The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (video game)

Jumpy jumper jumperooo!

Protagonist(s):	SpongeBob SquarePants
Genre(s):	Platform
Platform(s):	Nintendo GameCube PlayStation 2 Xbox Game Boy Advance Microsoft Windows
Release:	October 27, 2004
Developer(s):	Heavy Iron Studios AWE Games (Microsoft Windows) WayFoward Technologies (GBA)
Publisher(s):	THQ
Series:	SpongeBob SquarePants
Predecessor:	SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a platform video game based on the film of the same name. It was developed by Heavy Iron Studios (the creators of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom) and published by THQ for GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance. It was released on October 27, 2004, in North America and February 18, 2005, in Europe.

Why It's Still A Goofy Goober Yeah!

Console versions

It's a technical successor to Battle for Bikini Bottom, which was also good. This game was built on top of BFBB so it uses the same solid platforming and smooth controls from that game.
Upgrade system which gives you an incentive to collect more Manliness Points since they're the currency for them, and the upgrades make significant improvements to the characters.
Follows the plot of the movie extremely well.
There are some levels in which you slide down a course in an old bathtub, a clam, and King Neptune's crown.
There are bonus challenges in every level, which increases replay value, and also these stages are really fun despite being repetitive when you play them too much.
Solid voice-acting, with the actors from the show and movie reprising their roles, even for Mr. Krabs since his voice acting also had improved in this game in comparaison to Battle for Bikini Bottom (see WIR#17).
The console versions last 15 hours, (6 hours in one go) and there are lots of unlockables and extras to collect.
Amazing soundtrack that is either epic or extremely catchy, since it follows the same style of the show soundtrack and once again it works well, not to mention that it's also faithful to the style of the movie soundtrack.
- Also most of the musics fit the levels perfectly due to having the right pitch or because of sounding either light-hearted or dark.
- The final boss music in particular is not only really catchy, but also epic, and is likely the best music of the game due to how good it is.
- The Game Boy Advance version soundtrack is also good, despite reusing some tracks from Battle for Bikini Bottom, despite that they recycle music from that game, some of them are way better than the previous games.
The PC version is a different experience than the console and GBA versions as it is developed by the same company who did Operation: Krabby Patty, Employee of the Month, and the PC port of Battle for Bikini Bottom. This version loosely follows the plot of the movie and you can even play as Plankton and Mindy.
- Howewer despite that, unfortunately that version is far from being great and had a negative article on the wiki because of this and the poor reviews.
- The GBA version is also different and is actually good, since it plays more like a traditional 2D platformer in a similar style of Super Mario Bros., this version also follows the movie storylines extremely well for a GBA game.
Goofy Goober Rock from the movie appears in the second phase of the final boss.
The starfish in the tank cheer you on in "Google Eyes and Smelly Knick-Knacks".
Patrick manages to swing his fists around and break things like SpongeBob in Battle for Bikini Bottom.
The graphics, while not as perfect as Battle for Bikini Bottom, are very good looking and is faithful to the movie and show art style, since they are detailled and colorful, and also had great characters models too, especially for a 2004 game.
A lot of fun parkours are also in this game.
The fact Patrick is the main protagonist of the game instead of SpongeBob from the start is a fun plot-twist to the game.
It doesn't focus on everything related to the movie since there are some scenes in this game that weren't in the original film such as when Patrick got stunned by the jellyfishes, meaning that this game was possibly made by passions, despite being a bit rushed.
The shiny objects in the game now actually counts as shiny objects as they're now glowing when you collect them.
Unlike Battle for Bikini Bottom where Mr. Krabs is voiced by Joe Whyte, Clancy Brown actually reprises his role for the character in this game.
Fun driving sections that are never repetitive and also break the repetitiveness of the gameplay.

