Brushguy

I went down to the computer section of the supermarket yesterday. I quickly glanced the shelves of computer software. I had just finished Space Quest 6 and the Project Joe demo (both highly enjoyable games) and I was looking for a new adventure game to play before I got my half-a-dozen adventure games for Christmas. I went half-expecting nothing interesting, as my Wal-Mart is the proud supporter of having a whole shelf of brand-new copies of Doom 3. I saw Myst 4 sitting alone among the countless boxes of Doom 3 and other uninteresting shooters. It was $40, and I didn't feel like spending that much. I also wanted to finish Myst 2 and 3 first before jumping into part 4.

Then, I saw sitting on the bottom shelf, the game version of the new Spongebob Squarepants movie for $19. I picked it up to look at it, being a fan of the TV show. I saw it was developed by AWE Games, makes of the Employee of the Month game. The screenshots resembled the previous EotM game greatly, and they looked greatly like adventure game shots. However, the box hinted nothing at solving puzzles or any of that kind of stuff, and being surrounded by shooters and lame action games makes you feel intimidated on buying something, so I was pretty uneasy on whether or not it would be a real adventure game.

I took the risk and bought it. Having played over halfway through the game in about three play sessions, I can happily say that it IS an adventure game, and a really fun game to play at that.

First things first in a review. The story is usual Spongebob fare, containing that trademark off-the-wall and wackiness throughout humor that's made the show famous. As far as I know, the plot mirrors that of the movie (I can't say because I haven't really seen the movie yet - but I went to the movies today and saw the trailer and was strangely pleased to see so many segments of the movie that are exactly the same in the game). The humor in the game is spot-on and jokes quite frankly never fall flat. This isn't like Stupid Invaders or Tony Tough, where a lot of jokes are lost in translation. Everything hits the funny bone. Somehow the writers (in the game and show) manage to hit enough kid jokes on kid levels and adult jokes that fly over kids to equally balance it so all audiences can enjoy Spongebob.

The graphics are exactly like the show's in the exact same style. Like EotM, the moving things on the screen and polygonal. Spongebob and friends look especially charming in 3D and look very very close to the way they're drawn in the TV show. If you have a problem with the way the show is drawn, you'll have a problem with this game's looks. Luckily, I don't, and I found the graphics to be greatly pleasing eye candy.

The music is okay. It's not sensational, but it fits each scene well. In fact, any music track could fit any of the early scenes, as there's no real defined mood going on. Later on in the later chapters, the music gets better, so a thumbs up to the composers of the game. The voice actors are all straight out of the show, so that tells you right there that the voice acting is awesome.

The big plus or minus of every adventure game is the way it plays, and this does it very well. It's your standard point-n-click engine. Move the cursor over something and it'll light up. Left click to execute the action and right click to bring up your inventory. The inventory is drag-n-drop, unlike the usual click-and-click. This takes a bit of getting used to.

There are no verbs to choose from at all in the game. Everything is done automatically. For instance, move the cursor over Bob's horn clock and it'll say "Take alarm clock" or move it over Gary and it'll say "Talk to Gary." There's no way to change the action, because usually, what to do with the thing is very straightforward (puzzles are discussed later on). Conversations are good, but just the standard Lucasarts-ish dialog trees.

The game reminds me of Stupid Invaders for some reason (maybe the fact it chooses the verb for you). Stupid Invaders is definitely NOT for kids, but this particularly game is definitely intended for young audiences (but audiences old enough to read!!). The puzzles are very simple and usually require no deep thinking. The proper hints are always dropped right out in the open (this slightly frustrated me as a veteran adventurer, but again - this is a game for kids), making the solution simple. Ocassionally, there are a few posers for die-hard adventure fans who like to think, but this is usually because the proper hint is never dropped making the answer too obscure (I guess I'm referring to the Plankton sequence in Chapter 2, which also features a notorious ARCADE SEQUENCE!!! Thankfully, this is the only one I've run into yet. I guess Plankton really IS evil....). But you'll never be stuck for long, because there are usually not that many rooms to each segment of the game. I'm not saying the game is mindless clicking - you do have to do a slight degree of thinking. The puzzles are very clever, and AWE Games deserves a lot of credit and deserves their logo a bit bigger on the box, instead of being covered up by the giant "Nickelodeon" and "THQ" logos.

The big thing that Adventure Gamers had a problem with on EotM was that it was too short. Well, I don't know how short EotM was, but this game is middle-length-ish, IMO. I'm in Chapter 5 out of 8 right now, so I'll probably be finishing the whole game soon. The game is not the Longest Journey (pun intended), but it's long enough that you won't finish it in one sitting.

My final word is that if you're a fan of the show and if you're looking for a quick and hilarious-to-play cartoon diversion to outlet your adventure game needs, this is it. Well worth any adventurer's collection.

Now I need to go see the movie (when it comes out later this month...)

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Some of my games, like Day of the Alien: Tentacles Ate My Babysitter, Goodbye Monkey Island, and Maniac Mars are at Beyond the Pogo