SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a classic 3D platform game set in the world of SpongeBob. The game was announced as the most important game of this franchise, but it's not what they told us.
Starting with the positive aspects of this game: the characters and their charisma. While the story isn't extremely intriguing, it resembles an episode of the cartoon. SpongeBob and his friends exhibit the same humor that we typically see in the TV show, providing some laughs during gameplay.
Unfortunately, the gameplay is rather boring. I had the impression that I was playing a generic 3D platform game from the PS2 era. There's nothing innovative here, and everything that The Cosmic Shake attempts to do has been done much better in many other games.
The Cosmic Shake targets SpongeBob fans specifically. I'm not one of them, so I had an enjoyable time with it, but that's about it. If you're a devoted fan of this franchise, you'll likely have fun observing the characters' interactions. In conclusion, I recommend considering purchasing this game only if you find it at a significantly reduced price; otherwise, it might not be worth it.
Starting with the positive aspects of this game: the characters and their charisma. While the story isn't extremely intriguing, it resembles an episode of the cartoon. SpongeBob and his friends exhibit the same humor that we typically see in the TV show, providing some laughs during gameplay.
Unfortunately, the gameplay is rather boring. I had the impression that I was playing a generic 3D platform game from the PS2 era. There's nothing innovative here, and everything that The Cosmic Shake attempts to do has been done much better in many other games.
The Cosmic Shake targets SpongeBob fans specifically. I'm not one of them, so I had an enjoyable time with it, but that's about it. If you're a devoted fan of this franchise, you'll likely have fun observing the characters' interactions. In conclusion, I recommend considering purchasing this game only if you find it at a significantly reduced price; otherwise, it might not be worth it.
I thought it was just ok. Battle for Bikini Bottom is miles better, this lacked so much of the charm it had.
Maybe it's me being much older now and not having watched the show since season 5, but the humor feels a lot more forced too. Patrick was more annoying than funny in this game...
But it's still a Spongebob game, and with the BfBB engine no less, so I had fun with it.
Maybe it's me being much older now and not having watched the show since season 5, but the humor feels a lot more forced too. Patrick was more annoying than funny in this game...
But it's still a Spongebob game, and with the BfBB engine no less, so I had fun with it.
Não é tão divertido ou desafiador como esperava pra um jogo do Bob esponja, se limitou numa dinâmica mais infantil e razoável. Mas ainda exala a vibe divertida do desenho na Gameplay, tem umas mecânicas bem legais e criativas, e com algumas referências engraçadas no meio. Fraquinho, porém dá pra se entreter.
The best spongebob game that I have played by a mile - take the foundation of Battle for Bikini Bottom and put a multiverse and new ideas for a more linear yet expanded and refined platforming experience. I just had a ton of fun and coming from someone who doesn't have a lot of nostalgia, I genuinely think this is well worth playing.
This review contains spoilers
I desperately want to like this game a lot more than I do. The presentation is good and it overall feels pretty good to play. And I love that it exists at all, I'm begging for more licensed games. But it just feels like it's on autopilot. Collectathon elements are hugely downplayed here in favor of focusing on incredibly average platforming, and I really think that does this game no favors. BFBB was good because it leaned on its strengths most of the time, this instead hones in on every weakness more often than not. Levels are long and really straightforward so going back to 100% them is a chore. The writing is ok as far as modern spongebob goes, (Frankly better than BFBB's writing by a longshot, and they actually got Tom Clancy for Mr. Krabbs for once) And there was a few fun boss fights and highlights here and there. But big picture a lot of it is a lot more dull than it should be.
BFBB isn't beloved for its platforming prowess and variety of combat encounters, the refusal to just make a BK styled game in the modern era is just an act of self sabotage and I don't get it. It's serviceable and not entirely miserable if you're in the mood for something mindless and you're a fan of the series. But it doesn't go hard. They really got the iconic Band Geeks song "Sweet Victory" to drum up hype in the trailer, and then proceed to NOT play it until the credits. Bro play it during the final boss, where's the vision? It's not hard to go hard dude why do modern games not understand this? Play sweet victory during the final boss and the score goes up, it's that heckin easy, you have the song. Why everything gotta be so limp bro just go hard why is everything so afraid to go hard now? Losing my mind, it's so close just be heckin cool man what's this era's fascination with surface level callbacks combined with a strict wall saying we're not allowed to do anything with said callbacks?
Also this industry really do be so starved for ideas we've ended up with dodge rolls in heckin' Spongebob combat come on dude.
I guess I'll spoiler warning just 'cuz I mentioned it plays sweet victory even tho they used it in the trailer. But did they REALLY use it?
BFBB isn't beloved for its platforming prowess and variety of combat encounters, the refusal to just make a BK styled game in the modern era is just an act of self sabotage and I don't get it. It's serviceable and not entirely miserable if you're in the mood for something mindless and you're a fan of the series. But it doesn't go hard. They really got the iconic Band Geeks song "Sweet Victory" to drum up hype in the trailer, and then proceed to NOT play it until the credits. Bro play it during the final boss, where's the vision? It's not hard to go hard dude why do modern games not understand this? Play sweet victory during the final boss and the score goes up, it's that heckin easy, you have the song. Why everything gotta be so limp bro just go hard why is everything so afraid to go hard now? Losing my mind, it's so close just be heckin cool man what's this era's fascination with surface level callbacks combined with a strict wall saying we're not allowed to do anything with said callbacks?
