The better known a character is, the greater the chances of references or identification by an audience, and so a game of this character can be an interesting draw for a stream. Even more so when the game is faithful to the source that the character came from, be it comics, movies, TV series or cartoons. Ans this is the case of “Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake”.

In the Playstation 2 generation, many licensed games of cartoon characters came out and were successful, regardless of the quality or guarantee of fidelity to the original work. Just the fact that the original character was there was enough for the target audience, in this case the kids, to want to play and enjoy.

A character that has had many games in ages past has resurfaced and loaded with nostalgia, good references and simple but on-point gameplay: Spongebob Squarepants. Our long-time spongy friend returns with a new game published by THQ Nordic after years without new adventures: “Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake”.

“Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake” – References and more references

Among the great highlights of the game are the right references to the cartoon, from the most famous episodes to the most recent passages, through all the known characters and even some new ones made just for the game, localization for several languages, and simple, but functional, gameplay, linear and fun, without inventing too much in terms of a 3D platform game, making both the audience and the streamer engage and want to keep playing and following the adventure. Unfortunately, the game is tiring to play for long sequences of time, which would be my only major point of criticism.

Available on all current platforms, I had the opportunity to finish the Nintendo Switch version, which fails for not being so well optimized, but this doesn’t interfere so much with regard to gameplay and performance, but gives some odd freezes during gameplay and cutscenes.

In terms of content, the game is rich and full of things to explore, being worthy the price, it may be possible to finish it without looking for the extras spending between 10 to 12 hours and with almost 20 hours of content to be explored if you try all the achievements and/or other extras in the game, but that can be repetitive by not changing much the already known formula of traditional 3D platform games.

Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake

PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch (2023)

Performance

Streamability

Audience Engagement

Replayability

Summary

Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake cheers up the players by making a character as beloved and dear as Spongebob to have a new game after so long without a new adventure to call his own. Despite being a simple 3D platformer with no great new features, it does what it does best and engages both the public and the streamer when it comes to the charisma of an already familiar universe. However, even with a considerable amount of content and a very reasonable value for the current scenario of games, it is a game to be played in small doses because the player can get bored easily due to the repetition of the same themes and patterns, with constancy. Highlights includes visuals, localization in several languages, and the simple but well done platform mechanics.

Ludovicoluka

I have 25 years, I produce content to internet for 4 years and I like retro games, indies and I’m an enthusiast for new launches. I have as my favorite games Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario World, Hollow Knight and Red Dead Redemption II, per example. I like to experiment everything and the more, the better, but I never get sick of my comfort games!