Hoppin' Clams! SpongeBob wants to give his friend Patrick Star an autograph from their favorite superheroes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, for his birthday. Help SpongeBob fulfill the quest to win their autographs!
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Another licensed title I cleared from my backlist early on during COVID. This was perhaps the best of the little trio I played, over Simba's Mighty Adventure and Great Valley Racing Adventure. Which is to say, it was "generic" instead of "bad".
SpongeBob being in a PlayStation title is one of those little things that always throws me. I have to remind myself that SpongeBob is older than I remember, and that the PS1 lasted waaaaaaay longer than I remember. Still, this is another one of those early SpongeBob tie-ins where you can tell Stephen Hillenberg had no involvement. The final Iron Dogfish boss is maybe less embarrassing than Operation Krabby Patty's "Sea Ants", but still pretty out of place. Also, what exactly are we to make of the presence of a Cannery in Bikini Bottom?
The game itself is fine. Inoffensive 2D platformer, some collectables to collect, a semi-requisite hip drop, etc etc etc. I have to admit that very little of the game stuck with me, but there's at least still plenty of stuff going on, with most of the original voice actors to help sell it (weird that they could swing Ernest Borgnine as Mermaid Man, but not Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs). Disposable for me, perhaps, but you could do worse.
SpongeBob being in a PlayStation title is one of those little things that always throws me. I have to remind myself that SpongeBob is older than I remember, and that the PS1 lasted waaaaaaay longer than I remember. Still, this is another one of those early SpongeBob tie-ins where you can tell Stephen Hillenberg had no involvement. The final Iron Dogfish boss is maybe less embarrassing than Operation Krabby Patty's "Sea Ants", but still pretty out of place. Also, what exactly are we to make of the presence of a Cannery in Bikini Bottom?
The game itself is fine. Inoffensive 2D platformer, some collectables to collect, a semi-requisite hip drop, etc etc etc. I have to admit that very little of the game stuck with me, but there's at least still plenty of stuff going on, with most of the original voice actors to help sell it (weird that they could swing Ernest Borgnine as Mermaid Man, but not Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs). Disposable for me, perhaps, but you could do worse.
Quality PS1 gaming.
This review contains spoilers
This Game, based on a cartoon with many leaps in logic is too illogical.
The Story is that Spongebob keeps doing tasks for Mermaid Man, and Barnicle Boy, so they will sign a picture for Spongebob to give to patrick for his birthday. This is all there is to the story, and it is not enough to justify making a game out of it. It's not interesting enough on it's own, and even the ending makes me question why Squidward, Mr. Krabs, or Plankton would turn up to the party. Also during one chapter, Barnacle Boy says that Kandy bars can be found only in BIKINI Bottom, instead of Rock Bottom, which you go to anyway during the level.
The Characters are the same as in the show. I do believe that the characters doing these things are the ones from TV.
The Graphics are trash, they are too pixelated for the Playstation 2, and animations don't even try to match what the characters are saying.
The Gameplay has you going to random places to get items that you probably could find "mostly" anywhere normal, while fighting off random enemies by catching jellyfish, or other weapons to throw at them, and fighting bosses in not very fun ways, especially the first boss, who is a giant jellyfish who is scarred of JELLYFISH, yes I know it's shocking, and a final boss which is pathetic when it's AI doesn't always attack you, but instead hides from cover when it could get to you first. All with slippery controls that can make you miss your jumps and landings. During one chapter, you get a Time Machine from Plankton "which begs the questions, how does Spongebob know he has one? and Why doesn't Plankton use it to do whatever he wants?", and also the other characters come and give you tips, even in places they could not get to. Also the Story says that Spongebob gets eaten by a whale, but in the level, we move him inside it's mouth.
The Music is good, has a very respectable Spongebob feel. But when there are sound effects all the time, during collecting spatulas, collecting jellyfish, jumping, walking, and the audio, and music that is at the same level of sound as the effects make the whole game feel cluttered in the sound department.
Spongebob Squarepants: SuperSponge for the PlayStation 2 is to be arrested for vigilantism, and not the good kind.
The Story is that Spongebob keeps doing tasks for Mermaid Man, and Barnicle Boy, so they will sign a picture for Spongebob to give to patrick for his birthday. This is all there is to the story, and it is not enough to justify making a game out of it. It's not interesting enough on it's own, and even the ending makes me question why Squidward, Mr. Krabs, or Plankton would turn up to the party. Also during one chapter, Barnacle Boy says that Kandy bars can be found only in BIKINI Bottom, instead of Rock Bottom, which you go to anyway during the level.
