Video Gamers Podcast - Hijack A Host- SpongeBob The Cosmic Shake – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

Gaming hosts Josh and Ace are kicking back this week as Ryan gets officially hijacked and thrown headfirst into the wacky, dimension-hopping madness of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake! In this... special Hijack a Host episode, we’re breaking down whether this bizarre, bubbly platformer is secretly one of the most joyful surprises in video games or just another trip to Bikini Bottom chaos. From jellyfishing mayhem to wild alternate universes, we cover everything this game gets right, everything it absolutely does not, and why its Saturday-morning-cartoon energy might be exactly what the gaming world needs right now. If you love video games that go all-in on style, color, and pure nonsense, you’re in the right place. Plus, we talk about where The Cosmic Shake fits into today’s gaming landscape—and whether Ryan survived the glittery nightmare intact. Another can’t-miss episode of the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S. and Dettmarp   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/vgp Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the video gamers podcast. Ever had that friend you wish you could make play a game? What about that weird gamer who's never played some of the best games ever made? Wish you could just force them to experience Red Dead Redemption 2, or Eldon Ring, or cyberpunk well on today's episode that's exactly what happened ryan got hijacked to play sponge bob cosmic shake and it's time to find out if this one is a hit or belongs at the bottom of the sea but first some introductions are in order i am your host josh and joining me if i'm plankton he's my karen because i can't do a thing without this guy it's
Starting point is 00:01:00 Ryan. Karen. Oh, my Karen. Oh, my lovely computer wife, Karen. Except your Karen, Ryan. I'm plankton. No, I'm plankton for sure. Yeah, you got to do your Karen impression now.
Starting point is 00:01:16 Ow. You're a, you're a, you're a point. He just shorted out. He was like, what? I don't, I don't know to do that. I'm just a robot, like at that point. Yeah. Lame.
Starting point is 00:01:27 Yeah. Underwater, by the way. Also, Ryan. That was another, another nice introduction for you, I'll have you know. Here's the deal as you're setting me up because- He's thinking there's a catch. I know, I'm waiting for it. You're going to keep giving me these good ones,
Starting point is 00:01:42 and then you're going to hit me with the hard ones on the next, you know, the new year, and I'm not going to be ready for it. You're lonely me to sleep, and then it's going to be decimation. I'm ready. I would never, rather. I would never. Yeah, whatever. I'll see you know me way too well.
Starting point is 00:01:56 Yeah. Oh, man. And joining us, he's the handsome face version of Squidward. And he specifically requested that we let him do his best SpongeBob laugh to start the show. So here you go with what's sure to be a spot on impression. It's Ace. I'm ready. Oh, come.
Starting point is 00:02:23 Are you ready, boys? Yes, four days. Listen, listen, we got video. Anyway, everybody, you should see Ace's face when he realized what I just said, when he was like, oh, crap. Like, Josh, you idiot? Oh, crap, indeed. Oh, Spongebos got tuberculosis for sure.
Starting point is 00:02:40 SpongeBob's been smoking and has emphysema. You chose the individual with the deepest voice to try to do the highest pitch. I got you right here. All right? You ready? You're ready, right? That's the Spongebob left. Stick with Flankton, Ryan.
Starting point is 00:02:58 Stick with Flankton, so. Oh, Woody Woodpecker's a throwback. That's a good on you, Ace. Well, he is 50. That's way before your time. He is 50. Had a DVD box set. Woody Woodpecker and Chili Willie.
Starting point is 00:03:13 My man. Willie, too. All right. All right, well, listen, welcome in, everybody, to, you know, the most nonsensical podcast about video games. That's a good point. Terrible impressions. I haven't read you.
Starting point is 00:03:30 off. This is your place, man. There's only been one terrible impression. Thank you very much. You found your home. Oh, man. But look, okay, so this is, you know, I hinted at this, but our community are epic and legendary supporters. We try to, you know, people that support the show, we try to give like some cool perks and thank yous to and things like that. And one of those is that they get to vote on a game for one of us to play every month. And so this month, they voted collectively and picked Ryan to play SpongeBob Cosmic Shake as his game.
