After the tremendous success of SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, it only made sense to come up with even more SpongeBob action. The Cosmic Shake is dubbed as a spiritual successor of Rehydrated and after seeing it in action here at Gamescom 2022, I’m convinced this will be even better than the remake!
Different worlds, different setting
So the story in The Cosmic Shake is all about SpongeBob and Patrick unwillingly creating chaos again. They had access to some powerful wishes but overdone them, creating different worlds within Bikini Bottom, all with their style and features. On the playable booth, you could check out a world inspired by the Wild West but during our demo, we saw glimpses of a Prehistoric world, Halloween world, and Karate world. What I liked most about the worlds is the fact that they change the overall feeling of the game. From different soundtracks to different costumes and even gameplay mechanics, entering a different world will certainly alter the gameplay. It’s a fun way to keep things entertaining for the player since there’s always something new and exciting to discover. It’s also nice to know that the abilities you’ll learn in certain worlds, can come in handy in more than just that one world. Your karate kick for example can also be used to perform longer jumps, giving you access to new areas. Combining your powers of the different worlds to advance is crucial in this game and works surprisingly well.
Next to the more traditional platform sections, you’ll occasionally have to defeat bosses. We faced off with the boss in the Halloween level and I must say I’m impressed with how well this level was designed. Whereas other games often only focus on combat during boss fights, this one combined precise platforming with the actual fight. To take down the boss we had to sneak around and hide from his field of vision. This resulted in a rather intense combination of fighting and platforming. Your lives are limited but if it gets a bit too hard, Patrick will hand you over one extra pair of underpants so you can give it one last shot. Since Patrick wished himself into a balloon, he’s constantly floating around you, assisting you in the best way possible. During platform segments, he’ll point out the things you can’t miss and in combat he can help you out with some extra clean underpants.
The developers understand what people want from a SpongeBob game and more than in the previous entry they managed to tick a lot of the boxes. From Easter Eggs covering the content of all episodes to the original voice cast and tons of iconic SpongeBob costumes, this is shaping up to become a big celebration for the SpongeBob fans.
Early conclusion:
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is right on track of becoming the best experience for SpongeBob fans. It improves on so many things, ensuring the best possible game for fans to play next year. I can’t wait to see more!
