SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shakebegins like an ordinary day for SpongeBob. He excitedly runs out of his house, grabs Patrick, and then they have a blast at Glove World. This is where they meet Madame Kassandra who gives SpongeBob a magical jar of bubbles.
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This seemingly wholesome toy turns Bikini Bottom on its head as it rips open a portal to the multiverse. Now, it’s up to SpongeBob and Patrick, who got turned into a balloon, to set things right inSpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake. That’s the setup, but how is the game? Does it hold a candle toSpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, or is it even better than that? Let’s weigh the pros and cons of this latest platformer.
8Best: The Voice Acting
The full cast of the cartoon returns to voice their respective characters. Hearing the hype behind SpongeBob’s voice or the disdain behind Plankton’s will never get old. After decades of being on the air, some of the voices are getting noticeably older, but they are not any less funny.
The game finds the perfect balance between jokes aimed at kids and jokes aimed at adults. It’s far from the best writing theSpongeBob SquarePantsserieshas ever seen, but it will make fans chuckle guaranteed.
7Worst: Audio Glitches
The voice acting is great, but unfortunately, the sound production is less than stellar. The game will constantly glitch out of the audio. Sometimes the soundtrack will stop and play again, or go out completely. The most common glitch will have characters repeat their lines which then throws the whole scene off as the game tries to correct itself.
On a non-glitch level, it’s also weird that the game doesn’t have an auto-read feature for speech bubble conversations, unlike a lot of games.Fire Emblem Engageis a good recent example.
6Best: The Colorful Aesthetic
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shakelooks great for a 3D platformer. The game is not going to blow any minds graphically as it is not purely a next-gen experience. Still, the bright visuals that make the cartoon appealing translate well into 3D.
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That’s why the game looks as good as it does. Also, the gimmick of jumping into other timelines helps keep things fresh. The first world isbased on the Old Westwhile the second world takes place on a movie set.
5Worst: A Basic Platformer
The game looks great and the worlds are inspired locations; however, the level design within these worlds is lacking. They may appear to be open, but the environments are quite linear like a more old-school platformer.
That’s not inherently bad as some ofthe best platformersof all time follow linear paths. There’s no denying the power ofSuper Mario World, for example. That game has variety in its levels and gameplay, whereasSpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shakedoesn’t have that spark.
4Best: Easy Warping
The worlds are broken up into multiple sections via checkpoints. Players can return to these checkpoints whenever they want to in the menu. Players can zap fromWild West Jellyfish Fieldsto Karate Downtown Bikini Bottom in a flash thanks to the fast load times on the PS5. There are a lot of reasons to return to old locales as well.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shakeis not a Metroidvania experience by any stretch, but SpongeBob does occasionally gain new powers in worlds. In the second world which is based on making movies, SpongeBob learns a kicking move that is also good for traversal.
3Worst: Sticky Controls
Unlocking new moves is the only thing that keeps the gameplay from going completely stale. The bad part here is that the controls are sometimes unresponsive. Hitting jump will not always result in SpongeBob jumping and this happened with multiple PlayStation controllers.
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It’s not too surprising to learn this given the games have problems with glitches and cutscenes. Hopefully, this can be addressed in a patch to tighten up the mechanics.
2Best: The Costumes
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shakepays homage to the series in a myriad of ways. There are callbacks to lines from classic episodes while SpongeBob and Patrick explore the world. For example, sometimes when SpongeBob flies using the pizza box, he starts singing about the Krusty Krab Pizza from the episode “Pizza Delivery.”
Players can unlock costumes manually or purchase them as DLC that reference the cartoon as well, whichfans of memeswill love. One of the funniest costumes is SpongeBob’s disguise as Squidward in the episode “Opposite Day.”
1Worst: Not Much Of A Challenge
There are no difficulties in the game and it feels likeSpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shakeis set on extra easy. The game should hold no challenge for adult players who grew up with platformers all their lives. OtherSpongeBob SquarePantsgameshad a better balance.
Even kids will struggle to find a modicum of challenge in the game. It’s a shame there are no difficulties to make it more challenging for the hardcore platformers out there. Even if the developers did add in difficulties, the experience wouldn’t change much as it is overall an average licensed-based platformer.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shakewas released on Jun 14, 2025 and is available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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