Starting point is 00:04:05 And Ryan went, what? Like, why are you making me play SpongeBob? Well, Ryan, this is almost like deja vu because I got picked long ago to play SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom rehydrated by longtime listener Jwaffe, who picked me to play a SpongeBob game and I remember going like what? Why are you making me play a SpongeBob game
Starting point is 00:04:36 man? Like I don't know if this is a troll. I don't know if this is like you actually love this game and think I would like this game. I will say I wound up quite enjoying my time with SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. It caught me off guard
Starting point is 00:04:54 how enjoyable it was as a 3D platformer. I, you know, we have our episode. You can go way back in the archives and find that if you want to find out, you know, all about Battle for Bikini Bottom. But the community came together. I want to say, and I'll give him his dues, that I feel like this, this, this vote was led by Brett. Oh, yeah. Who is a huge fan of the SpongeBob games. And Brett was very excited that this game got finalized and that you got picked to play this. So we're going to find out what you thought about your time with SpongeBob Cosmosmos. McShake, we're going to find out if it holds up, how it holds up to the 3D platform or genre. Was this a hit or a floppy
Starting point is 00:05:38 dead fish? I'm trying to make some C references here, you know. It's not going so well, guys. But before we get to that, Ryan, I believe you've got our last review of the year that we're going to read for 2025. What a review.
Starting point is 00:05:55 So, Ryan, what you got for us, buddy? All right. This review comes to us, five-star review, I might add, from a spanky timber. If you leave a four-star or lower, we will not read it. But this one comes in. Also, we will reach out and be like, what the heck, man. Right. Why, why are we good enough? This one comes in a great community. I love the community here. I was visiting with my son and the NICU, and I thought I would message the Discord about some balance, uh, wait.
Starting point is 00:06:28 Oh, about someone who balances the games with a newborn. I was given a great advice and even gifted a steam game that would be a good fit for my needs. Never expected such a warm welcome or a kind reception. Sorry that I messed that up, but it was worded a little wrong for me. We've had some, that, in Ryan's defense, like, well, we have one recent one, though. We can't even read the review. We're like, what is this mean? And I had read that, I read that one multiple times earlier.
Starting point is 00:06:59 I'm like, that's a good review. But anyways, thank you so much. We're glad we can help you out. And I remember seeing him come in to the Discord. And then somebody's like, oh, yeah, this will work for you. Boom, gifted a key. Yeah, somebody just straight gifted in a game right away. Listen, this is the community that we talk about people.
Starting point is 00:07:20 Like, we talk about it all the time. We don't get paid for the size of our gaming community. like honestly like this is this is the reason that we shout this out so much is we know what it's like to be a gamer and have to wade through the toxicity that exists in gaming we know what it's like to want to play a game with people and then not have like your buddies that want to play that game with you you know we know what it's like to be like hey should i pick up you know this game or does anybody have thoughts on this game and and you know and and and kind of pulling other gamers or just people to talk to man like people are constantly
Starting point is 00:07:55 talking about just life in general, you know, any number of topics, but all of that does exist on our Discord server. It is incredible. There's over 1,200 people. It's super active. So this is not the awkward you join and it's a ghost town, you know, kind of Discord server that we know exists out there as well. So come join it. You're more than welcome to lurk and just kind of check in on things. But we find more often than not a lot of times people want to actually talk and hang out together. And it's awesome. So link in the episode description. for that, by the way. So, and once again,
Starting point is 00:08:27 thank you, Spanky Timber. And this is your reminder. If you have not left us a review, if you listen on Spotify, it's rating us five stars. We are on our quest to hit 2,000 ratings. We're so close.
