Video Game Harmony

Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake
Released: January 31, 2023
Developer: Purple Lamp Studios
Composer: Anderson Alden, Jake Boring, Aaron Kaplan, Timothy J. Borquez, Jimmy Levine

As a kid I had an obsession, and I mean that I was totally addicted. This was all I could think of. Any time that I had to go without it, I would go into withdrawals. I had to have to have my daily dose of it, and it all started in 2006 when I first started watching the show with this guy in it.

I was addicted to the Spongebob drug.

I had to own everything related to Spongebob. That included the cds:

The DVDs:

The books:

And I certainly had to get the games. Before I even watched the show I remember playing this one at my Grandparent’s house.

I was immediately like “whoa, this is cool, I have to play more of this!”, and I eventually did after I got a Playstation 2. In addition, I would play many more Spongebob games on that system.

There is one game, however, that many fans would say was the top dog. It tops many lists of the best Spongebob games. If you know the series then you know what I’m talking about.

When it comes to any Spongebob game, this is considered the standard of what they should be. That’s why when reviewing any of his games I’ll often say “it’s no Battle for Bikini Bottom.” I would love to review the soundtracks to one of these games I played growing up, since the music immediately pops into my head when I think of them, but that will have to be for another day.

It seems like his games fell out of style for awhile there. I vaguely remember playing Boating Bash and remembering it just being a bunch of crashing cars into each other,

and Plankton’s Robotic Revenge was so boring that I couldn’t even finish it.

I never played Heropants but I heard it was the same. Afterwards, we hadn’t heard much from him in the way of video games, but then in 2020 Battle for Bikini Bottom finally got a remaster by a studio called Purple Lamp.

I heard good reviews about it, and while I’m glad that the game got brought back into the light, since I’ve played the original to death I skipped this one. Since then I’ve been waiting for a new Spongebob game, and that’s what we finally got as of recently.

So now that I’ve shown how excited I was for this game, it’s time to talk about what I think.

The game as a whole had many similarities to BFBB for obvious reasons. While I didn’t think it was quite as good (like I said it’s no Battle for Bikini Bottom), I was at least glad to have a game in that style. I can say that this lived up to my expectations, partially because of the fact that the bar hasn’t been very high as of lately. Still though I want to go back in time and let younger me play it.

From the previews I thought this looked like Spongebob Memes: The Game, which it kind of is, but that means it makes several callbacks to other episodes. The soundtrack does the same. It’s a mix of both original music and the royalty free music heard in the series. I love hearing the music from the series, but I’ll start by talking about the original stuff.

First of all is our iconic town of Bikini Bottom. Despite the fact that it’s in ruins from a cosmic disaster, the score sounds very Spongebob-esque, with its ukulele and upbeat tempo. It sounds like we’re at a luau, which calls back to the feel of the early episodes of the series.

Our first world that we have the pleasure of visiting is the wild west, and I must say this is very wild and very west. It feels absolutely big and open just like the desert in the west. I was rather impressed because it sounds like there’s a full orchestra here and it’s really cinematic. If I didn’t know better and he was living I would assume this was by Elmer Bernstein because it really gives off Magnificent 7 vibes.

Since it’s a Spongebob game karate should be expected. This is an odd mix of oriental and jazzy sounds. It’s what you’d want to hear while running through downtown Bikini Bottom and kicking a bunch of things. You can become king of karate while listening to this, but the question is, can you become king of condos?

And there’s pirates…

In a game about being underwater, you kind of have to have pirates. It makes you want to do a pirate jig but then get into a swordfight. It gets close to the epic-ness of Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt at some points. I even expect to see Johnny Depp. Instead of fighting Davy Jones, though, you fight Prawn, who previously appeared in BFBB.

The fact that he reappeared had me geeking out.

And then things get spooky. It’s kind of like the score Danny Elfman wrote for The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s full of organs and ghostly sounds. This felt kind of random. It’s only February yet we’ve now gone into Halloween. I guess if you’re going into Rock Bottom it might as well automatically be October. Also I was so glad to hear Brian Dole Murray as The Flying Dutchman again!

And now for one of my favorite areas in BFBB, Kelp Forest, but now with a slight twist. We’ve gone back to prehistoric times. There are digeridoos, loud drums, and even a mouth harp? That I wasn’t expecting. I don’t think they had mouth harps back then. While that seemed out of place, most of the music was fitting for this part.

What can I say? It’s so medieval it makes me hungry for mutton. Even during the battles it sounds very medieval, just sped up. Spongebob has always had such a great history with the Renaissance.

OK maybe not quite that far back, but this gave me flashbacks of Dunces and Dragons. Sir Spongebob and Sir Patrick would be proud.

And then there’s one more world we must go to.

We get to go to Glove World, and Glovey Glove, who apparently owns the place, isn’t happy that their customers were taken away in the disaster. He wants to get back at Spongebob, and he looks just as uncanny as ever. This music sounds like the theme for some maniacal clowns. It’s just as unsettling, if not more so than the Halloween world. What I didn’t think was very fitting was the final battle music. Most of it isn’t very intense, and It didn’t get me energized or anything, it just made me still feel a little creeped out.

Then there’s the final battle where you get to fight a gigantic (and orange) Squidward. I couldn’t hardly hear the music when playing, but if you listen to it on its own it sounds like you’re fighting a big horde of enemies. The final boss is rather underwhelming compared to the score as I completed it rather easily. Basically it sounds like the music needs to be cranked up to make it more intense.

That’s pretty much it when it comes to the music written for the game, but there’s more. While it didn’t play as a big a part in the game, music from the series was used at different points throughout. Anyone who’s nostalgic for the old episodes has to love this. For example, this plays during the main menu.

There’s also this during the pirate world (which kind of got on my nerves after a little while).

You also get to complete some side quests, such as cooking krabby patties or taking out the trash. This amazing soundtrack plays.

It makes me feel so free but also so energized at the same time! All I can say is that…

I

WANT

MOAR!!!

And then during the credits some of the best music from the show is heard. For example the song from Jellyfish Jam:

And then of course from one of Spongebob’s most iconic moments from one of Spongebob’s most iconic episodes. It’s even the full version!

So what do I think? Does this game soundtrack suck eggs or is it a sweet victory? My opinion is mostly the same as the game itself. Once again it’s no Battle for Bikini Bottom, and a couple of moments I found a bit underwhelming, but it was still fun overall. Parts of the game were quite humorous, and I appreciated the callbacks to previous episodes, which was reflected both in the game and it’s score. The music used in the series was definitely a plus for me. I give the score a 4 out of five stars.

★★★★