SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide Review – BETTER THAN BFBB?
After taking a few steps back with The Cosmic Shake, Titans of the Tide delivers a buoyant dose of nostalgia with a ghoulishly ghost-tinted spin.
The Slick Sponge Stayed Safe
The real highlight here is the dual-character system: real-time switching between SpongeBob and his starfish pal gives the gameplay a nice sense of variety. Patrick’s now grappling and burrowing like an Alaskan Bull Worm, while SpongeBob blows bubbles and delivers some serious kicks of Ka-ra-teh. And as the game progresses, you’ll have to constantly swap between the two amigos and their abilities, making for some tricky button sequences but a tonne of flowing fun—surfboard included.
Even better is that the controls feel much tighter this time around. I never felt as if I’d flub a landing or have the camera completely stuff things up like in The Cosmic Shake. Sooner or later, you’ll enter this flow-state that would almost rival that Italian guy with the red hat. A big sponge of approval. That said, I can’t help but feel the game plays things a tad too safe. Outside of the first of five levels, Titans of the Tide is mostly linear. Not to say that linear is inherently bad. However, that flow-state I mentioned before does start to turn your brain off as the level designs begin to blend into each other, limiting exploration and some of the more unique platforming setups found in The Cosmic Shake and Battle for Bikini Bottom.
The enemy spawns don’t change much throughout either, which is a real shame. Once you figure out that Patrick can absolutely wreck 90% of the ghosties just by throw-spamming them into each other, the excitement wears off quick-smart. The main bosses are a bit of a mixed bag too. They clearly tried to make these fights as approachable as possible, but in doing so, made things not as exciting or intense as they could’ve been, besides the last two encounters. There are some solid platforming challenges and boss replays that the game recommends attempting after the main story is complete, though I don’t know if they’ll hold your brainbox for long…
A Familiar Bikini Bottom
Visually, Titans of the Tide keeps its family-friendly tone intact while offering a clean-looking serving of fresh aesthetics just like SpongeBob’s last two jumpy-jumps. The frame rate on base PS5s mostly sticks to a solid 60FPS on Performance mode and 30 on Quality. Although, there were definitely a couple of times where it couldn’t handle the amount of crazy antics happening on screen, but these moments were few and far between.
…and they’re all voiced by the original cast which is a big plus.
The story premise: an ego clash between the Flying Dutchman and King Neptune unleashing supernatural mayhem across the town makes for a potentially strong setup, yet they both don’t get much focus in the grand scheme of things. I mean, we’re not playing SpongeBob for a riveting, Shakespearean plot. Albeit, some of the jokes are pretty funny, and they’re all voiced by the original cast which is a big plus.
While this entry nails the tone and wackiness of the show, you’ll still have to hear the same generic lines repeated over and over during gameplay, sometimes back-to-back in seconds. Considering that the main objectives can be beaten in about 5 hours or so, this seemed like such a missed opportunity to add in a bunch of spicy KFC Zingers for Mr Sponge and Star to bounce off of, but it’s better than nothing, I suppose.
Decision
At the end of the day, SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide is a fun, family-friendly platformer that carefully captures the goofy heart of the show. It’s tighter, smoother and more consistent than The Cosmic Shake, even if it doesn’t quite push the series forward in a big way. For long-time fans and younger players though, it’s a total splash, even if it’s only 5 hours long with take-it-or-leave-it side content.
By Anthony Culinas – Reviewed on PS5
Good
SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide is a tighter, wackier return to form, even if it sometimes pulls its punches and isn’t quite a tidal wave of innovation.
This game was reviewed using a download code provided by THQ Nordic. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.