Starting point is 00:08:39 Come on. So close. We are close. We're within 100 because Spotify just does like the 1.9K at that point. So we're somewhere there. So help us out on that. If you listen on Apple podcast,
Starting point is 00:08:51 you can actually write a review, which is where we pull these from. And there's a good chance. We'll read it. on the show. Man, I don't know what Ryan thinks about Cosmic Shake. This is the other thing. We do not talk.
Starting point is 00:09:03 When we have these hijack a host episodes, we don't share our thoughts. So the listeners are finding out as Ace and I are finding out at the same time. Ryan, I believe you said you did beat the game. Is that correct? Hold on. I'm watching trailers. No, no. That's the This Week in Gaming episode, Ryan.
Starting point is 00:09:24 Oh, whoops. Yeah. No. I'm sorry. What did you say? I said that you, I think you mentioned that you did beat the game. I did. I did. Roll credits, baby. I finished the end. All right. Nice, dude. So when you were picked to play SpongeBob, what was your initial thought on this? I was actually curious to see, because I did play. I mean, it was a whole whopping like 20 minutes. I think in 19 on the spot. of the game you played for the Battle for Bikini Bottom? Battle for Bikini Bottom.
Starting point is 00:10:01 So I did check it out but didn't play a ton was anticipating going back but you know how it is we got a million games to play so I never went back to it I was curious to see because I know
Starting point is 00:10:14 your kind of raving review on how like hey this is a decent platform or this is something that you can actually enjoy if you grew up especially if you were a 90s kid you're going to hit that nostalgia like it's it's there so i was excited to see what my take on it would be especially a newer form of it and to see what they did you know it's sponge bob so they can go anywhere so i was excited to see what what there was what a nice guy yeah i feel like
Starting point is 00:10:44 you were like what the heck man i got to play sponge bob dude like it's almost christmas man it's December, our breaks coming up. I finally got freedom to just play some video games. I'm still loving Ark Raiders and you guys are making me play Spongebom. I love our creators so much. That was your takeaway. That's what your face said, at least
Starting point is 00:11:04 when we did the pre-reveal and I was like, it's a spiritual successor to a battle bikini bottle. Listen, I'm being politically correct here, okay? We have a show to do. Oh, man. Oh, I love it. uh okay so like ryan i mean you played this i'll be honest i didn't play it i played battle for bikini
Starting point is 00:11:25 bottom ace you didn't have you ever played a sponge bob game no i have not no no okay so ace is like our listeners that don't know about this game ryan so we can we can kind of lean into that for him for people that don't know what i mean what the heck kind of game is sponge bob is this a kids game is this like uh is it a fighting game like what how would you describe sponge bob cosmic shake to somebody from just a kind of top-down level. Oh, man. So, so kind of from the bare bones, like, basic level, it is a 3D platformer that is in the SpongeBob universe.
Starting point is 00:12:02 You basically meet in SpongeBob's infinite wisdom. He meets a lady that gives him some potion. And it turns out to be this bubble thing from King Neptune. and he overuses it like SpongeBob would and him and Patrick get crazy and you get transported off into this other kind of universe or realm and hilarity ensues if you will
Starting point is 00:12:30 and you just do SpongeBob thing so if you've ever seen the show it's it basically runs a lot in line with that but you're playing the game as the show type thing okay does it still hit as an adult does SpongeBob still
Starting point is 00:12:46 like oh there there's still for sure those those parts that you just like chuckle out you're like you know you know that make you giggle and make you laugh as you see it because it's a SpongeBob things and he does the goofy things and one thing that I always love that they do um is they'll do the zoom up on on a certain person and it's like crusty gross thing and you're like oh you know but but they do that in there and they do have throughout the game so it does Definitely, if you like SpongeBob, this is that kind of type of world. You're going to fall into that. You're in the SpongeBob universe, so.
