, no Patrick or sandy to help. Spongebob brought his spin attack and ground pound as for his other abilities are new. he'll karate kick enemies in the air or shoot bubbles to trap them. For a story about bubbles Spongebob does not have a good bubble arsenal.
The Cosmic shake should be called references cause that will be threw out the whole game. spongebob does not be quiet in this game and has to make a comment on picking up jelly or glinding around with the krusty krab pizza. spongebob can also wear different costumes but it does not effect gameplay and they are references to old spongebob ( WE GET IT! OLD SPONGEBOB WAS BETTER!) If a kid haven't even watch spongebob in their life they would not understand the jokes. Is this game for adults who grew up with it or for the kids? And stop with the grotesque up close characters, It comes out of nowhere and felt like jump scares.
Some of The levels in cosmic shake are fun. going threw Rock bottom during Halloween and Glove world were my favorite. The game does freeze sometimes but it never crashed. Spongebob did disappear in one cutscene. I can't say this game is the return of spongebob but I didn't have a bad time with it. Watch youtube videos of it or get it cheaper.
Full video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKDWjhyPFuw
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is one of the best, if not, the best SpongeBob game of all time. From the animations, the writing, the voice acting, the visuals, it’s downright beautiful and feels like a true extension of the TV show. I had my doubts that Purple Lamp Studios could pull off a true, original sequel to Battle for Bikini Bottom, but the madlads have done it. Pick this game up ASAP.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is one of the best, if not, the best SpongeBob game of all time. From the animations, the writing, the voice acting, the visuals, it’s downright beautiful and feels like a true extension of the TV show. I had my doubts that Purple Lamp Studios could pull off a true, original sequel to Battle for Bikini Bottom, but the madlads have done it. Pick this game up ASAP.
I thought it was just ok. Battle for Bikini Bottom is miles better, this lacked so much of the charm it had.
Maybe it's me being much older now and not having watched the show since season 5, but the humor feels a lot more forced too. Patrick was more annoying than funny in this game...
But it's still a Spongebob game, and with the BfBB engine no less, so I had fun with it.
Maybe it's me being much older now and not having watched the show since season 5, but the humor feels a lot more forced too. Patrick was more annoying than funny in this game...
But it's still a Spongebob game, and with the BfBB engine no less, so I had fun with it.
A slightly above average 3D platformer collect-a-thon. The levels are fairly linear, but still fun to explore. Fans of the show will enjoy the voice acting and countless references to classic episodes and characters. Some mild jank, but overall a smooth experience. Def one of the better Spongebob Squarepants games, worth checking out. (Victory Screech)
Não é tão divertido ou desafiador como esperava pra um jogo do Bob esponja, se limitou numa dinâmica mais infantil e razoável. Mas ainda exala a vibe divertida do desenho na Gameplay, tem umas mecânicas bem legais e criativas, e com algumas referências engraçadas no meio. Fraquinho, porém dá pra se entreter.
The best spongebob game that I have played by a mile - take the foundation of Battle for Bikini Bottom and put a multiverse and new ideas for a more linear yet expanded and refined platforming experience. I just had a ton of fun and coming from someone who doesn't have a lot of nostalgia, I genuinely think this is well worth playing.
If Battle for Bikini Bottom represents the golden age of SpongeBob this represents everything since.
A throwback to the gamecube/ps2/xbox era of platformers, I had a good amount of fun with this one. Going in I was expecting a similar experience to Battle for Bikini Bottom but that was not like that at all. Instead of a collectathon this is essentially a linear 3d platformer, and a solid one at that. Gameplay is solid, it controls well and actually has a lot of combat which I didn't expect. It mixes it up a bit with minigames and things but for the most part it's a lot of jumping (woohoo!). There are some collectables and a hub world but they are very underutilized, you essentially are just going from point A to point B but that isn't necessarily a bad thing since it was fun almost the whole time.
Spongebob destroys reality by making wishes and has to rescue all his friends who are trapped in other realities. This leads to some fun creative levels like a karate movie set or cowboy world, then you get to see alt reality versions of some of the characters. The writing obviously isn't anything to write home about but there were a few moments I laughed at.
Spongebob destroys reality by making wishes and has to rescue all his friends who are trapped in other realities. This leads to some fun creative levels like a karate movie set or cowboy world, then you get to see alt reality versions of some of the characters. The writing obviously isn't anything to write home about but there were a few moments I laughed at.
not as good as Battle for Bikini Bottom imho but easily the most fun i've had with a SpongeBob game in a long time, barring BfBB Rehydrated, which should tell you how dire it's been lately
bob esponja