SpongeBob SquarePants - The Movie

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SpongeBob SquarePants -
The Movie

Release date: 12/2004
Developer: AWE Games
Publisher: THQ

Boxshots

Game language and manual: German

USK: for all ages

A review by slydos 8th January 2005

Several SpongeBob games have already been published, but SpongeBob - The Movie is the second adventure game based on the Nickelodeon cult TV series of the same name and so it's the sequel to SpongeBob - Employee of the Month. While THQ left out the German translation of the first adventure except for the manual, this time SpongeBob is released in German language simultaneously to the movie. Like its predecessor it combines easiest point&click controls with handpainted comic scenes, which are populated by endearing and scurrile underwater-3D-characters.

Story

Perhaps you already know our hero from TV or cinema. He is the leading actor of a successful TV series for kids, performing in a multicolored-scurrile underwater world, where everything is nearly like above the water, only without that much oxygen.

We meet well-known acquaintances and locations from the series. Rogue Plankton, extremely small but also extraordinary greedy, actually wants to accroach the rule over the underwater realm once again. So he fetches a last devilish plan: He steals the crown from King Neptun and puts the blame for it on burger restaurant owner, Mr. Crabs. Mr. Crabs is frozen to an ice block because of this offence and must fear to end as part of king Neptun's buffet. But SpongeBob doesn't forsake his boss and sallies with friend Patrick to return the crown and to prove Crab's innocence.

However during the 8 chapters of the game we slip for a short time into the roles of princess Mindy, Patrick and even of Plankton. The dialogues, scenes and characters are off the trolley and all is bubbling over with funny ideas. SpongeBob's story and humor do the splits between the age groups and satisfy both children and adults. During SpongeBob's journey you have to struggle through the dark waters of the Big Rift, the rusty bar doors of the Thug Tug and the sweaty chest hair of a lifeguard.

I very much enjoyed the protest rally in front of the office of a chiropractor, where a group of invertebrates picket for equal rights and SpongeBob must get admission to the conspirative hide-out of the demolitionists using their uniform, the existentialist clinging, black turtleneck, in order to arbitrate between the parties. "Wir possess no backbone, but we require the right, to get it examined!" Since Sponge starts his conversations mostly discursive and precocious with everybody around, then the following scene strikes all of a heap: Sponge to a small girl: "What are you doing?" - "I'm standing." "Wow, so do I!" I admit I've also laughed about that.

Installation/start

"SpongeBob SquarePants - The Movie" comes on 1 CDROM along with the illustrated manual in a DVD box. You don't have much to think about, simply insert the CD, watch the installation of the 700 MB and start the game. After you've clicked through some logos, you're stopped by a license screen, where you've to wait until it's disappeared.

After this we arrive at the start menu and can go to the game options such as setting volume, sub-titles and graphics details, load or start a game. The intro movie and the end of each chapter commemorate the title of the ever first graphic adventure, King's Quest 1: in the Captain's study on a sailing boat an old book opens, in which the story of the Quest for the Crown is told, in this case of course SpongeBob's Quest for the Crown. The story is told in comic style format with screenshots from the film by an off-speaker with inescapable French accent as we know from the series in German TV.

After the intro we must - the same with the following chapters - watch the progress display of the loading screen for about 20 seconds. However after that everything runs without delays.

A new day begins for SpongeBob and his usual good temper is still topped by the fact, that he looks forward to the expected promotion to manager of the Krusty Krab 2. Who knows Sponge, will know, that his positive imagination messes around with him again. Anyway, fom now on we can intervene to control our hero.

Controls/handling

SpongeBob can be controlled by mouse in 3rd-person-perspective. Optionally you can use the keyboard for most functions too.

Left-clicking with the mouse at a point at the screen will let Sponge walk there. Hotspots, possible actions and scene changes are indicated by text during mouse contact. With a left-click you can conduct conversations, select multiple choice dialogue options, take objects or use them.

Inventory items become visible in the upper screen area by right-click. The objects are slowly rotating in a small circle, which surrounds them like an aureole and if you touch them with the mouse, you get a description. These objects are used by drag&drop, and can also be combined, so that one can create new items. You'll rarely carry more than 2 or 3 objects with you at a time!

