It’s been a long time since we took a dip in the waters of the seabed inhabited by the most famous yellow sponge from Nickelodeon cartoons. Released last January 31stwe can now literally dive into the new 3D action platformer in a decidedly classic style SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake. Developed by Purple Lamp and published with the help of THQ Nordic, this title seems to be the perfect example of a tie-in from the early 2000s. But let’s see in detail what this new release has in store for us, which we tested on Steamwhich arrived after a long hiatus of more than five years and following SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated.
Amazon Prime: 30 days free, Try it now!
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, in space-time in tears
Just looking at the latter, The Cosmic Shake continues on the path already opened a few years ago, practically leaving untouched the general structure of the experience. The substantial difference, however, is that this time it’s not a remakebut of a new unpublished adventure, which incorporates the classic artistic styles of the cartoon, with the presence of real objects taken from our daily lives, and the usual friends of SpongeBob that we have always known.
In fact, alongside the sponge par excellence, we also find his friend Patrick at the time of a space-time travel, which also brings openings towards new dimensions. It is also true that our two heroes are made available mermaid tears to grant their every wish, but the destruction of this mix of dimensions is not the only theme to deal with. During a Bikini Bottom Fair, at the Ancient Magic Items stall of Madame Kassandraa glittering bottle is displayed, which however does not arouse the attention, and the value entrusted to it, of the shopkeeper.
SpongeBob and Patrick realize however too late that this heirloom belongs to the god Neptune and that not only gives off trivial soap bubbles… At this point, SpongeBob’s mission is necessarily that of close the various dimensions that have openedexploring them and completing the planned quests.
Classic platformer, new challenges for the square panty sponge
At this point, we just have to avoid spoiling further content and get to the actual content of the game. As anticipated, it is a platform classicowhich therefore provides various chapters with related clashes against various final enemies and boss battles. Last but not least, everything is done by wearing too various flamboyant alternative costumes for our hero, provided by Madame Kassandra in exchange for cosmic jelly and gold doubloons. Dresses that we will talk about specifically shortly.
So what about the gameplay, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake slavishly follows the classic canons of the 3D action platform genre. Maybe a little too much. The mechanical they are in fact those that seem to come directly from the most typical games of this type, with simple actions such as jumping, fighting and interacting with characters and elements of the scenario. If on the one hand we are still far from the best examples of platformers baked so far, it is also true that SpongeBob offers us here a world full of settings and situations, through quite interesting levels.
Each of seven explorable worlds it is characterized by a main theme, giving its mark both to the graphics and to part of the gameplay. Finally, Spongebob’s progression is grafted into these different contexts, who finds himself learning new skills and exploiting them, thus gradually expanding his ability to move, interact and explore.
Some… hole in the water
Not everything went perfectly, if we don’t take into consideration the aforementioned lack of originality of the game mechanics. Also looking at the characterization graphics, we already have recognizable characters and settings, shown here in stories and situations typical of the series. The result is a platform that pushes the progressive exploration of each component of the game world, at least from the point of view of the story and the discovery of new content.
But in moments of action there are some problems that we have encountered, such as accuracy in control system (we cannot change keys chosen from the command schemes menu, and we can only move with the mouse and not with the arrow keys from one item to another). Not only that, certain movements of SpongeBob will cause a further margin of error to the movements, as well as the framing is often not the best, requiring our active intervention.
Finally, the framerate drops on our PC are not excessive, but we have noticed a certain “jerkiness” and immediate transition without fluid breaks between the gameplay and the animated sequences. We will also not be able to enjoy the voices dubbed in Italian version, as there is no localization in our language, but we were able to enjoy the specific contents present in the costume pack present in our trial version. Seven additional outfits, from pizza to goofy uniform,
The Cosmic Shake Official Costume Pack, featuring 7 additional costumes for SpongeBob. We can glide with pizza as SpongeBob, or perform karate moves with a goofy uniform, up to RoboBob SteelPants, One day in reverse or even the nice Caveman Sponge. In short, many different costumes that make our experience a little more varied and sparkling.
The Spongebob Squarepants review: The Cosmic Shake in pills
Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake è in definitiva an action platformer without infamy and without praise. We square off in front of an action platformer of the caliber of what we could expect, neither less nor more. Technical Problems we have some, but they don’t so detract from the overall experience. Graphic and artistic variety also, but nothing never seen before. In short, we could evaluate it just above the average, able to give us fun, but not unforgettable moments. Above all not in Italiana flaw if we consider that it is a decidedly famous cartoon among the public and well recognizable for this.