Spongebob, you dirty, dirty sponge. How could you do this to me, after everything we've been through? We secretly laughed together while watching TV, we chuckled at the movie without telling anyone, we were best of friends. And now, you come along, with your fantastically good 'children's' game, almost forcing me to give you a good score. All the reviewers will be laughing at me now, making a mockery of my name, I'll be subjected to Xbox Live insults, "Ha, Dexter likes Spongebob!" So thanks for that, Bob.

No, actually I'm going to stand up and rebel. Spongebob is a seriously cool character. Master of accents, making light of every situation - and with his pet snail, you cannot help but love that damn sponge. Come on, who else do you know with a name like Spongebob Squarepants? The great thing about Spongebob the cartoon is that there's enough humour to keep adult audiences entertained, with innuendos and clever jokes that would just fly over the top of kid's heads. Breathe a sigh of relief, because all your favourite Spongebob humour is here - over the top, laugh-a-minute tongue in cheek Spongefest. Come out of the closet, admit you love that sponge and I can guarantee you'll have a laugh and a half, regardless of your age.

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie game is based around the hit movie of the very same name. The game doesn't really spoil the film for you, as it tells a similar story with a combination of clever drawings, horny French narrations, full 3D graphical animations and true to the cartoon voices. This means you have all your favourite character voices backing the cartoon-looking animations, creating a totally submerse atmosphere for screaming fans. See what I did there? Submerse? I'll get my coat… The story revolves around Bikini Bottom, Spongebob's home town, which has been taken over by the evil Plankton. It's up to Spongebob and his best friend Patrick to go on a wacky and wild adventure to save the day.

It's hard to categorise Spongebob in any genre, because it's a combination of everything. You have your exciting platforming elements, full of tricky jumps and rules for attacking certain enemies certain ways, then you have Super Monkey Ball style challenges, where Spongebob rolls up into a ball and it's up to you to get him to the other side of the complicated, ever-moving course. That's not to mention the driving levels, where you take to a Crabby Pattie wagon and race through a course, plus the downhill bathtub runs, which are fast, fierce tracks full of obstacles that require extremely quick reflexes. How about a sound wave challenge for Spongebob, where he plays this guitar and you have to guide the sonic wave through loads of rings scattered about, in tricky places, too? So there's a flying element there too. There's more variety here than in any other game I know.

The main part of the game is the platforming element; on most occasions you'll find the various challenges scattered around the level. Although some of these challenges cannot be completed with the limited power you'll have at that moment, you can come back. For example, Patrick can only pick things up and throw them later on in the game, but quite early on comes a throwing challenge. This encourages you to come back and complete these challenges, for the Goofy Goober token you receive upon completion. So you have your average challenges scattered about, which normally utilise one of the two playable characters - Spongebob and Patrick. Then there's the little warp squares hidden and scattered in every level - jumping on these takes you to a whole new challenge. Mentioned above, we have Super Money Ball type affairs, jumping from cube to cube stages (similar to Mario Sunshine's bonus stages), fighting challenges that see you defeat waves of enemies, like TimeSplitters, plus a whole lot more. The great thing about these challenges is that you can come back to them later if you don't feel up to it, or after completing it, for replay value, you can come and relive those tongue biting tense moments.

So with the challenges well and truly covered, let's talk gameplay. To my pleasant surprise, Spongebob has hooked me like a mackerel on a hungry fisherman's line! For a game that's supposed to keep the kids quiet, I have been in my bedroom playing this till the early hours of the morning. The level design is so highly detailed and varied that you want to keep on playing to see where the imaginative ride takes you next. First you're in the Bikini Bottom town, which looks spot on compared to the TV series, then you're in an ice-cream factory, jump in the car, drive to a western bar and the game continues through highly unique levels, all of which have their own specific enemies to really spice things up.