Also this industry really do be so starved for ideas we've ended up with dodge rolls in heckin' Spongebob combat come on dude.
I guess I'll spoiler warning just 'cuz I mentioned it plays sweet victory even tho they used it in the trailer. But did they REALLY use it?
A throwback to the gamecube/ps2/xbox era of platformers, I had a good amount of fun with this one. Going in I was expecting a similar experience to Battle for Bikini Bottom but that was not like that at all. Instead of a collectathon this is essentially a linear 3d platformer, and a solid one at that. Gameplay is solid, it controls well and actually has a lot of combat which I didn't expect. It mixes it up a bit with minigames and things but for the most part it's a lot of jumping (woohoo!). There are some collectables and a hub world but they are very underutilized, you essentially are just going from point A to point B but that isn't necessarily a bad thing since it was fun almost the whole time.
Spongebob destroys reality by making wishes and has to rescue all his friends who are trapped in other realities. This leads to some fun creative levels like a karate movie set or cowboy world, then you get to see alt reality versions of some of the characters. The writing obviously isn't anything to write home about but there were a few moments I laughed at.
Spongebob destroys reality by making wishes and has to rescue all his friends who are trapped in other realities. This leads to some fun creative levels like a karate movie set or cowboy world, then you get to see alt reality versions of some of the characters. The writing obviously isn't anything to write home about but there were a few moments I laughed at.
And here I still managed to end up enjoying Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated despite starting it off with bad impressions for me. Sometimes I think it is impressive when I play a "bad" game that's bad in the way I don't like it, rather than it just being plain boring, because that means there's more to talk about in terms of what makes it not work.
First of all, the control is too slippery. While it isn't a huge deal on the ground, when trying to glide, SpongeBob will be turning way too fast, making you miss jumps or have a hard time controlling him.
I do have some mixed feelings about the level design. I liked the different movement options and how , they are probably the best part of the game, but the levels themselves feel like they want to cram in too much in them with how short they actually are, which results in them being more memorable from concept rather than gameplay. My guess is that it's because this game has the same controls as BFBB, but that it fits more for a collectathon like it while this game is a lot more linear with the occasional collectible, which way too many are hidden in plain sight. I know this is a kids game, but even to them this is too easy. And aside from said collectibles, there really isn't anything else to do in the levels, since if you want to fully complete them, you need to backtrack.
The story is mostly just an excuse to include as many SpongeBob references as possible. Hell, a majority of the levels literally use the same locations as BFBB with just a new theme such as historical set pieces. And in terms of structure, you just go from one world to another in a straightforward manner, nothing more to say.
There are also many technical problems. I normally don't complain too much about these sorts of things, but it was too distracting in this game, like the sound design. Sound effects don't always occur, voices either cancel each other out or talk on top of each other, and just like in BFBB, get used to hearing the same lines over and over again. And there are several times where the game would just stop for a few seconds, likely from there being too much on screen, and as you can guess, that's not fun (there are rarely any loading screens in the game, so compared to previous SB games, this one has to balance a lot in just one level).
And this is pretty unimportant, but anyways. I've been a fan of SpongeBob since I was little, but in recent times, I've decided to move on to pursue other media. I still wanted to give this game a chance, because, hey, I still have my fondness for the sponge. But then I left it feeling pretty disappointed, so let's just say, I feel even more ready then ever to move on.
But major thumps up for this game not restricting itself to just the pre-movie era when making references to the show.
First of all, the control is too slippery. While it isn't a huge deal on the ground, when trying to glide, SpongeBob will be turning way too fast, making you miss jumps or have a hard time controlling him.
I do have some mixed feelings about the level design. I liked the different movement options and how , they are probably the best part of the game, but the levels themselves feel like they want to cram in too much in them with how short they actually are, which results in them being more memorable from concept rather than gameplay. My guess is that it's because this game has the same controls as BFBB, but that it fits more for a collectathon like it while this game is a lot more linear with the occasional collectible, which way too many are hidden in plain sight. I know this is a kids game, but even to them this is too easy. And aside from said collectibles, there really isn't anything else to do in the levels, since if you want to fully complete them, you need to backtrack.
The story is mostly just an excuse to include as many SpongeBob references as possible. Hell, a majority of the levels literally use the same locations as BFBB with just a new theme such as historical set pieces. And in terms of structure, you just go from one world to another in a straightforward manner, nothing more to say.
There are also many technical problems. I normally don't complain too much about these sorts of things, but it was too distracting in this game, like the sound design. Sound effects don't always occur, voices either cancel each other out or talk on top of each other, and just like in BFBB, get used to hearing the same lines over and over again. And there are several times where the game would just stop for a few seconds, likely from there being too much on screen, and as you can guess, that's not fun (there are rarely any loading screens in the game, so compared to previous SB games, this one has to balance a lot in just one level).
And this is pretty unimportant, but anyways. I've been a fan of SpongeBob since I was little, but in recent times, I've decided to move on to pursue other media. I still wanted to give this game a chance, because, hey, I still have my fondness for the sponge. But then I left it feeling pretty disappointed, so let's just say, I feel even more ready then ever to move on.
But major thumps up for this game not restricting itself to just the pre-movie era when making references to the show.
Asoingbob and Patrick when they accidentally tear the fabric of reality
The follow up/sequel to Battle for Bikini Bottom, it's alright but has a few issues.
The game areas take inspiration from the TV specials. A medieval area was taken from Dunces and Dungeons, a Wild West area was taken from Pest of the West.
