The SpongeBob SquarePants™ Movie video game features the undersea adventures of an optimistic sea sponge and his best pal, a starfish. While this platform adventure features many gameplay elements one would expect (exploring, combat, collecting), it also has a basic skill upgrade system like you might find in a roleplaying game (RPG). While nowhere near as complex as a traditional console RPG skill system, this game's basic approach gives the player an extra dose of control in determining just how they want to play.
What will SpongeBob be today? You decide.
To upgrade your skills, you must collect manliness points, which you get in the form of barbells scattered around each level. SpongeBob is trying to prove that he can handle more responsibility at work, and the only way he can do that is by grabbing as many manly barbells as he can. The game automatically sets manliness point thresholds, and when you reach each threshold, the game lets you know it's time to upgrade.
Opening the Macho Upgrade Window is as simple as pressing the back button. Once there, you have five skills each for Patrick and SpongeBob. Both have upgradeable health and a spin attack, but the other three slots are unique to each character. SpongeBob has Bash, Spongebowl, and Sonic Wave attacks, whereas Patrick has Cartwheel, Smash, and Throw attacks. Each manliness point milestone translates into a point that you can add to any unlocked skill. You start the game with health and a spin attack, but you have to earn the rest as you go along.
The upgrade menu.
Though each level has lots of Krabby Patties (which restore health you've lost to enemies or hazards), players should always add a point to their health first. That extra Patty on your health bar can really make a difference, allowing you to survive longer and tougher fights, without having to restart from a checkpoint.
This is especially true in new levels or even with new enemies that you're unfamiliar with. The more health you have, the more likely you'll survive a tricky situation by taking a hit and surviving—rather than getting killed by something you didn't see coming.
The extra health is essential for the special challenges you face, like fighting up to 50 enemies at once or having to navigate a sliding bathtub through a tunnel filled with steam vents. Besides, the essence of manliness is the ability to take a beating and come back for more, right? So, beef up SpongeBob and Patrick the first chance you get!
The second upgrade point you earn should be spent on SpongeBob or Patrick's basic spin attack. The vast majority of enemies you face in the first few levels can be defeated with the spin, so the more effective it is, the better. An upgraded spin not only takes out enemies faster (essential when you're being hounded by multiple Slammers bent on flattening you out), but it also lets you send enemy projectiles back at the enemy.
Patrick can be a super-starfish.
Also remember that the game is careful not to send you into a fight without all the right moves, so trust it to offer stuff like SpongeBob's Bash attack right before you need it. You can't beat the hovering Flingers without a Bash attack because they're perpetually out of reach. Sure, you could just slap their balls of goo back at them and beat them that way, but it's far slower and less reliable than running underneath and delivering a well-deserved bash from below.
Later in the game, you'll have more skills unlocked and more choices to make. I recommend putting points into SpongeBob's SpongeBowl attack (he rolls himself into a ball and plows right through the opposition) and Patrick's Throw (he picks up objects or stunned enemies and chucks them—good for dishing out damage and hitting hard-to-reach switches). SpongeBob's Sonic Wave and Patrick's Smash attacks are good, but practically speaking, I prefer the Spongebowl and Throw (although Patrick's butt-first animation during Smash attacks is really reallyfunny).
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie video game doesn't bill itself as an RPG because it's not: It's a fun and silly adventure full of goofy characters and humorous combat. But, by working basic RPG-style character evolution into the game, THQ has made it even more fun to save the day.