Starting point is 00:13:28 Very, very much stays true to the source material. In fact, so much so that all of the characters are actually voiced by their original voice actors as well. So all of them. I mean, Patrick, Mr. Crabbs, SpongeBob, what's the Sandy? What's the whales name? Pearl, daughter, that's Pearl. Pearl. Pearl, like all of them.
Starting point is 00:13:49 It is the original voice actor, so you legitimately feel like you are living in the SpongeBob universe. Like, I can say that from my time with Battle for Bikini Bottom. I watched a few videos for Cosmic Shake, and it is very, very much SpongeBob. Which is something cool to me, like, as far as like, I mean, the voices on animated production are huge, obviously. you get and everyone gets
Starting point is 00:14:17 accustomed to a certain tone and pitch and like you know when it's not the real character even if it's close and to have that be the original character for such a iconic IP like it's it is pretty cool and I'm glad they were able to do that
Starting point is 00:14:33 and get those people in because you can tell like and it's good that they did get the real people well that's something to point out that in Battle for Bikini Bottom they didn't have Clancy Round voicing Mr. Craves they had it They did not in Bikini Bottom. Yeah, that's Mr. Crabs. They did not have, but he's actually back for cosmic shakes.
Starting point is 00:14:50 Yeah, so like that makes a huge difference. Yeah. Yeah, you can tell he's a little bit older now because it's funny because I listen to some of the voice lines. And I'm like, that's Mr. Crabs, but that's Mr. Crabs like 15 years later. He's weather, man. He's got a lot of money from a lot of people over the years, you know. Yeah. All right.
Starting point is 00:15:06 So 3D platformer set in the SpongeBob universe, true to the SpongeBob cartoons, you know, the same characters, the same voice actors, the same. the same silliness uh you know you feel like you were playing sponge bob like a sponge bob game you know that that is very very akin to the cartoon um as well you know it makes me wonder because i'm going to throw this out there that when i had no knowledge of the sponge bob games before i played battle for bikini bottom i quite enjoyed my time with that if i recall i feel like i rated it like an eight out of ten. I do remember saying like it really caught me off guard how much I actually enjoyed this game. There is a variety of gameplay from like races and going down these race tracks
Starting point is 00:15:53 to, you know, normal 3D platforming to boss fights to puzzles and it had a wide variety of gameplay. Yeah. It makes me wonder because 3D platformers have come a very long way. I mean, we have Mario Odyssey, you know, we've got all these incredible, you know, even the older ones like you've got Crash Bandicoot, you've got Ratchet and Clank that have made, you know, a return and they have been modernized to, you know, more modern features and gameplay and stuff like that. I was looking up the IGN review for both SpongeBob Cosmic Shake and Battle for Bikini Bottom because they rated Cosmic Shake a 5 out of 10. Which for IGN, who gives everything a 7 is basically their way of saying this game is hot, hot garbage. And so I don't want to get your opinion on that just yet, Ryan. But that made me go, wait a minute.
Starting point is 00:16:49 Like, so I looked at Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated because I'm like, bro, I liked that game. I'm not saying it's the greatest game ever made or anything, but I quite enjoyed my time with it. And they gave Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. I'll find out of 10. Oh. So that's when I went.
Starting point is 00:17:05 IGN must really not like these games for some reason. they cited their main reason for for their rating was that there was just this is this feels old this feels old and routine and there's no ingenuity to the platforming there's no advances to the game they said it feels like this was made for like six year olds to play um you know and they felt like there was no evolution in this 3D platforming now do you think that having nostalgia for the 3D platformers of old is helpful for somebody going into one of these SpongeBob games. Oh, so you mean as far as just like having having that feeling of like old school
Starting point is 00:17:55 3D platformers? Yes, because when I played SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom, it caught me off guard because I felt like I was a kid again, if that makes sense. Like I felt like, oh, I remember these games, man. Like these are the old 3D platform. They were fairly simple, but they were a lot of fun. They had that variety of gameplay. And it was a little bit of a nostalgia trip for me, which maybe affected my, like, my favorite, like, how I favored the game.
