SpongeBob SquarePants - Game Boy Color

In this game, SpongeBob has to recover the four oven dials to unlock the Flying Dutchman's oven. En route, he must explore his homeland Bikini Bottom and fight all kinds of mean crustaceans and other sea critters using a burger-flinging spatula, a jellyfish net and four other wacky weapons. He must get past a few puzzles and deal with boss creatures as well. Pretty standard stuff overall--maybe too standard.

SpongeBob SquarePants lacks the inspiration of a Mario or Rayman title and barely comes close to the humour and whimsy of the excellent cartoon show on which it's based. Still, the violence is cartoonishly entertaining, the characters are vibrant and the graphics are quite good. Fans of the show might be able to overlook its faults, but the game could have been better. --Andrew S Bub