Game Boy Advance version

The controls, while a bit stiff, are actually pretty decent and much better than in the previous SpongeBob games on the GBA since they are more tight in comparison and also are very responsive too.
Really good level design that had lot of creative ideas, and also there are lot of creative levels that are very fun to play, although sometime there's might be some annoying levels to deal with, like the previous games such as Revenge of the Flying Dutchman and Battle for Bikini Bottom.
Like the console versions, it follows the movie plot extremely well, and there's even some levels that represent some scenes from the movie.
Decent soundtrack that is very catchy to listen to, although it might be a bit repetitive at times, also it is an improvement over the previous Game Boy Advance games' soundtrack since some of them were remixed to sound way better than them, thanks to using more instruments.
Lot of replay value.
Fun driving and running sections, even if they are too easy.
The boss fights are great and pretty challenging, since they have decent paths that are fun to learn and when you get them, they aren't hard to beat at all.
Great graphics that are very colorful and are as good as the previous games, since it's also really well detailled to the point that the sprite work is considered to be some of the best in the franchise, it was even used in Light, Camera, Pants!.
Balanced difficulty, not too hard, not too easy, which wasn't the case of Battle for Bikini Bottom and Revenge of the Flying Dutchman on the GBA.
Fun gameplay.

Bad Qualities

Console versions

They kept that weird and annoying flatline sound effect whenever you die.
The PS2 Classics version on the PS3 is very poorly emulated and didn't last very long on the PlayStation Store. Some of these emulation issues include:
- Severe input lag.
- Sound delays of up to one second during in-engine cutscenes.
- Poorly stretched widescreen display.
The PC version has issues on newer computers.
It is extremely linear compared to its predecessor. (But that's only if you played it and then jumped into this.)
Goofy Goober tokens are mandatory in order to progress through the game, as you need a certain amount to get SpongeBob and Patrick's new abilities in order to progress through the game.
The Xbox version has a backwards compatibility issue on the Xbox 360 where some textures load incorrectly.
The FMV cutscenes in the console versions are just still frames from the movie made into a slideshow made in Windows Movie Maker instead of clips taken straight from the movie, unlike many other movie-based games, due to time constraints of Nickelodeon to release the game before the movie comes out. The still frames look pretty bad due to using stock images and they have multiple errors, and the David Hasslehoff character had to be redrawn due to copyright issues, and he looked terrible due to his weird looking face.
The game was made in 6 months, making it extremely glitchier than Battle for Bikini Bottom.
Ring Challenges are annoying, and the rings can sometime not register, dubbing the name fake ring.

Game Boy Advance version

In this version, you can’t play as Patrick despite being able to in the console versions.
Some of the levels can still be frustrating.
The game is extremely short, since you can beat it in only 2 hours, howewer the replay value is high, so it isn't that bad.
As mentioned above, the control can be stiff at times.

Reception

The game received positive reviews from both critics and fans of the show and movie, with some of them saying that it's one of the best SpongeBob games along with Battle for Bikini Bottom, it's also the highest rated SpongeBob game on Metacritic, having a 75/100 for the PS2 version.

