The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie - Gamecube Game (Retro Fam)

Get the crown, save the town, and Mr. Krabs!!!

The early half of last decade was a great time to be a fan of Spongebob Squarepants! The cartoon show was arguably at its best, as it featured plenty of fun-filled scenarios and jokes delivered by talented writing and creativity. It got so big that its supposed series finale in 2004 was a full-on theatrical movie featuring the jovial yellow sea creature! So what about the video game adaptation? Well, apparently, the project was left to none other than Heavy Iron Studios, who were behind the fan-acclaimed Battle for Bikini Bottom released the previous year.With all that in mind, The Spongebob Movie game features most of the same things that have made its predecessor shine among many other platformers of its time. The game runs on the same engine, Spongebob and Patrick run, jump, and perform nearly identical attacks, and the focus is on collecting tons of the same key item to progress (a la Super Mario 64's Power Stars - In this case, Goofy Goober Tokens). Added to the mix are Floating Block challenges that give off a serious Mario Sunshine vibe, Spongeball challenges where Spongebob becomes a rollable ball like in Super Monkey Ball, Combat-orientated challenges where Spongebob fights off dozens of enemies, and most importantly, driving/steering stages. I'll get to those in a moment.Despite being built around the storyline of the movie, the game's level design still manages to be wildly grand and spectacular in size. I mean, seriously! I bet the developers put in those Sonic Wave Guitar challenges just to show off how big they are, because your sonic boom has to float around probably the entire place! And just as impressively, the levels still manage to be engaging and interesting in several ways even when traveling far into each. The art direction is just as imaginative; the ice cream place in "I'm Ready...Depression" is probably the factory that you wish came alive in reality, and I honestly didn't think they could do a level set in Shell City, but they managed to do it (albeit a sliding level, but still), and it looks amazing.Can I just talk about the soundtrack for a second, too? Battle for Bikini Bottom's OST is great in its own right, but I think they went all-out here! From a few atmospheric pieces to bouncy cartoon-like tunes to flippin' rock music! This game has it all, and if the worlds haven't already conveyed their liveliness enough, then the music finishes the job beyond well.Admittedly, I do have a few issues with the game; particularly in the driving/steering stages. They are fine by themselves, but since the game's Goofy Goober Tokens come in to play for the overall structure, the developers applied this to these levels, and I wish they didn't. I mean, considering this is a movie-based game, I'd rather just continue following the plot of the movie to begin with, but its implementation in these parts is worse; why do I have to replay them twice more to beat shorter times? Why are there ring challenges? The timings on these things are surprisingly strict, especially when you're steering a tub! This isn't a good thing when you have to make precise turns and head to places you wouldn't expect to have to go! And for the love of god, please don't lose, or else you must restart the entire mission over...Another thing I noticed is that the game gets pretty difficult later on. Like, VERY difficult. As in "probably die a hundred times" difficult. If the enemy placement didn't annoy you that much in "Shell City, Dead Ahead", then it totally will anyway in "Welcome to Planktopolis". It's not impossible, mind you, but I can't say I was expecting to have my palms sweat from a game with Spongebob's face on it!All things considered, even if there is some bad in the game in a few areas, it's hard to deny the imagination and effort that went into making the game how it ended up being. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better licensed game than Spongebob's offerings. I may prefer Battle for Bikini Bottom over The Spongebob Movie, but even if you own the former, I highly recommend the latter to you, anyway; this is a gem in the Gamecube library, like its predecessor.

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