Starting point is 00:18:20 You know what I mean? Because like I said, I was favorable with my time with Bikini Bottom. And was there any nostalgia hit for you kind of playing these 3D platformers of old, which SpongeBob goes for? Yeah, I definitely think so. I think that not only just the nostalgia hit that is SpongeBob. I mean, I'm a 90s kid. I was born in 88, so I grew up in the late 90s with SpongeBob. That was, you know, I watched it like crazy.
Starting point is 00:18:51 And to play a game like this, it did feel like that kind of old school 3D platformer style. So there was a nostalgia hit to it's nothing too crazy, but you still have. your different you know kind of jumps and whatever to do like so there there was that nostalgic hit of kind of a throwback style to it okay all right we're going to take a quick break we're going to hear from our sponsor and then we're going to get a little bit of like what you actually do in this game and then we're going to get ryan's thoughts on this game because i am dying to know just like everybody else because i really have no idea so we'll be right back after a word from our sponsor Hey, everybody, Ryan here. Rocket League players. I'm calling you out right now. If you've been grinding, ranked, and wondering why you're not climbing that ladder, it is time to get some actual answers. That is where Trophy.a.I comes in. Trophy gives you real-time coaching that reacts to your play style, not cookie cutter tips, not generic rotate better nonsense. It tells you what you need to fix right in the moment. You also get access to a massive library of lessons, training packs complete with pretexts.
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Starting point is 00:21:12 Ace and I dipped out we said nope not playing that one I had played a SpongeBob game in the past I will say I was curious about this one but I went with playing Spider-Man instead because I've never played any of the Spider-Man games so Ryan you know you said this is a 3D platformer
Starting point is 00:21:29 it is a little bit of the 3D platformers of old There is some nostalgia here. It's not an overly complex game. We talked about IGN being pretty down on this game or the whole franchise, honestly. Now, there was a new one, Titans of the Tide that came out. I have no idea what the rating on that is. It's not really pertinent to this. Explain the game, Ryan.
Starting point is 00:21:50 What do you do? Try to give us a few minutes of what the actual gameplay is like, what you do, what worked for you in the gameplay and maybe what wasn't some of your favorite gameplay stuff on this. um so basically kind of as you as you kind of start within the game uh the main premise is as i said like the you got these bubbles and is king neptune's you know special bubbles and sponge bob just goes crazy as he would with patrick and they tear a rip in time a fabric and time and things start getting crazy so then there's there's stuff all over the place and you've got to you got to go to these different kind of worlds or universes and
Starting point is 00:22:30 They have, the one thing that I thought was neat was they did give a nod to the series and the show within all these worlds. So you had like a Wild West where you had a Wild West SpongeBob. Then you had the karate, you know, karate, you know, SpongeBob and Pirate SpongeBob with the old Dutchman. And you had, you know, medieval. And like, they really went through a series of all these different worlds that you had to go to to accomplish these tasks. as you went to kind of bring everything back together. So it was neat. It was neat how they kind of put that all together.