It's not just the level design that keeps me playing though, it's the nice mix of driving missions and platforming levels, it's the variety in characters, each with their own unique traits, it's the fact that you can upgrade your characters' moves to suit you playing style. Wait a minute! Upgrade your character? See, both Spongebob and Patrick are almost obsessed with becoming 'manly', collecting dumbbells of all things gives you manly points, which allows you to upgrade your favourite character's moves to more macho moves, which do manlier things! I love it, when Spongebob collects manly dumbbells he says, "These just ooze macho", which cracks me up every time!

Each character gets to use more moves as time progresses. Collecting Goofy Goober tokens unlocks new moves when the time arises. These Goofy Goober tokens can be hidden in levels, granted by winning challenges or even by beating your own best time on the racing levels. Patrick is the stronger, more offensive character, with belly flops, cartwheels and the ability to throw things, whereas laugh-a-minute Spongebob is a fantastic character for jumping about, with a few cool moves, such as Spongebowl, which allows you to throw bowling balls at enemies and sonic wave guitar, where you play the guitar and guide your sound wave through first person view, to explode on an enemy of choice. With macho points, all moves can be upgraded once, so upgrading Spongebob's Spongebowl allows you to throw an explosive ball that you can detonate at any given moment. Patrick has some cool upgrades too; by spending a point of the belly flop, Patrick can send a blast wave out when he hits the ground, stunning nearby enemies for a short period of time.

With all these moves, the game is open to suggestion and you can play out the levels with a sense of flexibility. The platforming levels are a little on the linear side of things but there are a few places where you can wander off; discover hidden paths concealed by weak walls, or switch characters to get to places the other character can't reach. It's a shame that you cannot pick your character before you start the level though, as only certain levels sport a changing room where you can switch characters, but if a changing room is there, you know that it's there for a reason. Another omission, which I feel could have been done with relative ease, is the lack of a two player mode, which could have been done in an overhead view, without a spilt screen, two characters sticking close together, like in a Lord of the Rings or State of Emergency style. It would have made perfect sense too; I'll be Spongebob, you can be Patrick and we can help each other, completing levels together.

As I mentioned earlier, Spongebob sports some cracking level design with more variety than you can shake a sponge at. Not only this, but every type of level, from driving to platforming and rolling in a ball to rolling downhill are done fantastically, graphics adapting to suit every aspect. Although not entirely cel-shaded, the graphics look just like the cartoon, despite the third dimension! I'll even admit and say that I forgot all about the 2D cartoon, because the 3D in this game is done so well and I call myself a Spongebob fan! The character animations are always amusing, Spongebob pulls some fearsome faces, even though he is trying to act all manly, while Patrick just looks plain dumb! Every effect is done nicely, with the odd bubble here and there to give you that underwater feel, but why there's typical platforming platforms surrounded by deadly water is beyond me! Some things are destructible too, with bits of boxes flying about after you have blown them up, which just adds to the graphical appeal!

The sound is just as good too. I'll talk about the music in the game, because it's superb. There's different music to accompany every level, with guitars, drums, trumpets, banjos and loads of other instruments playing some very exceptional Spongebobby tunes. There's none of your techno, four-second-loop mumbo jumbo here; the music has been done perfectly, one of Spongebob's strong points. Then the narration by the French man is out of this world, flawlessly done, just like the cartoons. His voice is highly amusing, like he's overdoing the whole French thing, bah, he's probably not even French - whatever he is, he makes me laugh so hard, it's untrue. We also have some dialogue from all the original voices from the cartoon, which comes across loud and clear most of the time. Though some of the sayings don't sound very loud when playing there's various sound effects and heavy metal music in the background! "These just ooze macho!"

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie has impressed me so much that I'm almost embarrassed to admit it. There's loads of variety to keep anybody quiet for ages - it even kept me up, playing until the break of dawn! With plenty of amusement, a familiar storyline, cracking level design, tough challenges to get the whole family involved and recognisable voices, this game is pure fun. While some things could have been done to improve lasting appeal, I'm sure kids will come back to replay levels and challenges, if not just to find treasure chests, unlocking pointless but amusing extras. The developers deserve a pat on the back; they should make a decent Simpsons game while they're on a role! All things considered, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie will absorb you like water to a sponge.

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).