A Starring Role
THQ's latest offers up to four players an addictive and lighthearted cooperative or head-to-head multiplayer experience in SpongeBob SquarePants™: Lights, Camera, PANTS! As the tale opens, Bikini Bottom is abuzz—Gil Hammerstein's in town filming an episode of popular superhero show "The Adventures of Mermaidman & Barnacleboy." Even more exciting: he's keen on tapping the locals as acting talent. Cue a series of 30 hyperactive mini-games, several of which are grouped at any given time into an audition presided over by goofy personalities such as Bubble Bass and Larry the Lobster. Nine roles are up for grabs in total, with the winner of each audition getting to play waiter, lookout or supervillain in the finished production. Which roles you'll ultimately score depends on how you perform once the action commences. And quirky cartoon clips—different ones play for each victor—are the reward for a job well done.
The pinnacle of four-man multiplayer mayhem. Anyone (characters such as SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and even Plankton are all featured) can appear in Hammerstein's masterwork—it all comes down to popularity points. Awarded after every challenge, earn more by placing higher in the rankings. Whoever has the most when totals are tallied at the end of each audition gets that particular part. So it's literally possible to influence the outcome of the story, depending on how much tail you kick against as many as three family members, friends or computer-controlled rivals. Scenarios are certainly best enjoyed in the company of others, but that doesn't mean you won't have fun squaring off against artificially intelligent opponents. Quite the opposite—in fact, considering you can choose a game difficulty level (easy, medium, or hard) and decide how intelligent challengers should be (silly, normal, or smart) before beginning. Enthusiasts of all ages won't experience any trouble getting into the groove either; mini-games are all easy to pick and play. Silly sound bytes, sly jokes, and boffo visual gags further make the title just as fun to watch as actually participate in as well, even for adults.
Fast food never looked so appetizing. In one sequence, for example, you try for the role of a waiter. The action starts out easy, putting you in front of three grills. Move back and forth between them and slap the A button to flip burgers to a teammate. They also flip burgers to you, which you stand beneath to catch. But beware—you must avoid accidentally catching or flipping Chum Bucket patties to your partner, or score penalties will be assessed. With each passing minute, the speed at which the drama plays out is increased. A later escapade involves taking customers' orders by moving back and forth between them, memorizing button sequences. Enter X, A, B or B, B, A upon reaching a restaurant counter, and a buddy who's playing chef grabs trays and fills them with the appropriate food items, which you then deliver. To make it even trickier, from time to time players also have to switch roles.
Since when does weightlifting require brainpower? Yet another outing unfurls as a side-scrolling underwater race. By inflating your pants, you can rise above obstacles such as sand castles or dodge incoming beach balls. Still, the true objective here involves being the first through a series of goalposts that lie in your immediate path. Points are doled out based on the order in which you cross each marker as compared with adversaries. Watch out, though; nets are also placed strategically between all, and bumping into them both slows you down and subtracts from your score. From paper-scissors-rock showdowns to turns loading weights onto barbells or bouncing packages off your head, you never know what's coming next. It's precisely that unpredictably—and the title's frantic play mechanics—that make SpongeBob SquarePants™: Lights, Camera, PANTS!so endearing. Break the disc out the next time family game night beckons: I promise you won't regret it, even if your thumbs might. By Chris Zimmerman
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