Another hot contender for the "goddamn I wish I liked it way more than I did" line of games. The gameplay is fine, and I liked the music and characters...but man, I honestly am not vibing with the story or characters. It probably would work better for me, if the main character wasn't so obnoxious. Chai is just unlikable, and yes, the other characters do keep telling him how much of a dunce he is, but since he keeps making dumb decisions, it starts to feel like the story is just doing it to be self-aware. Dumb characters like Luffy work because we see him actually get stuff done despite his room-temperature IQ, as well as other genuine good qualities, like his friendliness, creativity, and willingness to fight and defend his friends. Unlikable characters at the start of the game like Neku works because you can see their thought process and why they're like this, the situation they're in makes the harsher aspects of their personality understandable, and they still grow throughout the story. Yes, Chai does grow a bit from what I saw from what I played, and from looking ahead, I still find him more annoying than funny. I may come back to it, but I don't think the gameplay is that good to justify me being stuck with the most annoying video game protagonist ever...

I don't know if I want another Battle For Bikini Bottom, but this game felt so lifeless. Sure it's fine on a technical and gameplay level, but in the end, it's just there. Levels are ok, the jokes sometimes work, the close-up gags are more gross than funny, are grosser than anything in Post-Movie SpongeBob (yes, even the Toenail scene), and I don't really feel compelled to beat it again or do the sidequests. There's nothing insulting here, but there's nothing interesting here worth a second trip around.