Starting point is 00:23:11 You know, with that as far as the gameplay, you launch in, you go in and you have each one is probably, gosh, I would say maybe an hour, 45 minutes or so. Per level. Per level, you know, depending on what you want to do. And there is spots where you can go back and you can, once you unlock certain, you know, abilities you can go back and do some certain slam to get through another area for a coin or something
Starting point is 00:23:36 but um it's usually about a 45 minute to an hour per section and you go through uh knock it out accomplish what you need to accomplish in that area you know within that world and uh and then go to the next one and you go back through the portal um and you kind of keep resetting which which is which uh it kind of makes it fresh every time you go through so you got almost like six or seven like kind of hour sections of a game you know yeah oh gosh don't even dude oh my god
Starting point is 00:24:08 you did yourself yes you said it man my kid is going to do that for sure he's going to be like dad six seven I'm gonna go eight nine eight nine you know but anyways yeah so whatever I said you mentioned these different levels do you have different abilities for the levels
Starting point is 00:24:26 is it just simply just different maps is there different gameplay element depending on the level that you're on like how do they keep it fresh so so one way they keep it fresh which uh at first i'm i was kind of actually annoyed i'm like i don't need a tutorial i don't need to learn how to do these things and and they'll be like oh this means this and this is what you can do with it and then you utilize it within that section um and then it continues on so as you go on every section gives you kind of almost like a new attack or a new ability you'll get um some glide or a spin or a slam or some other way to navigate that world or utilize your abilities
Starting point is 00:25:10 within that world for every section. So they do they do a good job of kind of keeping it fresh with every new kind of style. They also give you a new ability, which is neat. And it did definitely help. It kept it kind of somewhat fresh to where, oh, okay, now I have this. I can use this. Are the levels like more linear or more open world? Because I know Battle for Bikini Bottom, it was very open world. You can kind of go wherever the heck you want. Um,
Starting point is 00:25:40 I would say that it's probably a little bit open world. For me, it was very linear because I followed where the big old orange flower or yellow flower went. And I went along that. Yeah, you were just playing main quest. I was playing main quest stuff. I, I've done some of the
Starting point is 00:25:56 side quest stuff. There is abilities like, and other things you can go to the side where oh crabs needs this or oh sandy needs that you know you can help them with stuff but i didn't do too much of the side quest but um i would say it's mainly mainly a linear game with like options to go and do other side things if you want okay so that makes sense with the different levels and the different mechanics on the levels was any of that impressive like like one of the main complaints that i have seen with the sponge bob games is that again they feel old they feel dated and that they feel repetitive um did you feel like i mean you know
Starting point is 00:26:35 my time with bikini bottom i did feel like the levels had a good variety like i said sometimes it was a race against the clock sometimes it was a boss fight sometimes it was a collection level where i had to collect you know eight different things and for me it was like again it was kind of a throwback this is what i grew up on but i can also see the like yeah bro there's really not a lot of new here this is just all stuff we've seen a thousand times before so did you feel that way or did you feel like they actually landed having some of that gameplay variety oh man unfortunately i know the answer already i know unfortunately i feel it did dude there was there was really not much there um it did feel very dated and old it was and i'm going to be honest here it was
Starting point is 00:27:22 extremely easy like you yeah i was wondering about that you get you get four or four five underpants which is funny like that's how he does and and you know SpongeBob makes his you know no more chafing when you get like a new pair of underwear I maybe needed a pair of underwear like once if I was like not paying attention
Starting point is 00:27:41 twice you know like it's it's it's an extremely easy game that is the biggest put off for me to yeah honestly I a game that has no challenge at all is just then you're just going through the motions and that's
Starting point is 00:27:57 what it became because we're we're we're i mean we're season game you know season quote unquote season gamers like like to me like that platforming was was beyond easy there was no the the most exciting part i had was like a part where you had to like do some dashes and jumps and stuff and i'm like okay here we go you know and it was exciting i was like heck yeah and i'm sure people say well you miss this secret zone you know but like that's not the game that's not the whole game and there was just the vast majority 99% of what I played was was extremely just kind of go with the flow and and that's what kind of was a bit of a turn off on that stuff man yeah I can't imagine trying to go back to that after playing something like Astrobot which does challenge you with its platform
Starting point is 00:28:47 and it does get progressively more difficult which is what I thought of a ton as I played it and I'm like man you know Astrobot did this did that you know and it's obviously an unfair comparison but like I well I mean it is it's the same genre man it is a fair comparison yeah yeah still both triple a so yeah um so you know for me when I played bikini bottom my my shining moment was there was an optional bonus level in bikini bottom that was like a music level that was up on in the clouds and it was some hard platforming dude like legitimately it was a challenge to beat that level. And that's my favorite part of the
