SpongeBob The Cosmic Shake Review – by Fletch (Xbox Nation)

As a child I grew up with SpongeBob and spent many many hours playing the subsequent game releases that sprouted out from the TV show. A couple of years ago we got the remake of SpongeBob Battle of Bikini Bottom and I loved every minute of reliving that game. This time Purple Lamp are taking on their biggest feat yet and for the first time in years we are seeing a brand new release from the franchise! Does SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake soak up all the glory or fall to the bottom of the sea, let’s find out in this review.

Let’s begin by covering the story as this is an original take on SpongeBob and one that really does work its magic. Essentially SpongeBob and Patrick are on their way to Glove world and stumble upon a mermaid called Kassandra, they pick up a glowing bottle and get told it is a special bubble mixture. Little do they know that this is actually a bottle of sacred mermaid tears belonging to king Neptune and upon blowing all these bubbles they destroy bikini bottom and send all their friends through rifts into different wishworlds. What’s more is that SpongeBob is the main protagonist to save his friends as Patrick becomes a balloon that follows you around. This makes for an incredibly unique story and brings us to many locations that we have yet to see in a game about SpongeBob, from the Prehistoric era, The Wild West and to the dark and dreary rock bottom to name a few. It really is a great experience. In the game you will come across 7 different wishworlds and 1 hub world being bikini bottom itself.

As to be expected with any SpongeBob game you will meet some incredibly well known characters along the way and each will give you various side missions to complete on your quest to save bikini bottom. All the voices of these characters from Squidward to Mr Krabs are all voiced by the original voice talents of the show and really make for an engaging story line. Hearing Mr Krabs going on about money to Plankton and Karen plotting to take over the world, the inner joy inside me was so giddy with excitement. What is unique in this game is that you will Journey into different portals and these will take you to new plains to find a specific character or characters. What’s interesting about this is the majority of these characters do not know who you are and some are even named slightly differently such as Candy (Meant to be Sandy) as to show the unique wishworld where you have broken space time. These alternative universes bring some of the most creative story design we have seen yet in a SpongeBob game and really makes for an enjoyable experience.

What I loved a lot was coming across a lot of different easter eggs and episode references such as Rock Bottoms Bus scene and the Guy who consistently goes on about Chocolate. These are really awesome moments and I am sure any SpongeBob fan like myself will have a massive grin on their face.

Now onto the gameplay and this where a big improvement has been made on the prior releases and the recent battle for bikini bottom remake. One thing is always evident in a SpongeBob game and that’s that the platforming has never been that great. This time around there are still some issues I found with jumping to platforms however it has been significantly improved in handling so I wasn’t falling to my death as often. As much as the handling of the platforming has been improved one thing I cannot shy away from was the level design itself specifically around certain missions. There were times during seahorse sections where the path was not laid out particularly well and I thought I was due to go in a direction just to fall off the map and die. These were quite prominent in the wild west area however other areas such as rock bottom where you ride on your tongue were layed out correctly and easy to follow. One thing is for certain though is that there are alot of areas that you can get SpongeBob stuck and subsequently needing to restart the checkpoint and that can be a detriment as some instances I was put so far back it became frustrating. This will be a frequent occurrence especially when trying to get a collectible or find your way around each individual wishworld.

As to be expected when i combat, you will have different attack types when battling enemies and these range from your swirl attack to the ability of firing a bubble to entrap one enemy for a few seconds. It is great to see some more additions to the gameplay formula but I really wish they added some more as the combat did feel a bit stale later on in the game. The one thing that has been dramatically redesigned better than the combat abilities is the traversal elements. This time you have an all new glide which is based on the popular Krusty Krab Pizza. You can surf across areas on a bubble board and evade certain enemies by hiding in bushes. These are some varied and well thought out additions by the developers and I think the combat isn’t as interesting as the traversal elements.

