SpongeBob SquarePants Featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom

SpongeBob SquarePants Featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom
The real glob here is this game.
Genre(s): Action Adventure Platform(s): PlayStation 2 Wii Nintendo DS Release Date: NA: October 20, 2008 AU: October 23, 2008 EU: October 31, 2008 Developer(s): Incinerator Studios (PS2/Wii) Natsume (DS) Publisher(s): THQ Series: Nicktoons SpongeBob SquarePants Predecessor: Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots

SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom (commonly shortened to simply Nicktoons: Globs of Doom) is a 2008 video game for PlayStation 2, Wii, and Nintendo DS, the fourth and final installment in the Nicktoons Unite! series, and the last Nicktoons video game to be published by the original THQ company, before the company became defunct in 2013. Characters from SpongeBob SquarePants, Danny Phantom, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Tak and the Power of Juju, and Invader Zim appear. This is the first Nickelodeon and only Nicktoons Unite! game where the characters from The Fairly OddParents do not appear. Blue Tongue Entertainment, the original developers of the previous games, did not return to create this installment. Instead, Incinerator Studios (known for the Wii port of Cars) developed the game.

Doomed Qualities

1. Bland and outdated pre rendered graphics which failed to replicated Jimmy Neutron's animation style or at least resemble their original character designs from the previous game.
   • Not to mention, Jimmy's face looks nothing like his original and also looks a little uncanny. Same with Patrick.
   • Like in Sonic Heroes, the characters in the pre rendered cutscenes look very shiny and look like they are made out of plastic. Not to mention the poor animation makes them look like animatronics.
2. There is a lack of characters in the roster not to mention that it only has 10, 3 less characters from the previous game.
3. The gameplay is a downgrade from Attack of the Toybots. You can't shoot on the air, you can't roll or dodge the enemy's attacks and your attacks are weak by themselves.
4. Terrible camera angles (camera cannot be controlled manually).
5. You can't select specific characters to play with at the same time; for example, you can't play as SpongeBob and Jimmy, Danny Phantom and Dib at the same time.
6. Plot holes:
   • No explanation is given for why the human characters can breathe underwater.
   • Also there's no explanation why characters from Bikini Bottom can breathe outside of water (Nicktoons: Unite! clarified this by having Jimmy Neutron spray SpongeBob with one of his inventions to keep SpongeBob moist outside of water, and he used his Neutronic Airgum for himself along with Danny and Timmy in order to breathe underwater).
   • What's the point of bringing the villains in to help, and why is there only one select villain from each world? Why can't there only be a team of heroes?
7. If this game came out for the Wii, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo DS in October 2008, then why not also release it on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and Microsoft Windows?
8. Certain levels, such as the Amity Park ones, go on for way too long.
9. The enemies can block your attacks while you can't which is ridiculous compared to the previous games.
10. Each level has a “Coin Surfing” segment at the beginning; these are completely useless, despite lasting for around five minutes and being mandatory.
11. Easy boss fights, especially the final boss because it only reduces to attack it mindlessly until he gets KO.
12. The "double attack" mechanic is horrible, it's a uninspired attack who doesn't change with each couple you have and if you fail to do the correct pattern required in 3 seconds you can lose the energy gauge you need to make the attack.
13. Awful grasp of the source material:
    • Cujo is simply referred to as "Ghost Dog" mostly because he shares the same name as the Stephen King character, even though he was supposed to be inspired by it.
    • SpongeBob's, Squidward's, and Patrick's house are 50 miles away from Bikini Bottom according to a nearby sign despite their houses always being located in Bikini Bottom.
    • Zim and Dib act out of character in this game. In this game, Zim is a hero and while Dib is a villain, which makes both of them feel out of place in their groups. Also, Dib, in the alternate ending, continues to stay with them after they captured Globulous Maximus, which completely goes against his character because he's not a villain in Invader Zim, meaning that he has no reason to continue working with them.
    • Zim (as well as GIR) does not wear his human disguise at any point in the game, which he is supposed to wear to prevent being recognized as an alien. Although it could be because there are already other weird alien creatures so there's not much a need to do that.
    • Danny doesn't seem to realize that he has ghost powers. He doesn't even bother flying. When pulling a lever, he sometimes states "I wish my ghost powers included super strength!" yet in one episode of his show, he is clearly seen lifting a bus, meaning the developers likely didn't watch the show.
14. The Wii version is weaker compared to the PS2 version. In the Wii version, you cannot save your preferred audio settings, the controls are different and slightly more awkward compare to Attack of the Toybots, and the worst offender is that it can corrupt your save data, forcing you to start from the beginning.
15. Speaking of glitches there's a game-breaking glitch in Amity Park Act 2. Sometimes, when you pull three levers to activate a fan, the fan will sometimes not blow you upwards to progress the level, resulting in a softlock that forces you to exit the level and start over.
16. Some of the villain picks are odd. It would make more sense to include Vlad Plasmius instead of Nicolai Technus, and Professor Calamitous instead of his daughter Beautiful Gorgeous.

Glob-riffic Qualities

1. The music is pretty good, and also fits the series very well.
2. The concept of globs taking over the Nicktoons universe is rather interesting.
3. The boss fights, while easy, are pretty creative like the Bikini Bottom and Amity Park battle.
4. The designs for the characters are decent, despite the weird models.
5. The Invader Zim characters Zim and Dib Membrane appear in this game as playable characters, although they were handled wrong by the developers.
6. The game has playable villains, those villains being Technus, Plankton, Beautiful Gorgeous, Dib (though only in this game and not anywhere else, even if it doesn't make sense) and Traloc.
7. The game isn’t bad. It’s just weaker compared to the other Nicktoons Unite games.
8. The in game graphics are a bit of a step up from previous games due to the worlds being more bright and colorful. Though the PS2 version has worse graphics compared to the Wii version.
9. The PS2 version is better than the Wii version since the PS2 saves your audio settings and it removes the corrupt data glitch.
10. You can upgrade your powers to make you more powerful and stronger in levels, increase your health bar, and stun enemies longer.
11. You can also enter unlockable cheat codes that let you change specific settings that you couldn’t before.
12. The controls are still solid.
13. The box art is the best out of all of the Nicktoons Unite games.
14. The DS version is different from the Console versions and is more of a puzzle platformer than a traditional platformer.
15. The enemy variants are pretty diverse.
16. The cutscenes, while weird looking, are still pretty entertaining.
17. The sliding segments are way better than in Attack of the Toybots.

Reception

Globs of Doom received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Louis Bedigian of GameZone described the Wii version as "a button-masher for gamers under 12" and decided that "it won't rock anyone's world, but if you know a kid who loves these Nicktoons characters and enjoys simple, battle-filled games, Globs of Doom is one of SpongeBob's better adventures." Angelina Sandoval, also of GameZone, said that "Globs of Doom could have been that extraordinary kid's title and SpongeBob SquarePants game but it just falls short in almost every way. It's also not a very fun game despite the variety of characters and co-op gameplay. If your young gamer loves all of these characters I highly recommend a rental instead." Adam Ballard of IGN concluded that "Ultimately, it's a subpar SpongeBob game with Nicktoons tacked on for good measure. Suffice it to say that no amount of licensed characters can save this game from its monotonous gameplay and wretched camera.

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