Spongebob Squarepants and his good buddy Patrick Starfish begin this adventure by finding pieces of the magical Atlantis Amulet. When the duo have the entire relic assemble a magic bus (no, I am not, in fact, making this up) appears and takes them to the lost city of Atlantis where they, along with Mr. Krabs and Sandy, scour the ruins looking for treasure. If you've seen the show you'll recognize this plot as lifted from an episode of the cartoon. The story frames the game well and gives our heroes a reason to play four separate games over the course of 18 levels.

Spongebob's Atlantis Squarepantis is equal parts vehicular shooter, maze puzzler, Pokémon Snap clone, and rhythm game. That's a lot for any one game that isn't Wario Ware to take on, and Atlantis Squarepantis suffers for it. It's easy to see that the development team was segmented as each gameplay type also has a distinct visual style. Creating a multi-genre game works well when you combine genres into a new game type, but not by throwing four separate games together in one package. The vehicular shooter areas are fairly straight-forward. Go from point A to point B, shoot everything in your path, and collect power-ups to give you extra time. Mazes work the same way except now you're running around on foot and using each character's special ability (Spongebob flips things, Patrick throws things, etc.) and collecting time-restoring power-ups. The Pokémon Snap-esque segments are easily the best in the game. It's necessary to take pictures of Anlantean museum exhibits, knock out security guards, and plan your escape in these on-rails camera missions. The rhythm game is adequate, but fairly lackluster. DDR or Boom Boom Rocket this ain't.

Spongebob's Atlantis Squarepantis' difficulty is all over the map, and it's because Atlantis Squarepantis isn't one game but four. If rhythm games aren't your thing then those sections will be difficult. The same goes for any of the other gameplay styles represented here. By packing so much into the package Blitz Games has created four mediocre games when it could have made one good one. Spongebob's Atlantis Squarepantis is very much a jack or all trades but master of none. Spongebob's Atlantean adventure isn't for everyone. Due to the fragmented gameplay styles it may actually not be for anyone, and it's hard to recommend more than a rental until you've tried all four gameplay types. It feels like an episode of the television show, but that isn't enough to carry the whole package.

Dec 4, 2007 | 0 comments
Justin Last