THQ/GBA, GC, PC, PS2, Xbox (£19.99-£29.99)
Just in case you haven’t got the message from the title, this is the game of the film of the television series of the adventures of the little yellow sponge and his friends in Bikini Bottom. The storyline echoes the movie’s in that SpongeBob and Patrick the starfish have to get to Shell City to retrieve Neptune’s crown, but offers plenty of original adventure along the way.
A mixture of Sonic the Hedgehog platform antics with the odd driving challenge thrown in, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is really quite demanding for a game based on a children’s cartoon. Switching between playing as Bob and Patrick you must collect tokens to unlock special moves and hidden challenges, all the time accompanied by the refreshing humour that has made the television show such a hit.
John McNamara