SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake - Switch Review

Jake Mounsey -

Does SpongeBob really need an introduction? He’s one of the most recognisable characters in existence, so I’m just going to assume you know who he is. Back in 2020, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated launched and apparently did well enough to warrant a new game in the same style. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake has SpongeBob acquire a magic bubble mix that grants wishes. But after using it too much, SpongeBob accidentally tears a rift in space and time, destroying Bikini Bottom. It’s up to SpongeBob and Patrick to venture into the rifts to save their friends and return Bikini Bottom back to normal.

The Good

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake’s premise of traversing through multiple alternate dimensions is a great way to have varied level designs. One minute you’re chasing a train in a wild west themed level and the next, you’ll be on a movie set shooting an action film.

The sixth generation console SpongeBob games tended to have issues getting all the voice actors from the show to appear in the games, most notably SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom wasn’t able to get Clancy Brown to voice Mr. Krabs. Luckily, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake was able to get all the show’s voice talent in to record their roles, leading to a more authentic SpongeBob SquarePants experience.

TL;DR

  • Multiple varied level themes
  • All returning voice actors

The Bad

There are times where SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake will require you to do some very precise platforming, which the player just does not have the ability to do; the game’s movement options are better suited for larger level design which, granted most of the game is; it just makes those smaller platforming sections really annoying. Also, there are times where you will just fall through platforms as well for simply no reason.

As varied as the level design is, it does get boring very quickly. By the time I was tired of a level, there was a good chance I’d have another hour and a half of gameplay left before I’d get to do something new.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake on Nintendo Switch suffers from a lot of performance issues. Constant frame stuttering, textures failing to load properly, geometry pop in, the occasional broken animation, long freezes to load new parts of the level; it’s just too much. I was given a note with my review copy noting that there were going to be specific issues in some levels that will be fixed by launch, but this was a constant issue and not a level-by-level case like I was told to expect.

TL;DR

  • Occasional wonky platforming
  • Levels overstay their welcome
  • Frequent performance issues

Final Score: 5/10

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake feels like it came from the early 2000s, warts and all. Ultimately, it’s a perfectly serviceable game but you’ll most likely forget about it once you are done with it. If you grew up with these early 2000s nickelodeon tie-in games, you’ll most likely get some joy out of it, but it’ll most likely remind you that nostalgia is a hell of a drug and will always betray you.

Thank you for checking out our SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake Switch review, thank you to THQ Nordic (via PLAION PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support: