Description:
Congo drums beat out a feverish tattoo, someone just kidnapped Gary the snail, and your cursor is a spatula. Welcome to the world of SpongeBob SquarePants: Operation Krabby Patty, an underwater realm that manages to combine retro hawaiiana and watery weirdness into five games that vary slightly depending on whether you cause SpongeBob to get up on the right or the wrong side of his bed. The five games are all basic "cruise around and get things or shoot things" activities, with that surreal SpongeBob touch. For example, you'll find yourself seeking hooks baited with chunks of cheese in "Who Cut the Cheese?" and assembling Krabby Patty sandwiches in "Invasion of the Patty Snatchers." Rounding up jellyfish is the aim of "Hide N' Go Jellyfishing," learning to navigate a little speedboat through a maze is the object of "Boating School 101," and "Save Me Money" involves firing a bubble cannon at ghost pirates to defend a pile of loot. One game must be mastered to move on to the next, and completion of each reveals a long cartoon sequence that advances one of the two plots. In the "wrong side of the bed" scenario, the evil Plankton has captured SpongeBob's pet snail Gary, and our square-panted hero must accomplish random tasks (complete the games in a certain order) to rescue his mollusk friend. In the "right side of the bed" scenario, a robotic Mr. Krabs (invented by, yes, Plankton) has stolen the secret Krabby Patty recipe, and it's up to SpongeBob to foil the plot by playing the above-mentioned games, with different characters, in a different order. Basically, this is a device to pack in more animated sequences without developing a whole new set of games. Players eventually end up building a couple of short episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants that they can view from the main menu. The games aren't challenging, but they have a certain wacky tropical charm, thanks entirely to the fact that they're set in the wet underworld this cartoon inhabits. Fans will find Patrick the starfish, Squidward, the Chum Bucket Restaurant--every invertebrate, tiki hut, and odd exclamation ("Oh, tartar sauce!!") that makes Bikini Bottom such an oddly memorable place. No age rating given; we recommend ages 8 and older. --Anne Erickson
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