In terms of enemy design this is an area I was very mixed on. Yes there are some uniquely designed enemies but the majority of the time you would be fighting against the bare basic opponents over and over again. The attacks are exactly the same each time so outside of being introduced to a new type of enemy every so often it really didn’t provide much of a spark. I feel that older SpongeBob games provided a bit more in terms of enemy variety however I did like the design of the enemies I came across in this game.

One area the game really excels in is the boss fights that you come up against. Each of these are against the main character you are trying to rescue from each wishworld. These have been masterfully designed and really spice up the formula and apps up the combat to 11.These are a massive improvement from prior SpongeBob games and have alot more depth in terms of combat design and platforming elements. From a giant Snail to helping the flying dutchman claim his ship these are all unique and have some great level design. These can of course be replayed again if you wish to go for specific achievements or fight the boss again for a bit of fun and they certainly were a highlight of the entire game.

Now onto the collectibles and costumes within the game and I can tell you now there is a hell of alot to get. I am not a fan of a huge swathe of collectibles in any game especially as someone who has completed the likes of assassin’s creed unity and far cry games. This is why I was disappointed in the amount of collectibles you have to obtain. These are all optional which is great but man there were alot.

So the disappointing aspect is the majority of all side quests given are to grab certain objects such as Fortune Cookies for the Shady Shoals retirement home or Golden Noodles for Mrs Puff. It’s great that these are all heavily centered around the TV show and that did put a smile on my face however getting a lot of these requires an extensive amount of time or exploration and can be quite demanding. The benefit is that most only require you to collect between 5 or 10 of each, however when every single quest is a fetch objective it becomes really tiresome and as if little to no thought was given to this aspect of the game which is unfortunate.

One area which is fun as a sort of memento again to the TV show is the costumes. Each of which will bring back memories for a lot of fans and are very well designed. To unlock these you will be given specific ones for completing missions or before entering a new area. You can additionally get some more by collecting doubloons scattered around each individual map or the worst case by pre ordering or buying dlc. I came away with mixed thoughts about these costumes and I can tell you now none of these impact the gameplay in any way. This is good as you’re not required to collect doubloons to get costumes to progress the campaign but at the same time I feel it was a missed opportunity to have some sort of unique power up, ability or gameplay bonus. It is a cool collection of mementos but other than that they don’t provide a great use except when the characters are introduced to them in certain story sections.

Right so what about Bugs and Technical Issues and did I come across any within the game? Well I can say for certain that I did come across a few issues but none were game breaking by any means but a few moments did annoy me slightly. So there are a few frame drops here and there and this was my point of contention and what irritated me the most from my playthrough. There were a few sections such as the start of the Film based Wishworld which tanked massively and caused a few issues with platforming, this also happened in the Pirate Wishworld even without enemies being near. There are improvements coming from the developers which has been stated to me however in the current build I was playing there were a few scattered throughout.

Alongside this there were a few little annoyances with interacting with certain mission objects. The most prominent issue I had was not being able to use the machines to drop in the cactus juice without being a specific angle for the prompt to show up. There are a few noticeable mishaps like this throughout the game but as mentioned none were game breaking but just irritating.

So overall what is my verdict on SpongeBob SquarePants The Cosmic Shake and do i recommend this to all of you. Well there is a lot of fun within this game and I certainly wasn’t expecting to smile as much as I did during my playthrough. Seeing the huge improvement in terms of platforming and narrative storytelling was great to see and made for an enjoyable experience from start to finish. I wish there was more added in terms of combat variety and I was disappointed with the addition of costumes as I really thought they would have impacted the game in some sort of way. Overall the game is at a great price point for the amount of content and if you’re a SpongeBob lover or enjoyer you’re gonna have an absolute blast with this game.

Game played and reviewed by Fletch (Xbox Nation), who we recently welcomed to the Completexbox family as a staff writer. You can interact with Fletch more by following him on twitter, or by heading to his fabulous youtube channel Xbox Nation

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