Spongebob Squarepants is getting his second video game from new IP holders THQ Nordic and this time it’s a brand new adventure. In Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake the yellow sponge must travel across the multiverse to save all his friends and his Bikini Bottom from certain cosmic doom. ‘Cosmic Shake’ features a ton of memorable moments from Spongebob’s 20 plus year history.

Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake is a 2023 platform game, it is developed by Purple Lamp and published by THQ Nordic. It is available on PC, Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.

Editor’s  Note: A Playstation review code for Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake was provided by THQ Nordic in support of this review. Medium spoilers for The Cosmic Shake’s story as well as modern era Spongebob episodes may be present within this review. 

Relive Spongebob’s greatest moments in Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake.

Spongebob Squarepants is once again at the center of attention for licensed video games. In his latest virtual adventure “The Cosmic Shake” our favorite yellow sponge travels across an array of Bikini Bottom multiverses to find all of his missing friends along with best bud Patrick Star. Taking after Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated the new title keeps the spirit of that game intact while also adding a few original mechanics to the mix.

Get those memory banks open for Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake.

THE GOOD: In Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake, Spongebob and Patrick encounter a mermaid named Cassandra who’s in search of magic jelly that she stole from King Neptune. She enlists the aid of the two to help recover the jelly which has split Bikini Bottom into a series of multiverses based on episodes of the series from the past. Spongebob and Patrick using a magic bubble wand (also stolen) travel across these multiverses where they meet alternate versions of all of their friends. Using the bubble wand Spongebob repairs his version of Bikini Bottom after vising each world and removing the anomaly from his home.

Throughout his travels Spongebob receives “cosmic costumes” based on different outfits he’s worn throughout the years. This includes his famous karate gear, Krusty Krab uniform, and Cavebob. The magic jelly has create evil jelly enemies that attack Spongebob throughout the worlds and have even changed some of the personalities of his friends. As Spongebob saves his friends and residents of Bikini Bottom lost to the multiverse one by one Cassandra’s nefarious plans slowly unfold.

Following the rescue of his friends and revival Bikini Bottom to it’s former glory Spongebob is paid a visit by King Neptune who reveals Cassandra’s true intentions. Cassandra reveals her plans to use the jelly to control the multiverse and transforms Squidward into a powerful monster which Spongebob defeats stopping her for good. King Neptune returns everything to normal and grants Spongebob a wish for saving everyone, but Patrick accidentally wishes that everything returned to the start of the game.

The Cosmic Shake is a near perfect love letter to old, new, and current fans.

Much of Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake takes from Battle for Bikini Bottom with a lot of it’s art direction and even gameplay. But even with taking a safe approach in a large chunk of it’s design and presentation Purple Lamp were considerate enough to give the game a little bit of creative leeway in regards to originality. For example, some newer gameplay mechanics have been made available such as the dive kick which acts as not only an attack but also a greater boost in distance during platforming sequences. There’s also the hook which basically replaces Sandy’s lasso from Battle for Bikini Bottom. I may be imagining things a bit, but I seem to recall Battle for Bikini Bottom having a much more open world in comparison to The Cosmic Shake. However, what we got instead was a game that was far more full of passion and respect for the series than that title and I thought that was going to be incredibly hard to top.

Also replaced from Battle for Bikini Bottom is the option of multiple playable characters. Before you could have sections of the game where you played as Spongebob, Patrick, or Sandy Cheeks. Here it’s Spongebob and only Spongebob with additional characters being exchanged for “Cosmic Costumes” borrowing meme moments and famous outfits that Spongebob wore in the show. That comes with it’s own little caveat that I’ll discuss more of below. Something I was actually a bit surprised by was the fact that there is a bit of a difficulty curve in The Cosmic Shake. It doesn’t get to the point of where it feels like cartoony Dark Souls or anything, but it’s respectable enough that Purple Lamp are fully aware that they’re making a kids game while at the same time not feeling like they need to completely hold the kid who’s playing hand so tightly that it nearly breaks off. I actually died a handful of times either in combat or during some platforming bits because I wasn’t precise enough for that jump or I got cornered by a bad combo of enemies.

In regards to the worlds there’s a grand total of eight known as “Wishworlds” which are areas pulled directly from the show: Bikini Bottom (main hub), Medieval Times, Rock Bottom, Glove World, Bikini Bottom BC, Downtown, Wild West, and Goo Lagoon. As mentioned these all follow the plot of the show and episode or special they may have been borrowed from or have their own original in game plot. The previously mentioned cosmic costumes plays a bit of a role in these worlds, but it’s a bit of a weird way they went about it. Again, I feel like I should discuss this a bit more below. The story is pretty solid about 80% of it is taken from the show, but 20% or so that is unique to The Cosmic Shake feels like it came out of the Spongebob writing room. Something else to note, in regards to voice acting a memorable criticism for Battle for Bikini Bottom was the fact that during the game’s initial release they weren’t able to acquire all of the voice cast from the series that were featured in the game. This isn’t the case in this title, including the infamous Mr. Krabs voice acting situation or they did a damn good job finding sound alikes.

The Cosmic Shake embraces Spongebob’s meme filled history.

THE BAD: So firstly, let’s get to the cosmic costumes. It’s a very neat but also strangely odd addition. They’re mainly cosmetic in nature often paying tribute to Spongebob meme culture which is fine but it becomes increasingly obvious as the game goes on that a bigger role for these were probably planned at one point. The story kind of makes it a point that Spongebob needs these costumes to cross into each world, but the reality is he doesn’t? Remember when I said these replaced additional playable characters? I don’t think this was an accident. Of course I’m guessing, but I can’t help but think the original idea was that each costume was meant to have a unique ability to aid Spongebob in each world. He may or may not have retained these abilities after unlocking them like with the other abilities, but the point is each costume was likely to have a unique purpose and for whatever reason this idea was dropped upon final product. If this is true it’s kind of sad as it would have made for a much stronger game. Again this is just a theory, but creatively the nods to this being a possible reality are there. There’s even the snail costume from the episode where Spongebob & Squidward accidentally turn into snails and the costume actually alters Spongebob for a period.

The game has some glitches here and there. Sometimes platforming doesn’t quite work 100% like you know you stuck the landing while traversing a difficult map, but the game says otherwise. I also got caught in weird bugs where during a combat sequence in which you had to defeat all enemies to move on otherwise you’re blocked off I would do so and still be blocked off. This actually happened to me a handful of times forcing me to reload my last save point each time. Thankfully auto and manual save functionality is present within the game.

While it has some rough edges here and there The Cosmic Shake is an excellent title based on a fan-favorite IP.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: What exactly makes a good licensed game? Authenticity, if you aren’t as authentic as the world you’re representing as an adaptation you may as well be a knock off imitating an established IP rather than adapting an established IP into a new medium. Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake is as authentic as it gets with everything from art, voice, sound, and nearly everything in between from the source material being taken advantage of as much as humanly possible. If you were impressed by the authenticity of Battle for Bikini Bottom, The Cosmic Shake is gonna feel like an impressive whole other level in comparison and that’s why THQ Nordic is gonna continue to be trusted with the handling of these classic and new adaptations from the Nickelodeon video game library. The game isn’t without it’s issues some of these will be a much bigger deal to others than most and that’s more than fair especially coming from the high that Rehydrated gave us. But at $40 Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake is an early 2023 surprise that’s gonna give a lot of fans a lot of love and in that regard it’s more than done it’s job as a spiritual successor to the 2003 classic.