During the holiday season, it’s easy for games to fly under the radar. If you’re a gamer and it’s November or December, you’ve got an overwhelming amount of games to spend your gaming buck on. This truth is magnified during the period of a console launch. More often than not, games based off kid’s television shows, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, simply don’t catch your attention nor do they really interest you.

It makes enough sense. The majority of games based off movies, TV shows and cartoons are bad. However, every so often, a developer comes along and surprises with its video game adaptation of a hit television or movie franchise. This time it’s Blitz Games with SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab. We’re going to be honest – that title is way too long, so we’re going to stick to shorter names for the game throughout our review. That important bit of information noted, Krusty Krab surprises with its relatively fun gameplay and polished presentation.

Blitz Games has created an action game that is set in the popular Nickelodeon franchise, SpongeBob SquarePants. The developer’s Wii launch title is actually a port of the same title released on both GameCube and PlayStation 2 earlier this year. However, there are some big, big differences between the last-gen versions of Krusty Krab and the Wii game. Most notably of them is control. The game has been re-designed to take full advantage of Nintendo’s new-gen controller. The adventure requires a combination of both the Wii-mote and nunchuck controller to play, although there are segments in the title where just the remote is used.

We like how SpongeBob controls. The game works just like your garden-variety adventure game, so there are no surprises here. But right off the bat, the adventure’s control scheme does impress, for the most part, as it’s easy to use and fun. The game is composed of eight different dream worlds, and in each, you’ll play as different characters from the SpongeBob world. Unfortunately, some of these characters also come attached to gameplay mechanics that introduce new controls methods. It’s here that the title’s control scheme takes a big step backwards.

Early in the game – as well as later – SpongeBob will have to race against both friends and rivals from the show in his hot rod. It’s disappointing, though, that the control scheme for any races in Krusty Krab is clunky and even cumbersome. Navigating the sponge himself through race tracks proves more frustrating than fun and ultimately results in a growing hate for the racing segments in the game.

There are a couple of other places where the game’s controls steer off what would otherwise be a great, intuitive path, but for the most part, the controls work well. Krusty Krab is one of the first Wii games to use the pointer capabilities of the Wii-mote, for instance, to control the game’s third-person camera. Even triple-A hits like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess lack this kind of control, and until Krusty Krab, we didn’t know it could even be done on Wii. Blitz Games has devised a clever and intuitive solution: you hold down the B trigger on the remote and move the game’s on-screen cursor around with the Wii-mote to rotate the camera. We’re sure we’ll see other variations of this control in future Wii software, and quite frankly, we hope so because it works.




Puzzle solving goes hand-in-hand with the title’s controls – especially its motion-sensing ones. For example, SpongeBob will come across life-size red buttons he must press down. By jumping in the air and motioning the Wii-mote downwards, he’ll do a butt slam onto the button. Easy and fun. Later, when playing as SpongeBob’s pink starfish friend, Patrick, you can swing the nunchuck forwards to bash through thin walls.

It would be nice if some other mechanics, such as the game’s offensive attacks, were mapped to the Wii-mote and nunchuck’s motion capabilities, but as they are now, they work too.

As said before, Krusty Krab features eight unique worlds, each featuring its own theme, visual style and gameplay style. Some of these are better than others. For instance, we like playing as SpongeBob and Patrick in their platform-based worlds. But in another level, where you storm through Bikini Bottom as a giant version of Plankton, we find ourselves wishing we could just control SpongeBob or Patrick again, thanks to a theme rendered by wonky controls. Throughout the constant world hopping, there’s an underlying story, but it’s hard to follow, and until about half-way through the game, you probably won’t identify it.

Faults noted, Krusty Krab isn’t about an engaging storyline, it’s about a comic representation of the world of SpongeBob in a video game form. Familiar faces from the show make appearances, including SpongeBob, Patrick, Plankton, Squidward, Gary and others. Other than shoddy voice-work, Krusty Krab feels like a good video game version of the Nick show. Fans of the series will be impressed with the adaptation, despite its flaws, and they’ll have some fun. The game is decently lengthy, and it features extras, such as bonus games, that will keep fans busy (although none of these really stand out).





Final Word
You won’t find an adventure on the level of Zelda in SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab, but you will find one filled with action, familiar SpongeBob trademarks and a fair amount of entertainment. I think the platforming parts of Krusty Krab are its best element, but it’s unfortunate they only make up about half the game – if that. The controls in these places are good, but at other times, like while racing in SpongeBob’s race car, they feel clunky and unresponsive. Meanwhile, generally speaking, the adventure feels a little simple and even shallow once all is said and done.

Fans will like Creature from the Krusty Krab. It’s one of the better SpongeBob games to date. But if you’re not a fan, you’ll have a harder time seeing its good qualities, despite the fact that there are many.