Ages: Everyone
SpongeBob Square Pants: Globs of Doom - Wii
I remember the first SpongeBob I played - simple as getting up on the right or wrong side of the bed, and the adventure involved the various denizens of Bikini Bottom. More recently - Play THQ has been putting all their other assets under the armpits of SpongeBob, so you get a SpongeBob title but with the Tutti Frutti of all the other Nick characters. In this case - not only the heroes but also their environments are threatened by the Globs of Doom sent by the boss Globulous.
It's more than two for the price of one. When Jimmy Neutron mobilizes all the help he can get, you will have the opportunity to play SpongeBob, Danny Phantom, Invader Zin, and Tak, a newer addition. And for the same price, THQ has thrown in all the usual villains to help, the Evil Syndicate - Dib, Plankton, Technus, Traloc, and Beautiful Gorgeous. You partner with one from column A and one from column B. Battles are not only on Bikini Bottom but will range through Pupununu Village, Retroville and Amity Park. It will be special fun for players who already know who these guys are. For new players - they will never know, since identifying these characters is not done in the game or in the manual. And it would be interesting to know what their different abilities are and what the effects of their special Mawgu Gadgets produce - not in the manual and passed over briefly in the game.
That is not all that is not identified. There are three meters: Health, Mawgu Meter and Combo Meter - which is which? Throughout the game blue flashes appear, green sprays, shields, purple and orange spheres - what are they? The main hall is a colorful complex made up of doors, swirling portals and multiple levels. Lovely to look at but confusing to navigate, leading to doing the same level twice. Each level, made up of a number of sets is too long to go without saves.
I encountered a bug in one of them and doing it over was a drag. The game is all battles - constantly fighting the Morpoid Globs while stepping though lakes of glob. Finally you get to free one of the inhabitants of Biking Bottom. The battles are basically the same, the difference in the paired fighters is slight and only the settings are different. Interesting as they are, and the bus ride was really a trip, there is just too much fighting and the game becomes dangerously tiresome. Wii players can drop in and out of the game with the plus and minus button (on the remote) and is probably . Wii motion capability its used minimally in combo attacks with on-screen prompts. Jumps, ideal for motion control, is A button and then A again in air. Motion is controlled with Nunchuk - Ok, Nunchuk - which is Nunchuk? There are no names on these gadgets. Would it hurt these guys to put in a drawing of the configuration for the controllers? We have new players here - if you believe the sales figures.
SpongeBob Square Pants: Globs of Doom - PS2
The game for the PS2 and Wii are pretty much the same - you will not miss the remote very much. Little is made of the motion control in the Wii version, and the PS2 version is $10 cheaper. Multi player is available with two controllers. And the manual does show a drawing of the controller configurations.
Fun Factor: Unremitting battles dulls the game. Characters have no character.
Female Factor: Beautiful Gorgeous battles with the best of them
Player Friendly: Game lacks sufficient information for players
Reviewed by: Editor - 01/09