The Characters are the same as in the show. I do believe that the characters doing these things are the ones from TV.
The Graphics are trash, they are too pixelated for the Playstation 2, and animations don't even try to match what the characters are saying.
The Gameplay has you going to random places to get items that you probably could find "mostly" anywhere normal, while fighting off random enemies by catching jellyfish, or other weapons to throw at them, and fighting bosses in not very fun ways, especially the first boss, who is a giant jellyfish who is scarred of JELLYFISH, yes I know it's shocking, and a final boss which is pathetic when it's AI doesn't always attack you, but instead hides from cover when it could get to you first. All with slippery controls that can make you miss your jumps and landings. During one chapter, you get a Time Machine from Plankton "which begs the questions, how does Spongebob know he has one? and Why doesn't Plankton use it to do whatever he wants?", and also the other characters come and give you tips, even in places they could not get to. Also the Story says that Spongebob gets eaten by a whale, but in the level, we move him inside it's mouth.
The Music is good, has a very respectable Spongebob feel. But when there are sound effects all the time, during collecting spatulas, collecting jellyfish, jumping, walking, and the audio, and music that is at the same level of sound as the effects make the whole game feel cluttered in the sound department.
Spongebob Squarepants: SuperSponge for the PlayStation 2 is to be arrested for vigilantism, and not the good kind.
it's a videogame and that's all I have to say on the subject
Music kicks so much ass, the rest of the game is ass
Frankly kinda shit to play and has no real meat on its bones. The main takeaway all throughout for me was how ugly it is. Not only how ugly it is, but how ugly it is for a late PS1 title. Take this screenshot from the ending for example, where every character looks like they're taken from something else. Or the ground here or the acorns here. It's genuinely so bizarre to me.
I suppose it's a good thing I kept asking myself "Why does it look like that? How did it turn out like this?", because it turns out literally every asset from this game's development is sitting around on the Internet Archive and TCRF and such. Finds on the dev discs include things such as a plentiful amount of SNES and Genesis ROMs, a folder titled "New SBSP like we care", a list of suggestions titled "SpongeBob Shit List", and (somewhat infamously) three hand-drawn pornographic sketches of the characters for some reason. All in all it seems to point towards the dev team being very bored or dissatisfied with the project, probably wanting it done as soon as possible. I guess I now have the answer to my question.
So as it turns out, the history behind this subpar platformer is far more intriguing than the actual contents of the game. It kinda makes me wish we got more in depth stuff like this for some better games, honestly. Knowing every little thing going on behind some of my favorite games would be very interesting.
SuperSponge itself is not worth the time, though. If you really want some sort of 2D SpongeBob platformer, Legend of the Lost Spatula is surprisingly a safer bet. Definitely a flawed game as well, but has a decent amount of charm to it and a pretty catchy soundtrack. Even then, everyone says if you have Dolphin running then you might as well just play Battle for Bikini Bottom instead. Maybe I'll do that.
I suppose it's a good thing I kept asking myself "Why does it look like that? How did it turn out like this?", because it turns out literally every asset from this game's development is sitting around on the Internet Archive and TCRF and such. Finds on the dev discs include things such as a plentiful amount of SNES and Genesis ROMs, a folder titled "New SBSP like we care", a list of suggestions titled "SpongeBob Shit List", and (somewhat infamously) three hand-drawn pornographic sketches of the characters for some reason. All in all it seems to point towards the dev team being very bored or dissatisfied with the project, probably wanting it done as soon as possible. I guess I now have the answer to my question.
So as it turns out, the history behind this subpar platformer is far more intriguing than the actual contents of the game. It kinda makes me wish we got more in depth stuff like this for some better games, honestly. Knowing every little thing going on behind some of my favorite games would be very interesting.
SuperSponge itself is not worth the time, though. If you really want some sort of 2D SpongeBob platformer, Legend of the Lost Spatula is surprisingly a safer bet. Definitely a flawed game as well, but has a decent amount of charm to it and a pretty catchy soundtrack. Even then, everyone says if you have Dolphin running then you might as well just play Battle for Bikini Bottom instead. Maybe I'll do that.