The only playable character is Spongebob but his move set is quite sizeable. Continuing from BfBB are spin attack and ground pound. But borrowing from Sandy from BfBB, Spongebob can glide using the Krusty Krab Pizza and he can Dodge by cartwheeling which was similar to Patrick's ability to cartwheel from the movie game.
To get to the different areas, you must take portals but I wish it was more open world like modern games. Since in BfBB, it was like Super Mario 64 with a collectathon, this is more linear like Sunshine and Galaxy with light exploration.
For the next major Spongebob game, I would like to see an open world type game with tons of references from new and old episodes. More playable characters like Mr. Krabs and Squidward. Also a story that made it sound like it could be a interesting TV special or movie.
The game areas take inspiration from the TV specials. A medieval area was taken from Dunces and Dungeons, a Wild West area was taken from Pest of the West.
The only playable character is Spongebob but his move set is quite sizeable. Continuing from BfBB are spin attack and ground pound. But borrowing from Sandy from BfBB, Spongebob can glide using the Krusty Krab Pizza and he can Dodge by cartwheeling which was similar to Patrick's ability to cartwheel from the movie game.
To get to the different areas, you must take portals but I wish it was more open world like modern games. Since in BfBB, it was like Super Mario 64 with a collectathon, this is more linear like Sunshine and Galaxy with light exploration.
For the next major Spongebob game, I would like to see an open world type game with tons of references from new and old episodes. More playable characters like Mr. Krabs and Squidward. Also a story that made it sound like it could be a interesting TV special or movie.
a fun enough 3d platformer. don't think it surpasses battle for bikini bottom though. absolutely don't get this on switch though. lots of momentary freezes and big framerate dips all over the place.
man it feels good to be a Spongebob fan right about now
This one was a pleasant surprise, I enjoyed myself! ...that is, if the game didn't glitch my save file at one point and I had to start over from the beginning again. Other than that, good stuff!
Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated was an alright remake of the gamecube original and this is supposed to be the sequel we never got to it. When you view it from that lens it's hands down the best Spongebob game we've gotten. With tons of love and callbacks to the series that I know all ages of the show will appreciate. This show was a huge part of my life and playing through this game made me feel like a kid again. This was definitely a passion project made my fans of the series that respect its source material, you can tell everyone had a lot of fun voicing their lines. For a licensed childrens game in the year 2023, It's certainly up to stuff, I can imagine this being some little kids favorite game.
Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated was an alright remake of the gamecube original and this is supposed to be the sequel we never got to it. When you view it from that lens it's hands down the best Spongebob game we've gotten. With tons of love and callbacks to the series that I know all ages of the show will appreciate. This show was a huge part of my life and playing through this game made me feel like a kid again. This was definitely a passion project made my fans of the series that respect its source material, you can tell everyone had a lot of fun voicing their lines. For a licensed childrens game in the year 2023, It's certainly up to stuff, I can imagine this being some little kids favorite game.
this was quite a decent lil game not as good battle for bikini bottom but still cool to see more ps2 era platformers be made new in current year
(Here is my original review of the game back when I played it on PS4: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Shamaboy11/review/923206/)
Having played so many great games this year and my honeymoon phase being gone. I was concerned that The Cosmic Shake would fall behind so hard, but having replayed the game fully with the recent native PS5 version this week.
I'm happy to say that the game outside of tedious 100% completion & the finale feeling so anticlimactic is still a delightful 3D platformer that is a love letter to the Spongebob franchise without feeling like a cash grab.
It's also nice to play this at smooth 60fps, fast loading times, and the photo mode while being basic was fun to use to take snapshots of my journey through the creative themes and did make the costumes feel a bit more rewarding to unlock.
Once again, if you are a Spongebob fan & look for a very fun 3D platformer. This is an easy recommendation especially costing at a budgeted price.
Having played so many great games this year and my honeymoon phase being gone. I was concerned that The Cosmic Shake would fall behind so hard, but having replayed the game fully with the recent native PS5 version this week.
I'm happy to say that the game outside of tedious 100% completion & the finale feeling so anticlimactic is still a delightful 3D platformer that is a love letter to the Spongebob franchise without feeling like a cash grab.
It's also nice to play this at smooth 60fps, fast loading times, and the photo mode while being basic was fun to use to take snapshots of my journey through the creative themes and did make the costumes feel a bit more rewarding to unlock.
Once again, if you are a Spongebob fan & look for a very fun 3D platformer. This is an easy recommendation especially costing at a budgeted price.
Fun with knowledge of the series however does feature bland gameplay. I understand why because it's a children's game but unless you're a fan I can't reccomend it. But if you are. I do.
Kind of exactly what you'd expect from a modern Spongebob platformer: Nice 8th Gen spick span and flow, but sorely toothless in the sauce. Just does everything generally worse than BfBB because it's so scared of being even slightly challenging. The shift away from collectathon structure also makes most of the levels extremely repetitive and forgettable. The PS2 movie game still made linear work by way of Goober Tokens and the objectives tied to them. But like, once you beat the main path of each level, there's basically nothing else to do, and said paths are usually hour-long hikes with the same enemies and platform gimmicks.
Wish the humor was up to par, too, 90% of spongebob's dialouge is him making puns out of random shit and patrick obsfucating that wordplay into some dumb lolrandom dredge. Nick still has the same O.G. voice crew working on this, and I respect it, but I think a lot of these guys are ready to retire from this shindig. You can feel Tom Kenny getting seized by coughing fits from straining his voice so high.
