There’s always a fondness for the games and the franchises that we grew up with, and while the SpongeBob SquarePants games of the early 2000s weren’t exactly gaming haute couture, the underwater denizens of Bikini Bottom have enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in recent times, helped along by internet memes and new seasons of the show. After the Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated remake in 2020, and The Cosmic Shake in 2023, we now have SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide coming in a few months time.
A Paddy Shack tussle between King Neptune and the Flying Dutchman goes awry, with SpongeBob and Patrick caught in the crossfire and… well, they get totally deadified, just as ghosts are unleashed across the realms. Still, it’s up to them to save Bikini Bottom, and as they journey across the sea’s many regions and try to get these two grumpy old men to make up. Luckily, there’s just enough life between them to have one of Patrick or SpongeBob kept in corporeal form at a time, with the strength of their friendship and their BFF rings allowing them to swap back and forth in a flash.
That’s right, Patrick is a playable character in this game and is now pretty much an equal to SpongeBob. They both have their own specific abilities, with Patrick able to use a grapple to grab enemies or objects and then throw them, as well as to dive under the ground and quickly burrow around. SpongeBob, meanwhile, has a classic butt stomp and a dash kick.
This gives them some pretty distinct differences and uses when exploring the levels and getting into scuffles with enemies. When facing off against an enemy that launches explosives, SpongeBob has to time a dash kick to turn those explosives back at an enemy, while Patrick can grapple to grab, and then just chuck them back. Of course, you can also just avoid the explosives and go and whale on the enemy to eventually batter them into submission!
But really, this switching mechanic will be great for raising the skill ceiling of the game, potentially making this a speedrunner’s dream. Some of the game challenges, like the more abstract levels of the Plankton Portal Challenges, and trickiest paths in regular levels will need you to switch back and forth, making use of both their abilities in quick succession to get through them. This is still a kids game, though, so you will still be able to complete it and get a full experience without mastering technical button timings, but it’s still great to see this.
Speaking of the levels, the adventure will take you to places like Neptune’s Palace, Atlantic City, Mount Bikini and beyond, and there will be some surprising transformations along the way. Jellyfish Fields, for example, is now all snowed in which… well, it doesn’t make much sense for under the water, but let’s just go with it?
Levels are designed to be more open this time around and really encourage exploration and trying out both sets of abilities. There’s more of a collectathon vibe to the game with hidden chests that will contain currency, costumes, and memorabilia from the adventure that will go back to fill out parts of The Floating Patty, a new restaurant that floats above the sea surface.
After The Cosmic Shake played it a bit too safe as a follow up to Rehydrated, expanding the gameplay with Patrick as a foil to SpongeBob is a great way to inject new life into the series. All of this should be sea shanties to the ears of fans of SpongeBob video games, both young and not-so-young.
