Game #1022: Spongebob Squarepants - Revenge of the Flying Dutchman

  This game is as full of holes as its hero.

 Mandatory I don't really like Spongebob but I heard the games were good disclaimer. With that out of the way, if I'm not mistaken, Spongebob Squarepants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman was Bob's first outing on the PS2, so expecting something as good as Battle for Bikini Bottom would've been pure folly. And that's the right mindset, as RotFD is on a whole different league.... beneath it.

 When I first started the game I didn't know just what I was supposed to be doing. Was it a platform game? An open world game? What was I playing? Well, all I had to do was press Start to get a to-do list of objectives. Basically, you must go through seven stages while completing every single goal on that level's list. Goals are from simple platform challenges, to collecting X amount of coins or fulfilling other more specific goals. I'll tell ya this, at first I wasn't really feeling it, but the game slowly grew on me.

 At the start, Spongebob has access to the world's shortest Karate chop, making it so that combat is a chore, a jump, a charged jump, rolling and sneaking. As you make your way through the game you'll unlock costumes. Fishman, which lets you capture Jellyfishes, plus, now you attack with a rod that grants you longer range on your attacks. Merman costume, which you only need to you twice, and turns your attacks into projectiles and, lastly, windblower, which is used to push a few objects when the game requires it. The one annoyance with the costumes... is that you need to find a tent to change outfits, worst case scenario you'll have to go to another zone to find a tent... and that's a risk.

 Before I get to the game's largest issue, I'll mention a few smaller gripes. For instance, every level has Jellyfishes that you must collect, and you must, because the game will put two roadblocks, one requiring 100 total jellyfishes and another one 150 total jellyfishes. And, if you don't know that 150 is the last time you'll need Jellyfishes you might, like me, get tricked into continuing the hunt. Oh, and in one of the final levels, you have to use the windblower to push a golf ball through a course.... you'll waste SO much time here because it's so easy for the ball to fall down. It was SO annoying. And unlike, say, Battle for Bikini Bottom, you DO need to fulfill every item on the list in order to finish the game.

 Alright, now onto the big one, the reason I mentioned that changing areas is a risk. Y'see, at first I thought it might've been my Ps2's laser, since this game comes on a CD and not a DVD, your PS2 will produce sounds akin to an electric saw the whole way through. Well, whenever you enter a loading screen there's a chance that the game will freeze or return to the memory card menu. I managed to finish the game, but at some points I had like 5 of these 'returns to memory screen menu' in a row while trying to reload my save, I thought that the disc had finally broken or something. But nope, it's a well known issue with the PS2 version of this game. And it's super annoying. 

 The game, at its best, can be quite decent, but mixed between the fun goals you also get a few that are super boring or annoying, be it because of tedium or questionable level design. But, really, it's the Loading bug that ruins the game, as having to be paranoid about saving your game before and after every loading screen isn't my idea of fun.

4.0