And look man, I wouldn't say BfBB has a 'listenable' soundtrack, but it being VG music in the style of Spongebob's stock music fit like a glove. This mobile game orchestral sludge is ass, and throwing in a Sweet Victory or Jellyfish Jam here and there doesn't fix it.
There was basically nothing for me here but I guess it has a nice comfort food flow to it?
Wish the humor was up to par, too, 90% of spongebob's dialouge is him making puns out of random shit and patrick obsfucating that wordplay into some dumb lolrandom dredge. Nick still has the same O.G. voice crew working on this, and I respect it, but I think a lot of these guys are ready to retire from this shindig. You can feel Tom Kenny getting seized by coughing fits from straining his voice so high.
And look man, I wouldn't say BfBB has a 'listenable' soundtrack, but it being VG music in the style of Spongebob's stock music fit like a glove. This mobile game orchestral sludge is ass, and throwing in a Sweet Victory or Jellyfish Jam here and there doesn't fix it.
There was basically nothing for me here but I guess it has a nice comfort food flow to it?
Bob Esponja é o meu desenho ocidental (estou desconsiderando animes) favorito de todos os tempos, é o desenho que mais assisti e ele fez parte da minha vida. Até hoje eu reassisto os episódios mais antigos do desenho, que acho sensacionais.
Como Bob Esponja fez e faz um enorme sucesso, obviamente a Nickelodeon não deixaria passar e investiu em trocentos jogos sobre o Calça Quadrada, e um dos mais recentes é Bob Esponja Calça Quadrada: O Abalo Cósmico, produzido pela Purple Lamp, a mesma desenvolvedora que produziu o remake de 'Battle for Bikini Bottom', de 2020.
Por conta dessa desenvolvedora já ter uma certa experiência com Bob Esponja, já que ela desenvolveu esse remake que citei e ele em si é um bom jogo (apesar de até o momento eu desisti de jogar ele), era de se esperar que 'Abalo Cósmico' fosse bom. Porém, o que a Purple Lamp fez com esse aqui é algo surreal.
O jogo como um todo foi feito com muito amor, dá pra ver que a empresa teve cuidado e esmero em desenvolver um jogo não só fiel ao desenho, mas também com uma história mirabolante, simples, e divertida. O jogo em si é muito divertido (pelo menos pra mim, mais divertido que o remake de 2020).
Ele segue a mesma gameplay do remake de 2020, porém com adições que achei bem bacanas, pois serviram para a história que o jogo quer contar. A ideia de inserir novas dimensões baseadas em episódios icônicos do Bob Esponja foi sensacional, e cada um dos mundos são muito bonitos, cheios de detalhes e fiéis aos episódios que abordam.
Outro show foi a dublagem: o jogo veio dublado com as vozes originais em português, e isso foi espetacular. É muito bom ver que a THQ Nordic (publisher) conseguiu a localização do jogo em português e a dublagem pra esse jogo, coisa que não tem no remake de 2020, e isso torna tudo mais divertido.
Além disso, apesar de esse jogo ser feito para um público mais infantil, ele traz um certo desafio. Ele não é mais um desses jogos mega fáceis para permitir qualquer criancinha de 10 anos zerar sem dificuldade.
Claro, o público-alvo são as crianças, mas o jogo em si não é extremamente fácil, o que poderia tornar a gameplay por parte de adolescentes e adultos entediante. Isso é um ponto positivo desse jogo.
Enfim, eu adorei esse jogo. É visível que a desenvolvedora se divertiu com a produção do jogo e que eles foram muito criativos e cuidadosos em torná-lo um jogo simples mas divertido. Foi muito legal rever Bob Esponja e sua turma em português dublado, e passar por episódios lendários do desenho.
Acredito que vale a pena jogá-lo, caso goste do desenho, até porque o preço do jogo (na Steam) é bem mais barato que a maioria dos jogos, até mesmo aqueles lançados pela própria THQ Nordic em 2023.
Como Bob Esponja fez e faz um enorme sucesso, obviamente a Nickelodeon não deixaria passar e investiu em trocentos jogos sobre o Calça Quadrada, e um dos mais recentes é Bob Esponja Calça Quadrada: O Abalo Cósmico, produzido pela Purple Lamp, a mesma desenvolvedora que produziu o remake de 'Battle for Bikini Bottom', de 2020.
Por conta dessa desenvolvedora já ter uma certa experiência com Bob Esponja, já que ela desenvolveu esse remake que citei e ele em si é um bom jogo (apesar de até o momento eu desisti de jogar ele), era de se esperar que 'Abalo Cósmico' fosse bom. Porém, o que a Purple Lamp fez com esse aqui é algo surreal.
O jogo como um todo foi feito com muito amor, dá pra ver que a empresa teve cuidado e esmero em desenvolver um jogo não só fiel ao desenho, mas também com uma história mirabolante, simples, e divertida. O jogo em si é muito divertido (pelo menos pra mim, mais divertido que o remake de 2020).
Ele segue a mesma gameplay do remake de 2020, porém com adições que achei bem bacanas, pois serviram para a história que o jogo quer contar. A ideia de inserir novas dimensões baseadas em episódios icônicos do Bob Esponja foi sensacional, e cada um dos mundos são muito bonitos, cheios de detalhes e fiéis aos episódios que abordam.
