SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab Review

SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab

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Publisher: THQ

Developer: WayForward Technologies

# of Players: 1

Category: Adventure

Release Dates

N Amer - 10/16/2006

Official Game Website

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SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab Review

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Spongebob, his buddy Patrick and the pint sized Plankton are all fast asleep, unfortunately a bout of nightmares is plaguing all three and you as the purchaser of this game, get to play out these nightmares in a series of quick mini games, over 20 by my count. From racing, to spaceships to giant alien worms, the game touches on all the wackiness of the hugely popular cartoon but may leave some gamers wanting.

I loved Wario and his Microgame$, it was the perfect travel game, you could play for as little as five minutes or hours on end. The game kept everything fresh by having so many variations on play and when you played the same game at a later stage, they still managed to throw a curveball at you by extending the length of play or changing the pattern an enemy attacked. So where does that leave Spongebob? For one thing, the games that you play in Spongebob aren't so even keeled, one game is really enjoyable to the point you would love to play more of it while another is merely OK. It's this sort of uneven experience that does bog down on the game, nothing horrible mind you, because none of the games are unplayable by any means, but it's just some of the games are soooo much better then others, it often leaves you wanting to go back and play it over. But of course, you can't because the design of the game doesn't allow you to pick which mini game you can play and when.

"A portrait of mental health."

Of course as you play through the games levels, you hop from one character to another, one minute your racing through the Bikini Bottom 5000 with Spongebob, the next you are fighting a city wide crime spree as Starfishman (Patrick), it's this sort of rapid fire, on the fly game switching that does keep you on your toes. And just so you know, each scenario has several modes of play, that level where your racing for instance, has you driving straight up on part of it, jumping off of it and onto clouds to find car parts on another and jumping pot holes in another. Like I said above there are parts you wish you could play over, or for longer, but it simply does not occur. One nice thing though is the game always tells you what the controls are prior to any new type of gameplay. One scenario may involve several button combinations (like fighting as Patrick) or merely moving the D-pad to avoid jellyfish as you are free falling towards the ground. As you beat the scenarios, they are accessible in lump groups to play again, but unfortunately you can't play just one part of the scenario (as in the one you really enjoyed) you have to play them all.

Graphics are surprisingly decent considering the simple content, the primary characters all look great and there is even smaller details that are recognizable to the bare eye. It is a GBA game but the developers made every effort to give this a good once over for a nice finished looking product. You should note that with the various modes of gameplay the game can suffer from a bit of graphical breakdown, but not by much, it all flows very nicely and with a surprisingly high frame per second rate.

"Yes, that's Patrick tied to a rocket, don't ask."

There is a slide show of sorts that comes up between levels that feature some nice stills of the whole Spongebob gang, they look like they were pulled directly from the cartoon. I thought they did a nice job of making this entirely wacky story move along.

And speaking of wacky, the very cartoonish (appropriate) noises that happen as you plod along are very fresh and boisterous. Jumping around on top of jellyfish as Plankton will elicit a hearty "Boioiinnnggg", for example. It's this sort of care that I appreciated in the title. There isn't any voice work to be found, including Spongebob's infectious laugh, but the strong sound effects more then make up for it.

I really don't watch Spongebob, every once in a while one of the kids will want to, and we will, and every time we do, I can't help but smile, the strange antics, funny accents and voices and the sheer amount of jokes that sail over my kids' heads are usually a guaranteed good time, it was nice to see a title that embraced the odd spirit that the show has going for it.

Review Scoring Details SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab

Gameplay: 7.8

Constantly changing, but tells you what to do and how to do it. Some levels are clearly more enjoyable then others but none of them are bad. Short maybe, but not bad.

Graphics: 7.2

Been seeing a string of well developed GBA titles lately, just proves that if you have a talented team and the means to do so, you can make a visually appealing game. Nice variance in levels, one minute your in space, the next your jumping over a fry cooker.

Sound: 7.0

Good sound effects, very appropriate for both the game and the license, no voicework but it is a GBA title, there's only so much room.

Difficulty: Easy for adults, Medium for kids

I literally breezed through this title, no problems, my six year old asked for some help on some parts. Good kids title because they do progress at a kids level of patience and when they get stuck, it only takes a couple tries to pass it.

Concept: 7.4

You could probably come up with any sort of odd scenario in the Spongebob universe and have this style of game, the fact that you are playing out the dreams of three separate characters works fine, but this license is silly putty in the hands of anyone with a single creative bone.

Overall: 7.5

If you have a kid that likes Spongebob, then you have a great holiday gift, it's funny, it's fun, it's right up there alley. Nice to see a license like this get a good treatment.