It’s been a few years now since THQ Nordic and developer Purple Lamp Studios brought the remastered SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom out. I reviewed that one and while the level design didn’t quite hold up, I still enjoyed it and said any SpongeBob fan would likely not be disappointed. After bringing back a classic, the same team has now released an all-new entry called SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake and here is my review of the PlayStation 4 version.
The Cosmic Shake’s story revolves around good intentions gone bad when SpongeBob and Patrick encounter a mermaid named Madame Kassandra. She gives them Mermaid’s Tears which have the ability to grant wishes. SpongeBob decides to use them to grant the wishes of his friends but in doing so he ends up tearing reality apart. SpongeBob then has to venture to multiple different worlds in order to fix what was broken. The game took me close to a dozen hours or so to finish and along the way I got to visit a nice variety of biomes and chat with many of the characters you know and love from the series.
The controls in the game feel good and are very similar to the remake from a few years ago. SpongeBob can jump, double jump, ground pound, spin attack, glide, dodge, and swing. You’ll be using all of these abilities as you navigate the various worlds accessed from the main hub. Once you venture into them you’ll find that each one has a theme such as medieval, the wild west, and more. I really enjoyed the look of each one and you get a nice variety of costumes to wear along the way too. The level design isn’t anything special though and this very much feels like a PS2 era platformer in that regard just like the remake did. That isn’t a bad thing but just don’t expect to be wowed by the actual gameplay.
There is plenty of secrets to find in the game including ones you’ll have to come back to once you gain a new ability. You also get to see many familiar faces like Mr. Krabs and Patrick is always with you as Balloon Patrick. The show’s voice actors are pretty much all present and they each deliver a great performance. The writing is witty too as it managed to get a few laughs out of me along the way. While the game looks good, I did find it odd how there is no current generation version as it probably could’ve looked and performed better if there was.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake feels like more of what the remake delivered in 2020. It won’t wow you with its level design or platforming but the various worlds look great, the voice performances are on point, and it is even quite funny at times. Fans of the 2020 remake or SpongeBob fans in general will likely not be disappointed with the Cosmic Shake.
*SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. PlayStation 4 version reviewed. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake
$39.99
Pros
- Colorful visuals that delight
- Voice performances are great
- Easy and fun to play and quite funny at times
Cons
- Doesn't do anything new with the level design/platforming
- Doesn't perform as well as you'd hope