Outro show foi a dublagem: o jogo veio dublado com as vozes originais em português, e isso foi espetacular. É muito bom ver que a THQ Nordic (publisher) conseguiu a localização do jogo em português e a dublagem pra esse jogo, coisa que não tem no remake de 2020, e isso torna tudo mais divertido.
Além disso, apesar de esse jogo ser feito para um público mais infantil, ele traz um certo desafio. Ele não é mais um desses jogos mega fáceis para permitir qualquer criancinha de 10 anos zerar sem dificuldade.
Claro, o público-alvo são as crianças, mas o jogo em si não é extremamente fácil, o que poderia tornar a gameplay por parte de adolescentes e adultos entediante. Isso é um ponto positivo desse jogo.
Enfim, eu adorei esse jogo. É visível que a desenvolvedora se divertiu com a produção do jogo e que eles foram muito criativos e cuidadosos em torná-lo um jogo simples mas divertido. Foi muito legal rever Bob Esponja e sua turma em português dublado, e passar por episódios lendários do desenho.
Acredito que vale a pena jogá-lo, caso goste do desenho, até porque o preço do jogo (na Steam) é bem mais barato que a maioria dos jogos, até mesmo aqueles lançados pela própria THQ Nordic em 2023.
got the plat for this and it genuinly improved my experience with the game. better than BFBB for sure and a worthwhile game to get when its on sale. just classic 3d platforming fun
If you enjoyed Battle for Bikini Bottom and simply want more of the same, then this games perfect for you. This game doesn't really innovate much on it's predecessor. Lacked polish in some areas. If you weren't too keen on the first game then skip this one.
I knew what I was in for, but man was I excited to play this game. I've always been a SpongeBob guy. I spent the entirety of my childhood roaming SpongeBob forums and communities. I know everything there is to possibly know about this franchise, so I feel like I'm pretty qualified to play this children's game.
It's a solid platformer, but despite the backdrop, it really doesn't feel like I'm in the world of SpongeBob. And when that's taken away from it, there's nothing that separates in from your average mobile-tier 3d platformer.
It's not bad, and there's definitely love there, but honest to God it feels like a reskinned game with SpongeBob and Bikini Bottom models. But it is pretty boring at times. It's extremely linear. Beat up five new enemies. Kick down the wall. Beat up five enemies.
Going into this, I was definitely not expecting anything above a 7/10, but it is kind of disappointing regardless.
It's a solid platformer, but despite the backdrop, it really doesn't feel like I'm in the world of SpongeBob. And when that's taken away from it, there's nothing that separates in from your average mobile-tier 3d platformer.
It's not bad, and there's definitely love there, but honest to God it feels like a reskinned game with SpongeBob and Bikini Bottom models. But it is pretty boring at times. It's extremely linear. Beat up five new enemies. Kick down the wall. Beat up five enemies.
Going into this, I was definitely not expecting anything above a 7/10, but it is kind of disappointing regardless.
Cosmic Shake is a solid game that felt a bit misguided in its approach as a psuedo-spiritual successor to Battle for Bikini Bottom. Its a fun time, but I put it on equal footing/a twinge below The Movie Game but above Creature from the Krusty Krab.
As far as positives go: the original music was great, the game looked visually stunning, the fanservice to the source material was a delight (excluding the usage of songs from the show), and the game felt really good. Level design was really neat, they were big and encouraged exploration. The weirdness definitely felt like a marriage between BfBB's cohesion and CFTKK's fever dream nature.
In terms of negatives I didn't fully click with Spongebob's moveset. The bubble is situational at best and useless at worst and the glider killing your momentum between platforming really sucked. It's a shame cause I thought the levels were designed pretty well, I just wish Spongebob felt more fun to use than "kinda fun" ya know. Enemy variety was too little and none felt like an obstacle at all which is a shame cause BfBB & Movie Game seemed to understand the challenge curve between them well.
Madam Cassandra & the final boss were a huge missed opportunity. While I do appreciate the final boss throwing a slight nod to a scrapped concept from BfBB, its one of the easiest bosses in the game, it doesn't even really have music, and its a bit of salt on the wound ontop of the game's underwhelming ending. Cassandra was set up as the antagonist but she didn't really have much of a motive. which is weird with that being the case cause the boss of the game's last level had a really good motive, and the boss fight was a bit better.
The presentation like I said, looked gorgeous, but there was some noticeably odd moments where the characters didn't feel animated enough with cutscenes & dialogue., their expressions and mannerisms didn't really match up well with what they had to say at times. As much as I appreciate the fanservice, the game didn't need to include songs from the show in it. Not only did it break my immersion, it just didn't fit in spots where they used the songs, and I personally prefer when licensed games have soundtracks that are adjacent with the source material. Spongebob's videogame track record with music was pretty damn good so I'm not sure why they decided to throw in show songs alongside having a pretty damn solid original OST.
Overall, Cosmic Shake is a fine game with some issues that make it fall short. Spongebob fans will likely get a kick out of it more (and I say this as a Spongebob fan) than those not into Spongebob. But it is a worthwhile playthrough.
Adding a NG+ feature would definitely mitigate the issue I had with the ending...
As far as positives go: the original music was great, the game looked visually stunning, the fanservice to the source material was a delight (excluding the usage of songs from the show), and the game felt really good. Level design was really neat, they were big and encouraged exploration. The weirdness definitely felt like a marriage between BfBB's cohesion and CFTKK's fever dream nature.
