Outside of the really glaring issues like the requirements for catching jellyfish, the game-breaking glitch the ps2 version shipped with, and the lack of music variety, this wasn't really that bad. In terms of being a light Banjo-Kazooie style collect-a-thon, it does everything just fine, not amazingly, but enough to keep me playing. The thing is, the weirdly floaty jump this game has activates my 3D platformer brain so much more than the generic double jump that Battle for Bikini Bottom has. It's the kind of jump that makes it fun just to see what you can and can't reach with it, it opens up the levels in this game in a way that Battle for Bikini Bottom doesn't. The level design in this game is fucking bizarre, it's a mix of trying to make locations accurate to the show but also randomly sticking in other shit. The cutscenes and animation are also strange to behold, clearly made before Nickelodeon fully went all in on Spongebob and had standards for what could be made for it. "Purgatorial" is a word people have passed around about this game, and I can't explain exactly how it applies but it simply does. That's good to me, though, I had a good time exploring this mess of a game, it's the exact 3D platformer I love turning my brain off to while also constantly serving me something new to gawk at. The way Spongebob fucking spins wildly when you collect all the letters, Larry the Lobster being surrounded by dark clouds and giant foreboding jellyfish just to get away from Spongebob, the Flying Dutchman ramming a boat into a pier, killing hundreds, while unfitting music plays, the CLOWNS, it's all a joy to marvel at.

Reviewed on Apr 29, 2023


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