SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide

SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide was provided by THQ Nordic for review. Thank you!

SpongeBob SquarePants has had a bit of a lull since the heyday of Battle for Bikini Bottom way back in 2003, so does Titans of the Tide bring it back around and offer a new generation of gamers some solid platforming action? Well, for the most part, I would say it does.

As the name implies, SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide's story centers on a conflict between two titans: King Neptune and the Flying Dutchman. As you can imagine, the cause of the conflict is rather petty: cutting in line at the Krusty Krab. However, it eventually culminates in a battle that involves all of Bikini Bottom. The story is mostly conveyed in cutscenes at the beginning and end of each area, and while it explains why you're travelling around, it really doesn't have much impact on the gameplay at all. You could probably skip through the cutscenes and enjoy the game just as much.

That being said, the voice acting is pretty on point here, with the show's cast giving their all for this game. Some dialogue lines in-game are repeated a bit too often, but for the most part, the voices pass muster and are a welcome addition.

As for the platforming side of the game itself, it's pretty good. Movement feels nice for the most part, with the exception being ledge grabs, which seem rather inconsistent and led to a few deaths on my part, but thankfully, the game is super lenient when you die, and at most, you lose a couple of minutes of progress.

The game features a unique "ghost lamp" mechanic, where ghost platforms can appear when the correct colored light is shone upon them. At first, this is kept relatively simple, but later in the game, it opens up the way for some tight platforming, requiring you to jump off an existing platform and switch colors mid-air to make a platform appear beneath you. The mechanic is also used in other interesting ways for puzzles throughout the game, such as revealing hidden walls.

Thankfully, puzzles and platforming in the game are entirely reliant on two mechanics, which are consistently used throughout the game as the leading puzzle solutions, so you're not left wondering how to proceed. You're either swapping between SpongeBob and Patrick, one in ghost form and the other in material form, for their different movesets, which you can do at any time, even in mid-air, or switching the color of ghost lamps to reveal platforms or hidden areas. This consistency helps the puzzles not be too frustrating, and definitely helps the game stay more friendly to younger players.

You'll also encounter other forms of traversal, such as a few "slide" sections in the game, similar to something like Super Mario 64, where you have to steer to avoid obstacles, while collecting coins; this is also combined with the "ghost lamp" mechanic for some extra challenge in later slides. Plus, a couple of the more open parts of the game let you ride on a "Ghostboard", which is essentially a surfboard that can traverse both water and land, allowing for quick movement and some neat platforming. Often, you'll find side quests in the form of races when you're on a Ghostboard, too, which can provide a little break from the main story quest.

The graphics are nothing special; they portray the characters quite well as to how they are in the show, and there's plenty of costumes for you to find and try out with the in-game shop. The cutscenes are all rendered in real-time; however, I think this may have missed out on the opportunity for some nice visual effects, as some effects are a bit lackluster in cutscenes.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide - Steam Deck Performance

SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide does get off to a decent start, with great controller support and support for 1280x800 as a resolution, meaning no black borders.

Things do get a bit iffy when it comes to the game's performance, though. I found it best to go with largely "Medium" settings, a 75% 3D Resolution Scale, and TAA antialiasing. The game can then run at a stable 60 FPS. But certain environments can drop as low as the mid-40s. You can either limit your framerate to 40/45 FPS or tolerate the dips in these areas. As most of the game runs at 60, I chose to tolerate those dips and play mostly at 60 FPS.

As I mentioned above, I wasn't a fan of the cutscenes not being pre-rendered, and this also harms the Steam Deck, as some cutscenes can drop as low as 30 FPS, mostly due to crowd density, which is somewhat disappointing.

Power draw with these settings tends to be around 16W-21W, with temperatures ranging from 65 °C to 70 °C. So you can expect a battery life of about 2.5-3 hours on a Steam Deck OLED and around 1.5 hours on a Steam Deck LCD.

Accessibility:

All dialogue in the game is subtitled, as well as the ability to disable camera shaking, a colorblind filter, and "dynamic jumping", which seemingly relates to how high you jump depending on how you press the Jump button. There are no difficulty options, but the game has very frequent checkpoints.

Conclusion:

SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide is a good platformer. It has some solid mechanics that keep it fun to play and are utilized in a variety of ways, which helps them not outstay their welcome. While the story backing it up isn't too interesting, the familiar characters definitely help boost it for any SpongeBob fans out there. It's also a fair price for an adventure that will last most players close to the 10-hour mark, if you take some time out to do some of the side quests.

Performance on the Steam Deck isn't as good as I'd hoped for a game like this, but most areas will run at 60 FPS. However, expect some dips in a couple of environments, particularly during cutscenes. The game remains fully playable and enjoyable, despite these dips, and I have no problem recommending it for players to enjoy primarily on a Steam Deck.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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