In terms of negatives I didn't fully click with Spongebob's moveset. The bubble is situational at best and useless at worst and the glider killing your momentum between platforming really sucked. It's a shame cause I thought the levels were designed pretty well, I just wish Spongebob felt more fun to use than "kinda fun" ya know. Enemy variety was too little and none felt like an obstacle at all which is a shame cause BfBB & Movie Game seemed to understand the challenge curve between them well.
Madam Cassandra & the final boss were a huge missed opportunity. While I do appreciate the final boss throwing a slight nod to a scrapped concept from BfBB, its one of the easiest bosses in the game, it doesn't even really have music, and its a bit of salt on the wound ontop of the game's underwhelming ending. Cassandra was set up as the antagonist but she didn't really have much of a motive. which is weird with that being the case cause the boss of the game's last level had a really good motive, and the boss fight was a bit better.
The presentation like I said, looked gorgeous, but there was some noticeably odd moments where the characters didn't feel animated enough with cutscenes & dialogue., their expressions and mannerisms didn't really match up well with what they had to say at times. As much as I appreciate the fanservice, the game didn't need to include songs from the show in it. Not only did it break my immersion, it just didn't fit in spots where they used the songs, and I personally prefer when licensed games have soundtracks that are adjacent with the source material. Spongebob's videogame track record with music was pretty damn good so I'm not sure why they decided to throw in show songs alongside having a pretty damn solid original OST.
Overall, Cosmic Shake is a fine game with some issues that make it fall short. Spongebob fans will likely get a kick out of it more (and I say this as a Spongebob fan) than those not into Spongebob. But it is a worthwhile playthrough.
Adding a NG+ feature would definitely mitigate the issue I had with the ending...
This game was THQ Nordic's attempt to make a new game in the same vein as Battle for Bikini Bottom. Apparently the remaster of BFB did well enough that Cosmic Shake got greenlit. And I did enjoy Cosmic Shake as a big BFB enjoyer, but eh... it just lacks a lot of heart the original had. SpongeBob is the only playable character this time around, and while the world design is cool, the game is much more condensed since it doesn't have the progression of the Spatulas that BFB has.
It almost feels like THQ Nordic got too excited to make a new BFB spiritual successor that they didn't stop to think about what made BFB so charming. And as a result, they made a solid game, but one that pales in comparison. Overall, good game, but disappointing and has plenty of wasted potential should they have spent more time with it.
God, am I getting this nuanced talking about a SpongeBob game?
Score: 75
It almost feels like THQ Nordic got too excited to make a new BFB spiritual successor that they didn't stop to think about what made BFB so charming. And as a result, they made a solid game, but one that pales in comparison. Overall, good game, but disappointing and has plenty of wasted potential should they have spent more time with it.
God, am I getting this nuanced talking about a SpongeBob game?
Score: 75
This review contains spoilers
Good nostalgia for old school PS2 style platformers. Decent worlds, involves all the characters well, surprisingly good!
Even the talking sponge couldn't make this fun
My expectations with Cosmic Shake as a budgeted 3D platformer that doesn’t cost full price is that it would be decent at least and I’m happy to report that the game is wonderful. It has a few problems that makes it feel so low-budgeted, but I would say there is enough heart put into it for a budgeted title that I would recommend if you love to play another colorful 3D platformer.
Now my biggest surprise with this game was the writing. I still think the characterizations are a bit flanderized, but the writing itself made me smile so much on how the character dynamics bounce so well off each other with their dialogues and not having to rely on visual gags as the main substance that is comedy, which unfortunately current SpongeBob suffers from way too much. I haven’t enjoyed this much writing from SpongeBob since like half of season 4 or Sponge Out of Water. They also make a lot of callbacks from early seasons and thankfully most of them don’t feel so forced in except for 2 of them from my experience.
Top all of this with surprisingly well-animated cutscenes are that very expressive, having all the voice actors that still sound great voicing their iconic or even side characters, and having a new brand character for this called Kassandra whiles is a very predictable type of character still a great addition to the cast of characters. This is easily my favorite written SpongeBob adventure in a video game form.
Now as for the gameplay itself, you only play as SpongeBob this time compared to BFBB where you can also play as Sandy or Patrick. That might sound like a downgrade, but they made this up by combining other playable character move sets into SpongeBob for this game and that was honestly such a wise decision because this leads to SpongeBob being way more fun to control compared to the previous games where he was pretty basic due to having to balance previous games around other playable characters to have different move sets each. Now that they can only focus solely on SpongeBob, it's much more satisfying to unlock new moves like the dodge roll, pizza glide, or karate kick that I consistently use for platforming or combat that are engaging. it leads to the level design being very focused and shaking things up enough to feel new, but not ruining the overall flow that is pure platforming, which I do think Movie Game failed at it, and even BFBB to an extent with a few obnoxious objectives.
The game is very linear compared to BFBB and depending on what you expect from this game, I do understand being let down by the lack of openness that is the collectathon structure in BFBB that was well known. However, I can easily swallow that because I do think the level design despite being very linear is still very engaging to go through at least when it comes to the main paths, and isn’t so much of a straight line that it fights against you. There are still enough of these open sections for you to complete main objectives from different points, it has that doughnut shape structure within these level sections where the game lets you complete stuff that eventually leads you back to the main path naturally or find a doubloon that lets you spend on cool unlockable costumes that are callbacks to the past. The structure & level design is consistently well-designed & focused I find to be more fun than BFBB when it comes to the main paths at least. There is also not a single level that I disliked, unlike BFBB where Kelp Forest was just a mess.
