SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game review

I was blown away when I recently discovered that SpongeBob SquarePants is now 25 years old, but it’s easy to see why. Appealing to both children and adults alike with its oddball humour and charming characters, SpongeBob is a cultural phenomenon that is simply unavoidable. Just this morning a YouTube video I was watching used the classic “Two Hours Later” SpongeBob meme to show someone failing badly at a game. As part of the SpongeBob SquarePants 25th year celebrations a new video game is here, although the star of The Patrick Star Game is surprisingly not SpongeBob.

Best friend and fan favourite Patrick Star is an idiot, but that’s what makes him the perfect protagonist for a daft sandbox game. There’s not much of an overall goal in The Patrick Star Game, you’re just let loose in Bikini Bottom and told to help your friends and generally mess around a bit. Completing a broad range of objectives (from helping friends to going down a slide or taking a nap) will net you Sand Dollars, which unlock a whole host of outfits based on the show and will eventually allow you to enter the fry cook games.

The Patrick Star Game is as simple as Patrick himself, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a joy to play. Patrick himself can run, jump, and fall asleep, and that’s pretty much entirely how you get around the familiar locations of the game. Sleeping might not sound like the best way to travel the world, but once Patrick is unconscious you can move him by rolling his sleeping body at breakneck speed. It’s just as silly as it sounds, and ensures getting around is always enjoyable.

As well as rolling and jumping, you’ll spend a whole lot of time picking up and using items that are lying around. Ladders can be grabbed and placed to climb up buildings, jellyfish will fling you around as you hold on for dear life, and brushes can be used to sweep around NPCs and cause a whole lot of chaos. Everything is physics based too, making this sort of silliness all the more amusing as you wildly fling things around. Messing about in the world is all part of the fun, especially as it’s chock full of references fans will love.

What really makes The Patrick Star Game special is all the activities you can take part in, which are incredibly varied. A lot of these are pretty simple, like competing in Mrs Puff’s races, or SpongeBob’s shooting challenges where you blast blocks from a floating platform. Others are fairly faithful recreations of other popular games, many of which you won’t expect.

The first time Sandy Cheeks asked me to start power washing a slimy fire station I was pretty blown away, and that’s but one of these activities. At the airfield you can compete in skydiving challenges that are essentially just Pilotwings, complete with different aerial equipment, rings to fall through, and a target to land on. My favourite task of all of them though was cooking at The Krusty Krab and Chum Bucket, which is all the chaos of Overcooked with an extra physics twist.

You can’t have an open world game without collectibles, and The Patrick Star Game features these in the form of Patrick’s favourite condiment: mayonnaise. Jars of mayo are hidden in every nook and cranny, and collecting all of them in an area results in more Sand Dollars for your collection. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it ensures that if you want to spend longer in Bikini Bottom you’ve got plenty to do.

The Patrick Star Game is a lovely sandbox experience which younger gamers especially will likely get a kick out of, but it does have a handful of issues. Hearing the same random voice lines gets old very quickly, and happens constantly. Not all of the activities are created equal either, and it’s hard to get excited about racing in boats when they control like a rock with wheels. I also experienced quite a lot of glitches (mainly getting stuck in the ground) while reviewing, although a day one patch may improve this.

The Patrick Star Game is a joyous SpongeBob sandbox that’s fun to play around in, with a whole host of varied activities to spend your time with. Fans of the beloved Nickelodeon property will find a whole lot to love in everyone’s favourite starfish’s debut adventure, and as long as you don’t mind a few dud minigames and repeated voice lines you’ll have a blast rolling on the seafloor.