Trivia

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie video game is the biggest page on Encyclopedia SpongeBobia so far.
This video game was released 23 days before the actual movie was released in theaters.
The PC version is the 4th licensed SpongeBob video game to be developed by AWE Games. Following Operation Krabby Patty, Employee of the Month, & the PC version of Battle for Bikini Bottom.
There is a glitch in the GameCube version where if one holds the X button before starting a SpongeBall challenge, the sound of SpongeBob charging a SpongeBowl is heard, but it never ends unless you die or finish the challenge.
The menu theme from the PC version was actually used in another PC game named Age of Sail, a game released by TalonSoft in 1996.
In some of his combo moves, SpongeBob can be heard saying, "SuperSponge: saving the day!" This is a reference to the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance game SuperSponge.
The PC edition is the only version of this game told in chapters.
Even though the PC edition is meant for Windows XP, it will run on all versions of Windows from Windows Vista and above without compatibility issues.
For some unknown reason, David Hasselhoff is never referred to by his actual name throughout the entire game; instead, bad word #11 (a reference to "Sailor Mouth") is used whenever it is uttered. This possibly might be because of royalty fees or because Nickelodeon didn't have the rights to use his name in video games.
- However, in the GBA version, he is mentioned by his actual name.
  - SpongeBob was almost about to mention his name before getting interrupted by Squidward in the video game SpongeBob's Truth or Square.
Alec Baldwin does not reprise his role of Dennis in this game. Instead, Fred Tatasciore voices him here.
In the PC version, in Squidward's house there is a chalkboard displaying his new phone number and a picture of Flats the Flounder beating up SpongeBob from "The Bully."
This game is the only SpongeBob Heavy Iron game that had Clancy Brown voice Mr. Krabs.
- Also, Employee of the Month, Revenge of the Flying Dutchman, Nickelodeon Toon Twister 3-D, SpongeBob SquarePants Saves the Day, Lights, Camera, Pants!, Underpants Slam!, Plankton's Robotic Revenge, SpongeBob HeroPants, and The Cosmic Shake are the only games that had Clancy Brown voice Mr. Krabs.
In the PC version, the familiar-looking guy (the same one from SpongeBob SquarePants: Employee of the Month) can be seen sitting at a table at the Krusty Krab and Goofy Goober's Ice Cream Party Boat.
Reportedly, on some copies of the PlayStation 2 Greatest Hits version, the game's logo is missing, possibly because of a printing error in manufacturing. Although the Nickelodeon logo is still left intact.
The Cover/Box art used for the European releases of the game was ripped straight from the poster for the film that this video game is based off of.
During the fifth chapter of the PC version, trying to make SpongeBob traverse the trench too soon causes him to say, "It's too foggy to see! I could get eaten by a Grue." This is a reference to Zork I: The Great Underground Empire, a popular PC text-based adventure game, where if one wandered into a dark location without any light source, the player would be unable to see. Shortly thereafter, the text would pop up saying, "You were eaten by a Grue."
Although the game is based on the movie, the Hotel Deep Six (Chapter 5) and Dr. Louie's Office (Chapter 6) from the PC version never appear in the actual movie.
Some scenes from the movie that are used in the game's slideshow cutscenes are different from the movie. For instance, the slideshow cut-scene where SpongeBob and Patrick meet Dennis, where it has been shortened down and Dennis' mask disappears when he is evilly laughing.
The game's title on the Mixer website and app is "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie" instead of "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie."
When compared to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions, the GameCube version has dimmer lighting, a lower framerate in driving levels, some details removed and scaled down textures due to the GameCube disc having less space than the PlayStation 2 and Xbox discs (which are DVDs).
- A similar thing occurs in Battle for Bikini Bottom.
Both the original DVD from 2005 and the 2014 re-release of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie contain a demo of the PC version of the video game, the demo is exactly the same as the original game, but if you complete the mission in which SpongeBob needs to brush his teeth, a screen which promotes the full version of the game will appear, and after that, the game will close itself.
The PlayStation 2 version of this game would later be bundled with Battle for Bikini Bottom in the Happy Squared Double Pack, which was released on March 3, 2009.
This is the 4th SpongeBob SquarePants video game to be released for the Game Boy Advance. The first 3 are SuperSponge, Revenge of the Flying Dutchman, and Battle for Bikini Bottom.
The console versions have the same gameplay, while the Game Boy Advance and PC versions each have their own gameplay style.
The game was temporarily ported to the PlayStation 3 as a downloadable PS2 classic. However, the port received negative feedback due to many technical issues such as: the 4:3 display being stretched to fill a 16:9 aspect ratio, audio files suffering from delays of over a second during in-game cutscenes, noticeable input lag, and many other unspecified problems. The game was soon pulled from the PlayStation store without an explanation, but many believe it was due to the issues.
Just before Mindy makes SpongeBob and Patrick "men" (before the level where you slide down the trench), Mindy's golden band around her left wrist vanishes, then appears again.
Towards the beginning of the movie, after Plankton has gone over Plan Z with himself, he is standing outside the Chum Bucket and The Chum Bucket is turned at a 90-degree rotation to the left of facing the Krusty Krab. In the next shot, it is facing the Krusty Krab.
Although the Sonic Wave Guitar is designed for SpongeBob, it will inform the player that only SpongeBob can use it if Patrick is standing on the guitar stand instead of him. Despite this, the guitar stand shows a drawing of a starfish on it instead of a sponge.
The Game Boy Advance version of this game and Lights, Camera, Pants! share the same sprites for SpongeBob and Patrick.