The last few things I have to praise before I get into my complaints is that the game looks gorgeous. Environments or characters look so stylized or colorful, each level looks so distinctive. The soundtrack is also very cool, not blowing my socks off, but it was very catchy to listen to during the game.
Now, my biggest complaint with this game is the finale. Not to spoil what exactly happens, but it feels very anticlimactic & the final boss gameplay-wise is a complete joke. Left me soured a bit at the finish lines.
My last major complaint is that whiles going through the main paths is very fun, I do think optional quests that require you to backtrack makes 100% of the game just not very fun, especially since the last 20 doubloons that you use to unlock costumes are useless. So these optional quests feel like padding the game out, it is not the end of the world for me because just finding doubloons is enough to unlock all the costumes but keep this in mind if you are considering 100% this.
In conclusion, I’m very happy with this overall package that was made by people who loved the source material, but they also knew how to design a very fun 3D platformer despite its low budget showing its cracks sometimes. For a game that goes for a lower price, I can recommend this to anyone who is a fan of SpongeBob or are into 3D platformers in general
Now my biggest surprise with this game was the writing. I still think the characterizations are a bit flanderized, but the writing itself made me smile so much on how the character dynamics bounce so well off each other with their dialogues and not having to rely on visual gags as the main substance that is comedy, which unfortunately current SpongeBob suffers from way too much. I haven’t enjoyed this much writing from SpongeBob since like half of season 4 or Sponge Out of Water. They also make a lot of callbacks from early seasons and thankfully most of them don’t feel so forced in except for 2 of them from my experience.
Top all of this with surprisingly well-animated cutscenes are that very expressive, having all the voice actors that still sound great voicing their iconic or even side characters, and having a new brand character for this called Kassandra whiles is a very predictable type of character still a great addition to the cast of characters. This is easily my favorite written SpongeBob adventure in a video game form.
Now as for the gameplay itself, you only play as SpongeBob this time compared to BFBB where you can also play as Sandy or Patrick. That might sound like a downgrade, but they made this up by combining other playable character move sets into SpongeBob for this game and that was honestly such a wise decision because this leads to SpongeBob being way more fun to control compared to the previous games where he was pretty basic due to having to balance previous games around other playable characters to have different move sets each. Now that they can only focus solely on SpongeBob, it's much more satisfying to unlock new moves like the dodge roll, pizza glide, or karate kick that I consistently use for platforming or combat that are engaging. it leads to the level design being very focused and shaking things up enough to feel new, but not ruining the overall flow that is pure platforming, which I do think Movie Game failed at it, and even BFBB to an extent with a few obnoxious objectives.
The game is very linear compared to BFBB and depending on what you expect from this game, I do understand being let down by the lack of openness that is the collectathon structure in BFBB that was well known. However, I can easily swallow that because I do think the level design despite being very linear is still very engaging to go through at least when it comes to the main paths, and isn’t so much of a straight line that it fights against you. There are still enough of these open sections for you to complete main objectives from different points, it has that doughnut shape structure within these level sections where the game lets you complete stuff that eventually leads you back to the main path naturally or find a doubloon that lets you spend on cool unlockable costumes that are callbacks to the past. The structure & level design is consistently well-designed & focused I find to be more fun than BFBB when it comes to the main paths at least. There is also not a single level that I disliked, unlike BFBB where Kelp Forest was just a mess.
The last few things I have to praise before I get into my complaints is that the game looks gorgeous. Environments or characters look so stylized or colorful, each level looks so distinctive. The soundtrack is also very cool, not blowing my socks off, but it was very catchy to listen to during the game.
Now, my biggest complaint with this game is the finale. Not to spoil what exactly happens, but it feels very anticlimactic & the final boss gameplay-wise is a complete joke. Left me soured a bit at the finish lines.
My last major complaint is that whiles going through the main paths is very fun, I do think optional quests that require you to backtrack makes 100% of the game just not very fun, especially since the last 20 doubloons that you use to unlock costumes are useless. So these optional quests feel like padding the game out, it is not the end of the world for me because just finding doubloons is enough to unlock all the costumes but keep this in mind if you are considering 100% this.
In conclusion, I’m very happy with this overall package that was made by people who loved the source material, but they also knew how to design a very fun 3D platformer despite its low budget showing its cracks sometimes. For a game that goes for a lower price, I can recommend this to anyone who is a fan of SpongeBob or are into 3D platformers in general
I am in fact still a little baby.
A joyful experience
I have been sitting on this title for a while so I was happy to finally get around to playing it. I was very excited coming from Battle for bikini bottom rehydrated as I thought the game was a very good experience. In the end I really enjoyed my time with Cosmic Shake , finding myself smiling a lot and simply just having a great time with this game.
Platform goodness
One thing I have always enjoyed about spongebob games is its level design , it always brims with colors and joy. Each level is a blast to explore and complete, with many references from the show to be had along the way. Furthermore if you are a fan of the cartoon you will most likely enjoy this game a lot as it has many many references from the cartoon in it. In addition , the movement was fluid and fun apart from a few bugs and issues and I had. The story of cosmic shake is very simple , nothing to really write home about but that is fine spongebob games do not need insane stories. In addition, I quickly saw myself go back to each level after completing the game to 100% everything and get the platinum trophy and still the game's charm would shine through even with its grind near the end. Thank the lord there were no microtransactions in this game, EVERYTHING is only earnable through gameplay and there are alot of costumes to unlock and use which was very nice. I honestly don’t have many complaints with the game overall , it's a nice little package of good fun that will take you down memory lane.
