SpongeBob... What can you say about SpongeBob? He's a sponge and his name is Bob. By now everybody knows who and what he is - a global phenomenon with a hit television series, big budget movie starring the likes of Alec Baldwin and a string of successful (and not-so-successful) videogames. The question is, which category does SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab fall into?

The story begins with SpongeBob tossing and turning in bed, before we play out the dream he's having; his bed comes to life in the form of a race car and speeds to a race track, where he takes on various characters from the series. Unfortunately for the game, this makes a horrible introduction sequence, as the races are pretty boring and they all take place on the exact same track. Thankfully, SpongeBob's nemesis, Plankton, breaks his car and ends the pain, switching the game to a platform adventure that sees you battling enemies and collecting parts to rebuild it. Before long the action changes yet again, but this time it moves to another character's dream. Spongebob's starfish friend Patrick becomes a superhero known as Starfish Man, fighting his enemy Dreaded Patrick. The entire game leaps into a comic book style world where everything is cel-shaded and full of comic book onomatopoeia.

The odd thing about this is that the game looks considerably different from SpongeBob's missions, where our favorite Sponge is rendered in full 3D instead, yet Patrick's missions play out similarly to SpongeBob's, employing the same button configuration with a few added abilities. As the game progresses, you end up playing as Plankton on the run from a giant Krabby Patty, SpongeBob in the stomach pit of a Alaskan Bull Worm, Patrick strapped to a rocket in outer space and even Plankton destroying a city!

While playing as all the different characters is good fun and having a wide assortment of game types is always nice, Creature from the Krusty Krab never really settles into one specific type of gameplay and instead jumps around between platform, driving, flying and other miscellaneous genres. It's a good concept and should keep kids amused until the very end due to the changing nature of the gameplay, but older audiences might grow tired of the constant chopping around, which also causes the game to fly by extremely fast - and it's short as it is! Regardless, Krusty Krab does make good use of the SpongeBob license and has some really fun moments for fans of the show, but ends up feeling like a bunch of different SpongeBob games rolled into one - which ends up being both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. For those who really enjoy the game, you're in luck, because included are a load of bonus items and special levels to unlock as well.

Whilst the TV show employs some brilliant writing that's entertaining to youngsters and adults alike, the game strictly appeals to those in the first category, lacking any cut scenes and instead only having the characters standing around 'dancing' in the same position with badly matched lip-syncing, and while the entire cast from the show is here, I wouldn't say the voice actors are on top form, again probably attributed to a poor script, which is a shame, because the actual story is quite intelligent and even has a couple mysteries to it. As if that wasn't enough, the title is victim of repeated lines throughout each level that really will drive any player insane!

Graphically, SpongeBob is hard to rate because of the changing nature it takes on early in the game. Overall it looks okay, but doesn't exactly capture the feeling of being underwater in Bikini Bottom like it should. It doesn't exactly resemble the show either, with the exception of the characters, and if a game like this is going to be partially cel-shaded in some points and it's based on a cartoon, you might as well go all out and make the entire game look like the cartoon animation and drawings, truly immersing the player into the experience of being SpongeBob. But alas, we simply got average 3D graphics instead.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab isn't a bad attempt at a SpongeBob title, but doesn't live up to past games like The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Bad writing, average graphics, poor sound and gameplay with seemingly no direction and little resemblance to the Bikini Bottom world combine to bog down a really good storyline concept and what could have been a good platform adventure game, but instead feels like sections of platform adventure jumbled with poor flying and racing. This comes recommended for the young Sponge-heads, but if you're an older fan of the show then don't let this franchise squeeze the extra money out of you.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin & Amanda Galarde for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).