Precise jumping on small platforms rarely comes up unless you’re tracking down hidden side-quest collectibles, and the game features quite a bit of combat. I do wish some of the abilities flowed together and had more impact. Even with his double jump and glide, SpongeBob isn’t as nimble or quick to control as Mario, Kirby, or Sonic. Still, you won’t be gliding too far with this. The most significant additions are a Karate dive kick that works on enemies and certain objects as well as a stamina-based glide using a Krusty Krab pizza box.Īlthough I find it hilarious that the look and feel of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s glider has entered the mainstream gaming zeitgeist enough to where it’s used in a SpongeBob game, the tool is my favorite addition to Cosmic Shake as it opens up movement options in many scenarios. That said, his movement has been vastly expanded to incorporate those other characters’ abilities, like Patrick’s powerful body slam or Sandy’s swinging powers. Unlike Battle for Bikini Bottom, which lets people play as SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy, Cosmic Shake only features a playable SpongeBob (Balloon Patrick makes jokes and occasionally finds health for SpongeBob). SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake isn’t designed to be difficult, and it’s all the more fun for that decision. Hopefully, these technical issues can be ironed out after release, just as they were with SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated, but they sour an otherwise great-looking game upon launch. Cutscene-to-gameplay transitions would occasionally jitter, and some death animations don’t play properly. Its visuals might be pretty, but these performance issues make some levels of the game less pleasant to play. I encountered quite a few frame rate dips even though I was playing the Xbox One version of the game on the Xbox Series X. Unfortunately, the presentation isn’t flawless. It’s novel to see brand-new takes on these well-trodden areas, and all of the minute details, some excellent sound design, and a catchy soundtrack ensure that each world is memorable. Level theming is also outstanding, as we see many locations from the show and Battle for Bikini Bottom reimagined with new themes, like Wild West Jellyfish Fields and Halloween Rock Bottom. The show comes to life spectacularly in 3D and is even more colorful and vibrant than its predecessor, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated. In a similar vein, its visuals succeed by taking a faithful approach to the source material. Comedy is hard to pull off in games and often quite divisive, but SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake succeeds in being funny by just sounding like an episode of the show. Even if young players seem to be the central audience here, the game even got some laughs out of me with some hilarious Patrick quips and callbacks to TV gags like “one eternity later” transition cards. Kids will get an innocent chuckle out of SpongeBob’s underwear health bar and other bits of cartoon gross-out imagery. The writing is quite funny, with plenty of great jokes appropriate for all ages. As always, Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke are a delight as SpongeBob and Patrick, though every voice actor here is on point, bringing the same energy to this game as they have to the TV show for the past 23 years. The writing and voice acting are both on the money, delivering exactly what a fan would expect from SpongeBob. This plot feels like it could’ve been taken straight from an episode of the show, even though it is also well-suited to a world-based platformer. Finally the ending felt very abrupt.SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake succeeds in being funny by just sounding like an episode of the show. There was too much downtime between hits. The two standouts being the Big Jelly and the Burrower. Other audio bugs would be character dialogue repeating the first few words for an entire character interaction. I had one boss theme somehow play for everything, the hubworld, other levels, and even the title screen had that song playing until I reset the game. Some levels felt more complete than others. Most negatives I have with this are most likely because the devs were strapped for time. I know the original composer for BFBB did also work on this game. Though some levels like the Medieval one did feel repetitive. Enjoyed seeing tons of throwbacks to tons of episodes. The characters are fantastically animated during the more cinematic cutscenes. The Kah-Rah-Tay kick was my favorite new move. I do love that they continued what BFBB did and have dedicated introductions for each enemy type. I prefer the more open levels in BFBB than the ones in this or the Movie game.Īs for positives. Still a lotta jank like the Reydrated remake.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |