Wii

SpongeBob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab

In the end, all of this comes together to form a game that’s not particularly impressive in any one area, but puts the controller to good use and provides a consistently enjoyable experience and enough variety to keep things moving along at a brisk pace. Sure, a couple of the different game types are pretty weak, and some multiplayer would've been nice, but in the end these problems don’t bring down the game much at all. SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab is a good choice for younger gamers and closet SpongeBob fans alike, and it’s one of the few GameCube to Wii conversions where the Wii version is actually worth considering (due to the controls) despite the higher price tag.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab is not Super Mario Galaxy. This is a second tier game that most people probably overlooked on launch day in favor of Twilight Princess, Red Steel, Rayman and Trauma Center. That's a shame too, because Creature from the Krusty Krab is really the only recommendable platformer on Wii right now. If you are a fan of SpongeBob or just platforming in general, I would suggest giving Creature from the Krusty Krab a rental.

Overall, it's about what you expect from a SpongeBob on Wii - just barely good enough for a younger kid that loves the show and made a little more interesting by the novel controls.

Creature from the Krusty Krab contains brief glimmers of fun, but these areas are short-lived thanks to a game that covers more ground than it can handle. By allowing players to employ the motion-sensing controller in a bevy of unique ways, the title has a lot in common with Wii Sports. Unfortunately many modes feel either underdeveloped, ho-hum, or both--also like Wii Sports. Credit Blitz Games for attempting to diversify the title, but trying to be a jack-of-all-trades was probably the wrong approach. Quite simply, Krusty Krab is an average game that isn’t particularly attention grabbing or challenging, and will probably only hold the interest of the young, inexperienced gamer.

I wasn’t expecting much going into this game. I knew that SpongeBob games have a bad reputation for being just that, bad. I was a little curious about how the controls would hold up, and to my surprise they worked quite well. Beyond the controls SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab didn’t offer much aside from frustrating driving.

Un jeu simpliste mais agréable qui fera plaisir aux fans de Bob et de sa clique. Loin de renouveler le genre, Blitz Games tire sans trop de risques un jeu amusant de la célèbre licence de Nickelodeon. Sans aucun doute la meilleure adaptation à ce jour des aventures de Bob l'éponge.

So SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab is very much the archetypal game of two halves. Aside from being just a tad too repetitive and too long, the platform levels are well-presented and plenty of fun. The vehicular sections could've been the same where it not for the illogical controls, but even here the wacky cel-based graphical style and solid update help to make it look a cut above the average Wii port. But there's just no sense of imagination throughout this game, no surprises to keep you entertained, and for the SpongeBob fans out there, very little aside from the main character that is actually tied to the TV show. Overall then, an average game that has just about earned its average mark.

Ultimately, SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab fails to live up to previous video games bearing the Nickelodeon license. Instead of offering an enjoyable experience for series fans, it manages to hold your hand through several levels of mind-numbing action and simple platform challenges. SpongeBob gets to wake up from his nightmare; when do we get to wake up from this one?

So taking over a year to review the Wii's launch is probably not our best move. But playing SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab after the console has had some time to establish itself did give us some insight. For instance, it was shown from day one that adding to basic motion control to an ugly, repetitive, boring platformer does not make it any more fun. It's an out of the box idea, a commendable effort for a console that built itself on thinking differently, but ultimately Creature from the Krusty Krab loses the charm and style of the property it's based on. On the plus side, it's so old that it's probably in the bargain bin by now.

Eigentlich hätte Die Kreatur aus der Krossen Krabbe durchaus das Zeug zu einem ordentlichen Kinderspiel mit Schwammkopfbonus gehabt: Der Schwierigkeitsgrad ist ziemlich harmlos, der Preis fair, der Inhalt durchaus abwechslungsreich und die Soundkulisse weiß zu gefallen. Zumindest bis der Held des Spiels den Mund aufmacht. Spätestens dann dürfte der kleine Bruder enttäuscht einwerfen: „Das ist doch gar nicht SpongeBob...“ Und er hat Recht, die deutsche Synchronstimme klingt nicht annähernd wie Santiago Ziesmer und auch die Spielwelt hat nicht viel mit dem aus dem Fernsehen bekannten Bikini Bottom gemein. Es verschlägt einen nicht einmal in die Titel gebende Krosse Krabbe und Schlüsselcharaktere wie Thaddäus, Sandy oder Mr. Krabs kommen erst gar nicht vor. Auch der Humor kann nicht annähernd mit dem Original mithalten.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab is not really a SpongeBob game, at least no more than a generic platformer dressed up with a randomly assigned cartoon license will ever owe that license anything, other than sales. That's not to say that the game doesn't take place in SpongeBob's world of Bikini Bottom, or that his sense of “humor," if you want to call it humor, isn't present. These incidental SpongeBob artifacts are there, surrounding a boring, unimaginative platformer that doesn't recall in any tangible way the TV series on which it is based.