Starting point is 00:29:28 whole game. Yeah. Like I talked about it when we did the review on that. The one hard part. I need that challenge, dude. Like if I'm not, and this is, and this is the kicker is it if a game is too easy, it is an instant no for me. Like I can't there's, and like you kind of mentioned it, why am I playing this game if there is
Starting point is 00:29:44 no challenge whatsoever? And I feel like I'm just going through the motions of just controlling this character to get to the end of the game. Yeah. All right. We're running out of time. So, I want to know your rating. We'll touch a little bit more on some of that, but give us your thoughts. We've waited 30 minutes now on this. I, you know, how would you rate SpongeBob Cosmic Shake on a scale of 1 to 10? For me, this game was, um, it wasn't bad, but, you know, it wasn't good either, which is, which is a hard place to be. Mediocrity is not the best for anybody. Nobody wants to live
Starting point is 00:30:22 there um like we talked about uh with what you played josh and then the other games that we've mentioned like you know there's a lot to live up to especially with with classics in the past and then what we've been able to get with like astrobot so there's there's so much there that i felt was just lacking it again it was just it was such a go with the flow it was it was leaning heavy into the nostalgia which it did it hit hard for me um you know you had plankton, you had SpongeBob, you had Patrick, had all the greatest characters, they're all voiced by the right people. It sounded awesome.
Starting point is 00:31:00 I just found, like, the combat, there's an area where, you know, once you unlock it, you can get a judo kick. And the second stage, you get a judo kick, and you can do it in the air. So you can just, like, kind of chain it. And I'm like, okay, now I'm having fun. And then that's kind of where it stops. Like, you don't, you don't, it doesn't progress to, like, more complex things.
Starting point is 00:31:22 or anything different and I found myself intentionally making things harder to like play this game which is not what you should do in a game that's not what you know you should feel you should do so yeah this one for me I think it was it was good it was a it was a quality game it was it was polished well the voice acting was great but it was just kind of a ho-hum you know medium IG kind of blah so it was very me for me so I'm going to give it a 7-1 it was it was it's not bad
Starting point is 00:31:57 it's not bad no that's what it's not like you'll probably enjoy this game you're probably if you like SpongeBob you'll like it you'll have fun if you play with your kids and they like games like you'll have a good time but I would not recommend the thing is
Starting point is 00:32:13 when we bought this dude it was $40 that's the part that's the issue for me If this was $15.99 or $20 or something, like, I could understand it, and it would make sense. But for $40, I would say that's a no-go unless you really love SpongeBob. I was going to say, if this didn't have the SpongeBob skin on it, would it actually, would you rate it a lot worse? Like, does that kind of like a saving point to this game? Because what that tells me is the game part is really not that good.
Starting point is 00:32:45 No, it's not. It's just the nostalgia of SpongeBob and the. fun of SpongeBob that is actually elevating it a little bit more and it's not to strip that away because again it is a SpongeBob game but at the same time that just tells me that the gameplay portion is probably not
Starting point is 00:33:01 that enjoyable for most people and you know I don't we say this all the time I don't really love IGN's reviews but like what you're saying is also kind of what the reviewer was saying about there's just really nothing surprising there's nothing there's no oh my gosh moments in the game
Starting point is 00:33:17 it's autopilot very easy autopilot the whole time and that made me sad but it was it was autopilot I'll be honest I'm surprised you got through it then because for me like an autopilot game is an auto no for me like I can't
Starting point is 00:33:30 not to mention six five six hours in I got stuck in this zone where you know true to like a lot of games where you have to like defeat the enemies to unlock like an area and it like does something that happens to move to the next zone one there was like this teeny little
Starting point is 00:33:47 weasel guy that It was a blob, a jelly blob, that got knocked off to the side. And I'm looking around, and I'm like, there's got to be a way to get through here. And I spent, I spent like 45 minutes, like, so frustrated trying to get through. And I'm like, all right, maybe something got knocked off in a different area. I got to clear the zone. And I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm looking. And I finally, underneath this, like, little nook, I, like, jumped over and I saw a guy,
Starting point is 00:34:11 and I hit him so hard, and I was like, finally! And then a cannonball hits, and then I can go to the next area. so it's just you know it was one I was already frustrated and then that happened I was like yeah yeah that $40 price tag was the only thing that was keeping me from possibly diving into this game with you oh that's hot dude this game came out in 2023 exactly so when we talk about nostalgia and we talk about current game mechanics and stuff like that like this is a fairly new game it's only two years old you know and so I get that you know you are trying to appeal to a wide range of people, including children that are going to want to play SpongeBob, right?
