SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge

"Just what the playstation needs in it's twilight years. Some fun."

Imagine this:

I see a preview of this quirky little cartoon-based 2-d platformer for the playstation. I'm interested. The game appears to have no release date anywhere I can find on the net, it's been out in America for a couple of months (It's November now, and we're in the UK). I go down to electronics boutique and look for a copy, they don't have one of course. I ask at the desk, I have to repeat the name due to it's bizarre nature. The desk assistant frowns.

'Never heard of it'

Frustrated I go to WH Smiths (A book and magazine store) which has a small rack of playstation games. I hunt through and at the very bottom row, at the very end, underneath two other game cases (For some piece of Barbie trash or other) there it is! After frantic searching around at the desk, they finally find it and charge me a suspiciously cheap £10.

Oh, and it's made by THQ.

So a cheap, obscure THQ-branded cartoon licensed game that the major press didn't review and a major game outlet didn't stock. Things weren't looking too good for Spongebob Squarepants sup.... this game. But it's turned out to be a rough around the edges, massively enjoyable blast to the past with a great sense of humour.

The story is quite surreal. Nickelodeon cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants (A sponge with square pants would you believe) wants to get his friend Patrick the starfish something special for his birthday. He decides on the autographs of Patrick's old favourite superheroes, Mermaid Man and Barnacle boy. When he goes down to the shady shoals retirement home, they demand that Spongebob carry out errands for them before they give him an autograph.

And that's the story. It's time to go squeaking around 25 under-sea levels (Don't worry, no swimming is involved) to fetch things such as a TV aerial or parts of a sandwich. The first thing you'll notice is that SSSS (Yes, that's the acronym) has stolen the health system straight from Sonic. You collect golden spatulas and when you are hit, you lose all of them. I've never been a fan of this system as I think it's unfair, but it works fairly well here, and is especially useful in the boss battles.

SSSS does have a gimmick of it's own and that is objects. You can hold one object at a time. These include jellyfish nets (Jellyfish litter all levels. Use the net to catch them and throw them at enemies), Bubble wands (Create bubble platforms with them) and balloons (use them to glide gracefully). This adds a layer of strategy to the proceedings (albeit a thin one) and some of them are a lot of fun to use.

What makes SSSS so fun? Well, although it may sound odd, it's got to be the mix of basic level design and loose controls. If the controls were tight then the game would be astoundingly easy to beat, and a bit dull. A cheap way to extend the game's lifespan? Well at points where you jump onto a platform and then skid uncontrollably off the other side, yes you certainly do think this. But because the layout of the levels is so simple, the skidding works. Jumping becomes more of a challenge, but because of the generous placement of the platforms, and the fact that moving ones will bump you to the top if you just miss them, the sometimes speedy, sometimes slow jump move works as well.

I know this sounds strange, but careering through the levels and attempting not to skid off the platforms isn't frustrating in the least, it's tremendous fun. You'll slide about and bash at the controls frantically in order to reach your destination. You could of course choose to go through slowly, carefully avoiding everything, but then the game's control errors would only serve to degrade rather than enhance the quality of the overall experience. You'll learn to develop a lot of skill this way and, for once, the harder it is the more compelling it gets. There was no point in the game where I didn't care if I got to the end, I was having too much fun to stop, and the wildly erratic control system provides a strange gaming pleasure that is....... different to everything else.

Luckily the game doesn't gamble anywhere outside the controls. The level design is basic and has all the set pieces you'd expect. Some challenges, such as the one where you are in a huge open space and have to create platforms to a hidden destination with bubbles (And you have only a limited amount of bubbles) is extremely difficult, but it's still a lot of fun. Other levels see you having to destroy walls your your pet snail (Who often meows) can reach his food bowl. It's got such a surreal sense of humour that you can't really get frustrated, you actually get quite caught up in the plot.

This is helped by the fact that Spongebob is such a likable character. Get to the end of a level (And therefore receive an important item for the superheroes) and he'll let out a quick, high-pitched 'Bahahahaha!' before pondering his next destination. It's all disturbingly silly, but that's part of the appeal. To add to this rather insane atmosphere is the voice-work on all the characters. Spongebob is consistently perky and terrifyingly high-pitched, the superheroes are rather depressed and Sandy Cheeks the underwater squirrel has a deranged Wisconsin dialect that I like. They are all animated in a strange 2-d way which makes them look quite convincingly cartoony, Spongebob in particular is very well animated. It fits the style perfectly.

Of course there are other characters populating the game other than goodies, there are also the mandatory underwater baddies! And you learn to quite like some of them (Like the bemused looking crabs who have COMPLETELY random movement patterns, they suddenly stop at any point and scuttle off in any direction). Of course there are also the ones who you hate (Like the golden prawns who zig zag across the screen and then zoom towards you on sight). The butt bounce (Which quite frankly I'm sick of explaining as it's in every platformer known to man) will dispatch most of them, but using the weapons provides a lot more satisfaction.

Level obstacles are quite restricted due to the underwater setting. They consist of coral, spikes falling from the ceiling and toxic waste among other things. The levels actually look quite drab in most places and could have done with maybe brighter colours and a bit more variety. Some of the sprites used for jellyfish platforms are laughably primitive, but most of the polygonal structures hold a decent enough style to make the game visually interesting (If not outstanding).

The boss fights are a mixed bag ranging from clever and tense, to random and easy. Most place you in a multi-level arena with lots of spikes and bouncing tires, stuff to generally make the battle a little more exciting. And a lot of the bosses at least attempt something different, you must hunt from some of them as they flit around, and carefully avoid spikes while trying to stomp the boss in other battles. They are quite undemanding skill-wise but they provide a lot of variety and are just as silly and enjoyable as the rest of the game.

As well as the visual oddities, the music helps to enhance the cartoon atmosphere. Most of it is fairly relaxed Hawaiian music and is very diverse on the whole, not what you'd expect from a normal platform game. The main theme, along with a few of the more wacky level tunes, embody all that is right with this game. Namely big, brash fun.

The game won't last you too long though, as you can skid through all the levels in only about five or so hours, but there are 5 mini-game levels to unlock, which are very fun. And the challenge in getting them is a fairly sizable one. But really this game needed more levels and a bit more challenge in places to give it a decent length.

SSSS does a lot wrong, it introduces almost nothing new, it's controls are sloppy and it ends quickly. But in some cases it's detractors turn out to be it's saviours. The loose controls and brief, forgiving challenge provides a good-humoured, often exciting, always fun challenge that doesn't demand anything but five hours of your time. If the clock were turned back, I'd gladly hunt for it all over again, £10 well spent.

''Bahahahahahaha!''
+ Lots of fun
+ Items are a nice idea
+ Excellent pacing
+ Bizarre, endearing sense of humour
+ Rough, but fitting and well animated graphics
+ Enjoyable, varied boss challenges
+ Novel story
+ Great characters
+ It gives you everything you've done before in a platform game in short enjoyable bursts
+ Fantastically awful music, I really do love it

Be there or be Square........ pants
- Nothing new
- Rough around the edges in a lot of departments
- The dodgy controls don't always benefit the game
- Very short
- Ending not as good as it should be
- I don't like the health system

If you like this....
Mischief Makers - N64: Equally bizarre, but for different reasons. The best 2-d platformer available on any system beyond the 16-bit era.
Spongebob Squarepants SuperSponge - GBA: I haven't played it, but it looks fairly similar to this.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/13/02, Updated 01/13/02