DS GAME REVIEW
SpongeBob's Atlantis SquarepantisFishy fun or a bit of a damp sponge? |
Being over the age of ten, we're not too sure if SpongeBob is still a big hit with the kids or whether they've moved onto a talking loofah called Bert or something. Kids are pretty fickle after all. Every Christmas they're after new presents and everything.
Mind you, having played quite a few SpongeBob games in our time - there are already three games starring the gurning sponge out on DS plus numerous others on assorted consoles - we're starting to think the kids have the right idea moving on so quickly. It's not that they're bad games, it's just that SpongeBob platformers tend to be similar. Someone needs to tell THQ there's only so many times you can wring out a sponge before it goes all dried up and mouldy...
Anyhow, this latest adventure has SpongeBob and a rabble of his underwater friends riding a magical bus to the Atlantis where they're hoping to find the World's Oldest Living Bubble. It's a journey that takes in plenty of different environments with an assortment of challenges, but the action generally revolves around swapping between each of your four characters, depending on who's best at digging, moving blocks, attacking crabs or double jumping. It's a mechanic that's been employed plenty of times before and in the form of two controllable characters in-game at any time, it's used perfectly satisfactorily here too.
The bizarre thing - possibly included to add a bit of length to a pretty short game - is that you can only change characters at certain points. This means in most levels you have a stab at guessing which two characters you'll need, only to come across a puzzle that needs ones you didn't choose, then back-tracking a few minutes to where you can swap them. For added cheapness, all the enemies you killed on the first run-through then re-spawn so you've got to kill them again.
Oh well, at least it teaches kids life isn't always fair.
There are four characters to swap between in total - SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy and Mr Krabs - and there's actually quite a steep learning curve in mastering what they can do. For example, Patrick can throw SpongeBob with the R button or inflate his big spongy head and float with him like a balloon using L, while SpongeBob can throw Patrick or use him like a big pink ninja star weapon with L.
The use of multiple buttons and the game hub which doesn't really make it clear where you're going next means very young children could get confused. For slightly older ones though, the game's puzzles and combat sections should be properly challenging enough.
Indeed, in between the clichéd platforming levels full of floating platforms, long drops and appearing-out-of-thin-air enemies, there are some good mini-games and boss fights. One on-the-rails section has SpongeBob and Patrick in a car where you must you rotate the camera and tap swarming jellyfish to shoot them down before they get close. It plays quite nicely.
On the downside, the platforming can be imprecise and frustrating with some moves tough to judge while diagonal jumps aren't made easy with the DS D-pad. It's lucky you can die a ten times or so in a row before all your health (aka Rainbow Power) runs out.
The artificial intelligence is incredibly dumb too. The other character being controlled by it often just stops before jumps they should be able to make, meaning you have to swap characters and navigate them through the level.
Neatly, the game is playable in co-operative mode via multi-card play but it's not the most carefully designed co-op game we've played and a lot of the time the second character will just be waiting around for the first one to complete a puzzle.
Still, no doubt fans of the SpongeBob world will get something out of playing as the various characters and the cutscene banter between them. And the game itself offers typical - and playable - platforming action with puzzles that will test younger minds.
But SpongeBob's Atlantis Squarepantis isn't a game that strays far off the well-worn path of kid's games, much less one that anyone other than the cartoon's target audience should consider playing. But being over the age of ten, you probably knew that already.
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SpongeBob's Atlantis Squarepantis is a playable but slightly dull platformer
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