SpongeBob Yellow Avenger for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

Personally, I never really got into the SpongeBob SquarePants phenom -- I haven't been a 14-year-old in a while, and I've never been stoned into the mental state of one -- but the little yellow figure is an appealing fellow who's spawned a handful of decent games for his fans. Fortunately, I didn't have to get high or regress into my childhood to like SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger. The first DS exploit at the bottom of the sea, The Yellow Avenger is an easy-going platformer that combines some simple touchscreen elements for adventure that fans of the show should really dig no matter how skilled a game player they are.

For me, the easiest thing to praise about SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger on DS is its combination of standard hop-about action with the long-lost gameplay of point-and-click adventure games. Any time you enter a room or house, the gameplay shifts subtly from "2.5D" platforming to 3D (without jumping) world roaming, allowing you to search the room for people to talk to or things to pick up and play with. It'd be nice if there were more things that you could check out with that didn't have anything to do with the story (most of the time, if you can interact with something, there'll be a reason for it either right that second or later down the line), but it's fun to barge into Squidward's house or The Chum Bucket and just see what's around. The gameplay reminds a little bit of the classic Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis adventure games -- that unique mix of action and exploring. And because the DS has its touchscreen, there are often creative ways to toy around with the world's objects. Draw to the side to open a cabinet, or spin the hands on your alarm clock around to the right time, or flip the light switch up and down and up and down and up and down.

The actual platforming action is a little less special, but it's still fun. The game plays like a standard side-scroller, only with everything built in 3D and with branching paths placed all over the world. To take advantage of the DS, Spongebob can learn several abilities that he can summon, at special markers, by drawing on the screen. Draw-a-spell effects on DS are getting to be too conventional to mention, but at least most of these specials can be easily drawn with your finger if you don't feel the need to reach for the stylus. SpongeBob's jumping ability is way too floaty for a regular platformer (even if he is underwater), but the gameplay works for its style of play. There are no levels, only various locations on the map to go through, and you can always restart from a save. The platforming sections are almost filler bits between the game's various tasks, and though you will be butt-stomping Dirty bubbles and jumping over chasms, you rarely feel the pressure of a Mario-type game. Instead, you amble about, finding people and places and working towards the ending. The story has something to do with SpongeBob becoming a superhero when Mermaidman and Barnacleboy lose their belts, but while he's inspired by the task, SpongeBob isn't in any great hurry to save the day when there's so much else to do in Bikini Bottom.

The game's area is deceptively large -- at first pass, the game seems like only a few areas on a map, but once you get into the game and unlock other areas and branches, the game opens up to reveal a really big parcel of land to hop around on. It may be a little too big, especially for a kid's game. You usually get hints on where to find stuff, but some things seem only available when you stumble onto a hidden trigger elsewhere, and though there's a log for tasks you need to complete, the description is sometimes too vague to know where to go. For instance, for the game's second Squidward task, you need to know that when he's not home, he's got his dayshift going on at The Krusty Krab. If you sit at home watching Nickelodeon all day long, maybe you think I'm dumb for not knowing that, but most folks will have to ramble about for a while before they can keep going in the game. The number of tasks and gameplay length of this DS title is certainly admirable, especially for a kid's game -- anything out of the kiddie shelf that you can measure in hours rather than minutes deserves credit -- but there were a few times that we got stuck for no good reason and had to explore the whole game to get past. Boss battles can also get to be difficult when they try to mix touchscreen play and regular button-bashing platforming. Even though these are creative battle sequences, they can be overwhelming for little hands.

Even though it's not full-3D, this DS SpongeBob game is a visual treat. SpongeBob is particularly drawn and animated with great attention to detail. Even though the DS has been knocked in the past for its blocky texturing abilities, you can always see SpongeBob's finer features as he runs about Bikini Bottom with glee on his face -- his nose even bounces has he walks! The rest of the game is colorful, although the cartoon's simple design doesn't make for a visually stunning game world despite the use of 3D. Creating everything in 3D has allowed the game makers to create SpongeBob's world close enough to the show that fans may even know their way around before they even begin playing. The game unfortunately is yet another handheld game to not feature voices from its stars, but the music is otherwise enjoyable as it plays with the SpongeBob themes.

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