Some complaints
While I don’t have many complaints I did have some issues that occurred during my runtime with the game. Primarily platform glitches and insta deaths which were annoying but didn’t happen often. To explain , there were a few times I would die for seemingly no reason while having full HP. It would mainly occur when I would try to go through a portal where spongebob would just glitch out and die which was odd. In addition I wish they could up the type of bosses these games have. To explain , the bosses were pretty basic in the sense that if you have played any 3D platformer you have most likely fought these types of bosses before. They never really seem to try and change up the boss formula and add some challenging bosses.
In the end
I really hope they continue with this formula because spongebob games have been in a very weird place recently. While Rehydrated was good, previous spongebob games were very hit or miss. They honestly need to just stick with Platformers and continue to innovate within its genre because I genuinely believe they could make a Fantastic platformer out of spongebob.
I have been sitting on this title for a while so I was happy to finally get around to playing it. I was very excited coming from Battle for bikini bottom rehydrated as I thought the game was a very good experience. In the end I really enjoyed my time with Cosmic Shake , finding myself smiling a lot and simply just having a great time with this game.
Platform goodness
One thing I have always enjoyed about spongebob games is its level design , it always brims with colors and joy. Each level is a blast to explore and complete, with many references from the show to be had along the way. Furthermore if you are a fan of the cartoon you will most likely enjoy this game a lot as it has many many references from the cartoon in it. In addition , the movement was fluid and fun apart from a few bugs and issues and I had. The story of cosmic shake is very simple , nothing to really write home about but that is fine spongebob games do not need insane stories. In addition, I quickly saw myself go back to each level after completing the game to 100% everything and get the platinum trophy and still the game's charm would shine through even with its grind near the end. Thank the lord there were no microtransactions in this game, EVERYTHING is only earnable through gameplay and there are alot of costumes to unlock and use which was very nice. I honestly don’t have many complaints with the game overall , it's a nice little package of good fun that will take you down memory lane.
Some complaints
While I don’t have many complaints I did have some issues that occurred during my runtime with the game. Primarily platform glitches and insta deaths which were annoying but didn’t happen often. To explain , there were a few times I would die for seemingly no reason while having full HP. It would mainly occur when I would try to go through a portal where spongebob would just glitch out and die which was odd. In addition I wish they could up the type of bosses these games have. To explain , the bosses were pretty basic in the sense that if you have played any 3D platformer you have most likely fought these types of bosses before. They never really seem to try and change up the boss formula and add some challenging bosses.
In the end
I really hope they continue with this formula because spongebob games have been in a very weird place recently. While Rehydrated was good, previous spongebob games were very hit or miss. They honestly need to just stick with Platformers and continue to innovate within its genre because I genuinely believe they could make a Fantastic platformer out of spongebob.
A disappointing miscalculation of audience. The Cosmic Shake (TCS) is a spiritual successor to Battle for Bikini Bottom (BfBB) made by Purple Lamp Studios.
In terms of writing, references and voice acting, the game is a great step up from BfBB. Many of the shows writers and voice actors worked closely on this project to deliver on that front.
But when it comes to gameplay, TCS is heavily dumbed down and simplified when it comes to platforming, collectibles and boss difficulty. Usually, I wouldn't mind this since it's obviously a kids game, but Purple Lamp already created the perfect recreation of BfBB in 2020 that was also a financial success.
There's also the fundamental mistake of thinking the main demographic for a spongebob game is still children. The show was hugely popular in the 90s and 2000s, after that it has been a shell of its former self and has lost popularity to competition from Cartoon Network shows. Most people that are still large enough SpongeBob fans are the kids that grew up with it in it's golden days or played BfBB, kids that have grown up to around 14-24 and don't need their hand to be held in a platformer game.
Overall, TCS sadly does not offer much of a challenge to anyone remotely used to a platformer, but for anyone looking for a good entry game to 3D Platformers and you happen to also like SpongeBob, this is a great option.
In terms of writing, references and voice acting, the game is a great step up from BfBB. Many of the shows writers and voice actors worked closely on this project to deliver on that front.
But when it comes to gameplay, TCS is heavily dumbed down and simplified when it comes to platforming, collectibles and boss difficulty. Usually, I wouldn't mind this since it's obviously a kids game, but Purple Lamp already created the perfect recreation of BfBB in 2020 that was also a financial success.
There's also the fundamental mistake of thinking the main demographic for a spongebob game is still children. The show was hugely popular in the 90s and 2000s, after that it has been a shell of its former self and has lost popularity to competition from Cartoon Network shows. Most people that are still large enough SpongeBob fans are the kids that grew up with it in it's golden days or played BfBB, kids that have grown up to around 14-24 and don't need their hand to be held in a platformer game.
Overall, TCS sadly does not offer much of a challenge to anyone remotely used to a platformer, but for anyone looking for a good entry game to 3D Platformers and you happen to also like SpongeBob, this is a great option.
Saving Bikini Bottom, one hapless soul at a time.
Cosmic Shake was a fantastic game. while it wasn't as long as it's predecessor, BfBB, I still greatly enjoyed my time with this game. the levels were all unique and memorable, while the bossfights were fun for the most part. the new gameplay mechanics were fun, and the humour in this game nearly always hit. a must play for SpongeBob fans.