izigame.me

So, I'm going to give my honest review of this game starting sort of from the beginning, and giving comparisons to past SpongeBob games I played.
As a kid, I grew up on BFBB (Battle for Bikini Bottom) and The SpongeBob Movie Game (both on the PS2).
I also played a plug-and-play SpongeBob game, as well as PRR (Plankton's Robotic Revenge) on the Wii.
I also purchased BFBB Rehydrated when it was released (PC and got it free on PS4).
So OBVIOUSLY, I was STOKED to play The Cosmic Shake, as I had been waiting for its release since it was shown off at Sony's "State of Play" a while back. This is where my comparisons are gonna come in.
BFBB/BFBB Rehydrated: To me these games remain the best SpongeBob games TO DATE, the original is timeless, and the remaster (although I had a few gripes) was spectacular as well. The Cosmic Shake definitely seems to take a pretty decent bit of inspiration from them, but In my opinion just isn't quite as good.
PRR: Wasn't my favorite of the SpongeBob games, and although fun with a second player, felt dull in comparison to the other games I had played. The Cosmic Shake definitely tops PRR by a mile.
The SpongeBob Movie Game: Really good game, but super long, and VERY grindy. Never beat it as a kid because the grindiness of the game couldn't keep my attention. I'd say personally that The Cosmic Shake, is a bit better than TSBMG.
So now I'm going to go over the Pros and Cons of buying the game, what it did well, and what it didn't.
PROS:
1) The graphics are really good, maybe even slightly better than BFBBR.
2) In comparison to TSBMG, it is a lot less grindy. I like that you can actually progress through the game and story without having to go get a bunch of bloody doubloons, unlike TSBMG and the Goober Tokens...
3) THE FIGHTING OMG, I love love love the fighting mechanics in this game. I'd say it may have my favorite fighting mechanics out of all the games I have played. The Karate Kick is especially fun to use and made me feel super cool and like a total parkour master. The only thing I missed having, is the Bubble Bowl from BFBB.
4) THE VOICE ACTING! It's pretty much all the original voice actors which makes it just that much better. Unlike BFBB where Mr. Krabs...well...sounds not quite right. The only thing I would complain about would actually be SpongeBob's voice, as it is a bit off. However, I know Tom Kenny is getting older, and SpongeBob isn't exactly the easiest voice to pull off, so I'll give it a pass.
5) COSTUMES! I believe TSBMG did have them as well, but I really do like that they brought them back in this game.
6) The callbacks and references made me smile.
7) Smacking Anchovies, I rest my case.
8) I do like that Patrick gives you Health/Underpants, I think that's a really nice addition, as it makes it a little bit less hectic when you're trying to fight a lot of enemies. Speaking of enemies...
9) The new enemies are really neat, and I like how many different variants there are. Makes you have to actually have some form of strategy to how you play and fight.
10) Level Designs: I think they did really well here, although I will say there are 2 that after a few times of running through, I started to not like as much. But, I didn't hate any of them, unlike another particular level from a particular game...(I'm looking at you Kelp Forest...)
11) I will say it did pretty well on the achievements, the majority of them are fun and not super hard to get, but still fun and challenging enough to keep my attention and not make me wanna tear my head off in absolute frustration and rage.
12) I like that you can use the Seahorses to get around Bikini Bottom, although I personally am quite partial to the legendary Sponge-Ball, they do indeed suffice for their intended purpose.
Cons:
1) The story...It's not bad, and it's a fun idea, but I personally just didn't feel like it was super engaging. A lot of the humor and dialogue fell flat for me. Sure, it had a few good jokes in there, but it just was all kinda bland/dry humor in my opinion. Also, the main plot line and villain were basically obvious from the beginning of the game. Although most of the SpongeBob games do follow that sort of rule of thumb to have it shown from the beginning, it just felt almost...lazy? Like perhaps it's just a bit too cliche for me, others may disagree though.
2) As of now, there are bugs. I will give it the fact that the bugs I experienced were minimal, and I'm sure they'll fix them soon; but as of right now, the game does have some minor bugs (ie: Characters disappearing or becoming transparent in cut-scenes.).
3) The length of the game: I managed to 100% the entire game in just shy of 22 hours. This means unless you play the game slowly, you'll be able to beat the entire story in 10 hours or less, and 100% it in under 24 hours.
4) The price: I pre-ordered the game the day before release; and although I would say I did have a lot of fun with it, I feel like the game should have been only $20 and not $40 or more (for special editions).
5) The amount of content is lacking in my opinion. For as long as it took them to make the game, I would think that it would have a lot more content. And although I did enjoy the uniqueness of the levels and the new abilities/powers, after a while you get too used to everything and it starts to get a bit boring.
6) The lack of levels: I actually wish there were more levels to play; the majority of them were really fun to play, and with all the new mechanics, I feel like they could have done so much more, especially with the expansive world that is Bikini Bottom.
7) I know I said I like the Seahorses, but the controls do feel a bit wonky, and I don't like the fact that once you hop on it, you have no way of stopping them other than just dismounting them.
8) The boss's achievements in particular bothered me a LOT. Now it's not the achievements themselves that I have an issue with; overall, they weren't that bad and I actually had decent fun with them and found them challenging. The problem lies in having to restart, which normally I wouldn't fuss about...HOWEVER! In the case of these, any time you enter a boss fight, if you wanted to just commit die in order to restart the level, or you wanted to simply restart it by re-entering the level, that's not gonna work buckaroo. Every time you have to restart a boss level, you have to literally quit to the main menu, and then load up your game file...EVERY. SINGLE. BLOODY. TIME. And not gonna lie...it gets reallllly old quickly.
9) The overall challenge of the game...wellllll it's just not exactly there. Sure it has a few moments where it could be a bit hard, but the majority of the game is really really easy, which in comparison to BFBB and TSBMG, makes this game like child's play. Even the bosses are so cut and dry and super easy, really only one of them did I have a minor struggle with. But the attack patterns were so easy to learn that it just felt almost a bit saddening. I was very disappointed by how easy the literal FINAL BOSS was.
EDIT: I have two more things to add to this list.
10) The repetitive voice lines get bothersome after a few times, I'm officially sick of The Krusty Krab Pizza song...
11) Patrick pointing towards people and things that you just spoke to, or if you sit still for a moment he turns into an arrow and tries to point you somewhere, or even just wandering off to look for things he will do it then as well, which can get annoying. As well as audio cues telling you there's a secret nearby; it's not much of a secret, or gratifying when you find it if they literally tell you one's there.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Overall, I'd say this is a good game. Although in my opinion, it is a bit lacking in content, I did still have fun with it. My advice is to wait for the game to go half-price, and then purchase it. But regardless of what you chose to do, full price or not, I do still recommend it, as it had a lot of charm to it.