SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide review for Nintendo Switch 2

System: Switch 2
Release date: November 18, 2025
Developer: Purple Lamp
Publisher: THQ Nordic

Are ya ready kids? Everyone’s favorite absorbent and porous fry cook is back in a new 3D platforming adventure. With Battle for Bikini Bottom and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Game both considered cult classics of the GameCube era of gaming, and this style of SpongeBob game making a return through developer Purple Lamp’s remake of Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated, and wholly original title The Cosmic Shake, I was very excited to see what was to come next. I thoroughly enjoyed the Rehydrated return to platforming for SpongeBob, but I was a little more mixed on The Cosmic Shake, which felt to me like it had too much back-tracking in its design and only having SpongeBob be playable felt like an odd decision at the time. However, it was a very ambitious game and a strong base to build off for the next entry and before you can stop on your right foot (don’t forget it!) and bring it around town, THQ Nordic has already cooked up a new original game with a supernatural twist. The story?

After being made wait in line longer than he wanted at the Krusty Krab, The Flying Dutchman grows irritated, which is only compounded when King Neptune arrives and usurps his position in the queue, before proceeding to belittle The Dutchman and refer to himself as the strongest being under the sea. Naturally, the green ghost takes umbrage with this assertion and just like that, war breaks out between the ruler of the sea and the pirate ghoul. Bikini Bottom falls into chaos at the hands of The Dutchman’s ghostly magic, turning citizens, buildings and roads into transparent apparitions, and unfortunately for our hero, SpongeBob is also hit in the midst of the carnage. Luckily, Patrick arrives on the scene and thanks to the power of their matching BFF rings, SpongeBob can transfer his newfound phantom form to Pat and vice versa. Mr. Krabs launches a Krusty Krab-style safehaven/business opportunity into the sky above the ghost-infused Bikini Bottom, and tasks SpongeBob and Patrick with restoring order.

Throughout their quest, SpongeBob and Patrick will run into some familiar faces as well as some brand new ones as they venture to stop the war between the titans of the sea. The narrative isn’t especially deep, but for a fun platforming adventure it doesn’t need to be. The two things that I think are paramount to effectively portraying the charm of SpongeBob and his world is through unique visuals and good, funny writing. I’m happy to report both of these elements are present here. Thanks to this supernatural edge to the game’s plot, we get to see some half-ghosted areas from the show, and although cutscenes play out with 3D models, the way they animate and move feels quite close to how they do in the cartoon and with the entire show’s cast all accounted for, we get a real, authentic experience that nails what makes SpongeBob silly and fun. From funny visual gags like a tombstone that has “I’m With Stupid” engraved on it whilst pointing at one alongside it, to a massive portrait of David Hasselhoff adorning King Neptune’s palace walls, Purple Lamp do a great job feeling genuine to the source material.

Gameplay takes elements from all of the earlier mentioned SpongeBob platformers from THQ. Patrick returns as a playable character after appearing only as a balloon Navi-like figure in The Cosmic Shake alongside SpongeBob, and both goofy goobers have unique abilities to help them in platforming and combat. They both have the basic skills to run, double jump, dodge, air dodge, ground pound and a three string combo attack to fight the Dutchman’s ghost goons. As you progress in the game, SpongeBob and Patrick gain exclusive attacks unique to them that can benefit them in platforming, puzzle solving as well as in combat. SpongeBob can perform a flying karate kick that leaps him over terrain and can function as a Sonic the Hedgehog-esque homing attack on enemies, as well as his signature bubble-blowing talent, where he can target enemies to stun and hold them in position for an attack, and also manipulate the environment around him by flicking switches and stopping mechanisms with his bubbles. Patrick gets a lasso-like item that lets him grab items from far away, and like in previous games, can carry heavy items around to solve puzzles that SpongeBob can’t. He can also dig himself underground which is useful in boss fights when you are trying to avoid stage-wide attacks or when exploring stages to find hidden treasure chests.

Within each world, alongside the main goal of just reaching the end, there are lots of collectables to find that net the boys some rewards. The basic currency can be exchanged for character costumes, filters for the photo mode, ornaments for the hub world, extra hit points beyond the basic four and other goodies. Some of these items need to be unlocked from secret chests within stages before they become purchasable, however, so if you want SpongeBob’s Band Geeks uniform or Patrick’s seaweed mustache from the first film, keep your eyes peeled. Several of these can also be attained through side quests from supporting characters making an appearance, like Gary, Mrs. Puff and Squilliam, who might ask you to find an item or clean up an area of enemies, and in exchange will reward you. These are fun and add some playtime onto your experience, as without it, this game is a comfortable four to six hour adventure but trying to complete the additional content can comfortably add another ten to fifteen hours on if you feel so inclined. Another fun collectible comes in the form of The Hoff’s Wisdom, where David will drop a knowledge bomb on the player. For example: “In the right hands, mayonnaise can become an instrument.” Who knew?

I think this game improves a lot on the flow of the adventure when compared with The Cosmic Shake. There’s no real back-tracking that is mandatory for completion – it is all optional. The gameplay is equally as fun and fluid, with some late-game missions really requiring you to be clever about how you swap out SpongeBob and Patrick to solve puzzles, often in quick succession and it’s a fun reaction-time tester. The stage environments were all quite fun and unique too, going from a ghost-infested jungle within a shoddy holiday island resort to the catacombs beneath King Neptune’s palace, I never really got tired of the visuals and with so many sight gags and collectables to look out for – I was happy to explore levels without feeling like the game was forcing me to. The entire experience is more streamlined, and it feels really good to get from point A to point B whilst messing around a bit in the middle looking for items. There are several minigames spread around the campaign too, including a Krabby Patty cooking challenge, the returning slide-sections from the GameCube era SpongeBob games and some ghost waterboarding segments that feel like something out of Crash 3. It is all very fun, and done sporadically enough to keep the experience fresh without feeling like it is alienating the core platforming.

My only major criticisms come from a technical standpoint. In docked mode, the game runs solidly enough without any major issues of note save for a few environment objects not having physics to them when they look like they do, so you might try to jump on a rock or a stump and you’ll just walk through it like it isn’t there. These are just stage decoration, so it is no real issue. My problems arise when playing in handheld mode. There is significant slow down and frame drops quite frequently in the middle part of the game, around the Catacombs stage it felt almost unplayable at times. These same things were not affecting me when docked, so hopefully it is something that can be patched as it really took me out of the experience and I had to hold off playing more until I got home from work and could dock my Switch in to continue. Loading screens are also quite abundant in this game, and they can be decidedly long later on. There are also minor issues like some cutscenes featuring character model lip-synching that doesn’t quite match up with the voice acting audio, or the earlier mentioned environmental issues, but these problems aren’t enough to really hinder my experience to the degree that it would make me dislike this game. The core is so fun and charming that I can look past some of the technical faults and optimization troubles.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide is a silly, goofy but incredibly entertaining platformer that takes the best elements of the previous games and improves on the weaknesses present in the previous title. The whole package is held back by some technical issues away from the core game and unfortunately they were enough to hurt my overall experience with the game a little bit. Still, with some patches and a pinch of imagination from the developers, these issues can be remedied and I hope that they will be, because I really feel Purple Lamp are getting closer and closer to the perfect SpongeBob gaming experience.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide copy provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.