The escape-key or a click on the mouse wheel opens the main menu comfortably right in the center of the screen. There one can save, load and quit the game and also open the options menu. Actually it's a doublette of the starting menu - so one could have dropped one of them. You can save an unlimited number of savegames at a time with a large screenshot and an arbitrary text. When it comes to loading always the last savegame is offered to you, we can likewise scroll back with the arrow keys. The controls are still a step more simple and more comfortable than the predecessor's, nothing to criticize!

Graphics

Most of the happy colorful, screen-filling backgrounds are handdrawn and -coloured. However some prerendered backgrounds are mixed in without a perceptible change in style. In the 8 chapters of our story you may encounter many different things, from the well-known Bikini Bottom with its houses and burger restaurants you have to wander across the bottom of the sea to Goofy Goober's ice bar, Neptun's Castle, through distant unknown and foggy regions into submarine caves where we can experience the future until we finally face legendary Shell City. Here either Sponge and Patrick defy all dangers like death by dehydration or the one-eyed cyclops on their Quest for the Crown of King Neptun.

The characters, especially of course our main characters, adjust themselves with their 3D-shape quite well to the scenes. Expression and movements are comic-like exaggerated however tellingly used. Beside new faces we meet a whole number of well-known characters such as Thaddaeus, Mr. Krabs, Plankton or the familiar guy.

SpongeBob and the other player characters are easy and fast to send everywhere by mouse-clicks. Doubleclicks let them run/swim faster. Especially SpongeBob endues several suitable standard movements, while we are musing about our next steps and his simple comic shows surprisingly rich faculty of expression. They even ensured that SpongeBob could wink at his face in the mirror.

Graphical texts, e.g. signs or labels, are not extra translated and redesigned for the German version. So one must live with the fact that the 'Krusty Krab' is translated 'Krosse Krabbe' in the spoken text for example while it remains Krusty Krab in the screen graphics.

Dialogues/music/sound

The spoken texts can be faded in by sub-titles. And this time THQ fully localized the game with translations of written and spoken texts into German. Even if perhaps not every bonmot could be saved, nevertheless Sponge's naive and wise attitude is well transported. Although the original voices of the series were not used, the assigned speakers, who unfortunately find no consideration in the credits and in the manual too, are suitably selected. Apart from lively Irish-English chanties there are unobstrusive jazz rhythms, country music, fanfare sounds or silent movie slapstick music depending upon scene. If this is a bit too much for you, you can adjust the volume in the options menu. The sound effects are more discreet, like the sea rush, quiet bubbling, flapping doors or the patter of SpongeBob's small feet. The scurrile but always sweet-tempered atmosphere gets oceanically charged by the well co-ordinated acoustic ingredients and should not hide behind the original.

Puzzles

The puzzles in "SpongeBob SquarePants - The Movie" are all of easy degree of difficulty and especially suitable for young players or genre beginners. They are almost exclusively a matter of object or dialogue puzzles. Since always only few objects are kept in the inventory, you aren't spoilt for choice, which object might be the right one. Nevertheless the puzzles are funny and imaginative as already in the predecessor game.

The classic inventory puzzles are complemented by memory puzzles and very easy dexterity games that nobody should worry about. Everything is well integrated into the plot and hardly let you stop or get stuck despite clear linearity, which benefits the narration of the story and gags.

The ease with which we move through the events, also results in a relative short game length, hardly exceeding approx. 8 hours. But there might have been people, who have already watched a movie twice, and it's indeed worthwhile in this case, because thus one will play safe to get every of the fast shot gags.

Result

"SpongeBob SquarePants - The Movie" is a game, giving you stress-free fun - possibly to parents more than to their children. Nevertheless it's a true family game. The sometimes a bit flashy comic-style may not please everyone, who attaches great importance to realistic presentation or rather likes to play quiet 1st-person-adventures. But I believe that SpongeBob will not only win new fans through the movie, but also through this very felicitous adventure porting. If the first SpongeBob game was already a surprise hit, then I would like to say that SpongeBob this time became even more 'absorptive'! Really displeasing can only be the short playing time at the most!

Rating: 78%

Adventure-Archiv rating system:

80% - 100% excellent game, very recommendable

70% - 79% good game, recommendable

60% - 69% satisfactory, restricted recommendable

50% - 59% sufficient (not very recommendable)

40% - 49% rather deficient (not to be recommended - for hardcore-adventure-freaks and collectors only)