"You're a man now, SpongeBob, and it's time you started acting like one. "

That is directly taken from the intelligent life form of a starfish. That starfish is named Patrick and he’s Spongebob’s best friend under the water. With Patrick being Spongebob’s best friend, his advice should be wisely thought upon right? Not so fast; SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants! is taken in a new direction with tons of mischief involved. Rather than making a new platform/adventure title for our underwater hero, he’s now appearing in his own multiplayer party game. Will the new genre be the next big step for the little guy?

SpongeBob has endured all criticism about how he lives his life and how he acts. SpongeBob has even received criticism about his choice of friends. If you haven’t heard about SpongeBob, you must have been living under a rock (like Patrick) for centuries. The SpongeBob franchise began on the Nickelodeon television network. Since then, he has spanned several forms of media such as movies, video games, and music. Now in his fourth video game for the PS2, SpongeBob is out to show his dedicated fans that he is ready to tackle the party genre.

THQ’s Australia Studio is the developer behind the game and they are still relatively new to the scene. The only other title they have credit to working on would be Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Attack of the Twonkies on the Xbox and PS2. In the past three PS2 SpongeBob titles, Heavy Iron Studios developed two - SquarePants The Movie and Battle for Bikini Bottom. The other Spongebob title (Revenge of the Flying Dutchman) was under the direction of BigSky Interactive. With Heavy Iron Studios working on The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer and BigSky Interactive taking a break, THQ’s Australia Studio filled the void.

There is actually a story that serves as the plot behind SpongeBob. Gill Hammerstein, famed producer under the sea, is filming a new episode of his show. With his show moving production to SpongeBob’s town, it’s time for the residents of Bikini Bottom to show their talents.

The objective of SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants! is to compete in the mini-games; the player with the most popularity through the mini-games wins the role in the episode for the famous director. It’s just a shame that the mini-games are short and not too many available to play. Only 30 or so to count and that’s not even half what the latest Mario Party contained.

To help out with the replay value (not much replay here unless you absolutely need a party title), THQ Australia added in a director feature. This pits the players in control of the episodes to select which characters they want for different parts in Hammerstein’s shows.

SpongeBob has thrown out the game board found in the Mario Party series. No longer will you wait for all the competitors to move until the mini-game is able to be played, but immediately get thrown into the challenges to compete. Throwing out the board helps the game immensely with how fresh it feels but does limit how long you play the game as you’ll get your fill much faster than usual.

One area that SquarePants has above all party games I have played thus far is the graphics. The cinematics are a notch above the rest and advance the game in the direction it needed badly. It doesn’t fall flat on its face with the graphics holding it up. The locales give the game great backdrops to set the mini-games in. What isn’t flattering is that the backdrops aren’t animated and stand still as if it was a Sega Genesis game. The colors are vibrant and have give Bikini Bottom the flesh it needed. I shouldn’t get carried away though — I am speaking of a party game. When playing multiplayer with friends, the game splits the screen into four screens for all your friends to play along. The screen becomes increasingly smaller due to that each player gets their own HUD.

SpongeBob’s audio is dedicated to the followers of the television series. With one-liners galore, I haven’t heard so many repeated over and over again in a long time. The music isn’t outstanding but serves its purpose. If I had to pick one thing that stood out for the audio division, it has to be the cast members of the television series providing voicing their characters. They represent the show well and make it authentic.

Mr. Krabs: "Spongebob, that hat makes you look like a girl"
Spongebob: "Am I a pretty girl?"

Anyway you dress up SpongeBob, the children and fans of the show will love him. The party genre will serve SpongeBob fine in the future but as for now, SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, PANTS! is too shallow of a game for players who want more than one sitting with a game. If you are looking for the next party game after your dance pad, Eye Toy or microphone compatible games, pick up SpongeBob as a rental to entertain your friends.

Gameplay: 6.2
It doesn’t have enough depth in the gameplay to entertain you past your first sitting. The lack of mini-games hurts how much diversity there actually is in SpongeBob. At least it’s not another board game though. You can play as all your favorite SpongeBob characters. That addition alone will attract a few to pick this up right off the bat.

Graphics: 6.7
When put side to side with its competitors, it looks visually great. It only pales in comparison to the upper echelon PS2 titles though. 

Sound: 6.0
One-liners? Not necessarily a bad thing. Though if there’s repetitive one-liners? Now that’s a bad thing. The original voice cast of the television show is representing their characters perfectly but that’s not enough.

Difficulty: Easy
The mini-games were created for players to pick up and play on the go. I encountered no hassles here on playing SpongeBob.

Concept: 6.4
Don’t mistake this as a Mario Party rip-off.   No longer will you be playing on a giant board. You’ll instead play through the mini-games seamlessly.

Multiplayer: 6.4
Only 30 mini-games? You have to be kidding me. Next time I am sure they’ll expand the line-up and give the multiplayer more depth.

Overall: 6.1
A nice start for SpongeBob’s first foray into the party genre. He fits perfectly in this genre and I hope his second outing only improves on what was established here.