Starting point is 00:34:52 So, you know, you have to kind of, and I don't mean this necessarily negative, but you have to dumb it down a little bit for people. But when you do that, you are also alienating people that want some challenge in their video games and want some mechanics that matter and things like that. And it sounds to me like they just tried to play it a little too safe, a little too classic. And because of that, it really kind of just misses the mark for, for you at least, It's kind of like you said It's like it's an okay game But it's not really a good game
Starting point is 00:35:22 Yeah If you're in the mood for a 3D platformer There's probably a gazillion other options out there That are way better for you Really If you're a massive Phantom SpongeBob That might help carry you through But if not then you're probably better off
Starting point is 00:35:38 Finding a different 3D platformer Is that fair? I would say that's fair Yeah it's it's it's not a bad game but it's also not, you know, it's, if you like the world, if you like, you know, it and you want to. I think you're being generous with your seven point. I think you're being very nice. I think that's commendable. I think Ryan's right. Well, here's the deal. I love SpongeBob. So that, that, you know, that, I mean, I grew up with it. And it was, it's, it means a lot to me. So like, like, there was definitely parts where I was like, you know, and I chuckled and I laughed. And I'm like, oh, yeah. You know, and it just you feel like a kid again. But also there's just like, then you get to parts.
Starting point is 00:36:15 you're like okay I'm not a kid you know and then you're like I'm not an idiot and like some of the things are like just so I just felt like I was wasting my time I'm like can I just get to the next stage because this is dumb and and you can't you just got to play through the game so yeah it was it was just one of those it was it's a bummer that it was that easy but if you have kids I'm sure kids that love SpongeBob would love this game for sure yep yeah all right well there you go people that is ryan's thoughts on sponge bob cosmic shake i'm glad that i didn't have to play this one ryan i'm out of that i did i played the last one i played it i put the whole 20 minutes in oh okay well that's fair that's fair so i have you 20 minutes of some game there you go
Starting point is 00:37:01 you both don't mean about four hours of control thank you oh yeah that's true too thank you to our community for all the support you know if you want to be able to to force one of us to play a game you can sign up on patreon it is a perk for our epic and legendary members uh every month there's a vote that the community holds and it's all secret we don't know uh apparently the game for me for january has already been picked or is in the process of being picked i won't know about it until ryan and a say hey we know the game and then we record a little like bonus episode to reveal that that goes out to our patreon supporters as well basically what i'm saying is be a Patreon supporter.
Starting point is 00:37:39 You get some pretty cool stuff out of it, man. And it's like five bucks a month. So it's very affordable. It helps the show out a lot. It keeps this podcast going. And, you know, you get to make Ryan play SpongeBob Cosmic Shake. And then have them be really nice in his review of it as well. All right, listen, that's going to do it for this episode, everybody.
Starting point is 00:38:01 Remember to rate the show, leave us a review, join our Discord community. There's links in the episode descriptions for all that stuff. stuff. Thank you for hanging out with us. Thank you for our community for everything that you all do and making Ryan play this. Just remember, guys, be nice to me. I want to play a really good game in January, like a really good game, man, you know? Thank goodness we're here. So, yeah. That's going to do it for this one. Until next time, happy gaming. Listen here. The video gamers podcast will be mine. See ya Peace out Peace out

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