SpongeBob: the guy who lives in a pineapple under the sea. He’s sudsy, squishy, and has a starfish friend named Patrick. This fall he has landed on yet another set of game consoles, this time including Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. Battle for Bikini Bottom, one of his previous games for PS2, was a great surprise. In many ways the DS version of SpongeBob’s Atlantis Squarepantis, his 2007 adventure, was even better. Any player, whether young or young at heart, will be immersed in its deeply enjoyable 2.5D gameplay.

Such an experience can only lead to one thing: it makes you curious to know what the other versions are like. Surely if Atlantis Squarepantis is great for the DS it must be great for PS2, a more powerful machine. Right?

The new SpongeBob games are joined together as one franchise with the same common characters and themes. But while you may think they are the same across the board, this is not truly a multi-platform release. Each version has its own structure, gameplay, and entertaining results (or lack thereof). If you have multiple systems and were planning on buying more than one version, this is probably the best news you’ve heard all day. But don’t go out and buy the PS2 version until you’ve learned about its differences.

Mini-Games Under the Sea

If Jessica Simpson spent a few minutes playing Atlantis Squarepantis, she’d likely ponder, “Are these mini-games or chicken? They play like mini-games, but I smell something fowl.” Yes Ms. Simpson, they are most certainly mini-games. Unlike the adventure game brought to the DS, mini-games are all you get on PS2.

In the right context, mini-games are extremely entertaining. Rayman Raving Rabbids made the simplest (and arguably mundane) tasks exciting by adding motion controls and comedy. I’m not saying that’s the way every game should go, but it worked for Ubisoft. The board game setup worked for Nintendo with Mario Party.

Atlantis Squarepantis’ mini-games have a decent theme and some great animation clips that advance the story more thoroughly than the handheld versions. The opening battle puts you in control of an Atlantean Tank. Drive around, blow up stuff, and see how many Atlantis tokens you can acquire. One of three medals are awarded at the end, each with a different token value: bronze (1), silver (2), or gold (3). Tokens are used to unlock goodies from the Atlantis shop, a junkyard that has some arcade-style time-killers you’ll want to take home. The other unlockables, however, aren’t too exciting.

Token awards continue throughout the rest of the game, following the same rules as described above. Poor performance won’t get you anything more than a bronze medal, and though it is possible to fail missions, you won’t know it most of the time. Falling off a cliff won’t kill SpongeBob, and enemies only inflict damage in certain levels.

Following the tank opener was a puzzling scavenger hunt. SpongeBob and Patrick are given the task of escaping a dangerous cave. To do that, you’ll need to locate a few ladders. Once found, they magically transport themselves to the cave entrance points that are used to dig deeper before you can escape.

Ghosts like to circle the area, but they can’t harm either hero. They’ll slow you down if touched, nothing more. The major concern for players will be figuring out what the game wants. It doesn’t explain the objective with an ounce of clarity, other than to say that Patrick can use his tongue to swing SpongeBob and himself across the dozens of gaps littered throughout the cave.

The cave itself is very dark and didn’t improve much after tweaking my TV’s brightness setting. That wouldn’t matter much, but seeing is everything in this stage. Patrick can only throw SpongeBob to areas that are within his range, that are on solid ground (no moving platforms), and that are not blocked by a wall. The first one is logical but frustrating because you can’t adjust the camera to see the area beyond where you are currently standing. Under normal circumstances, there wouldn’t be complaints for the walls either. But since the levels are dark, you can’t always tell the difference between a wall and a clear path. It’s annoying, and there’s no way that the average kid gamer will be able to endure the confusion.

After that Atlantis Squarepantis takes you to a museum to photograph artwork. It’s like Pokemon Snap but less challenging. These on-rails mini-games offer Krabby Patties, a popular delicacy sold under the sea, as a source of ammunition. You can use them to deter security from blowing their whistles and shouting, “No flash photography!” These provide some amusing moments, but they’re over fast and don’t add any depth to the game.

Vehicle levels, which place you behind the wheel of a bus that can jump (among others), are another type of scavenger hunt. Cruise around, collect the listed items, avoid enemy confrontation (unless you’re in a tank!), and find the exit.

The last gameplay type is what the manual refers to as “Button Combo Levels.” You’ve seen this before, and the results are the same every time. Button icons scroll across the screen and the player is expected to press those buttons before the icon leaves the area. These didn’t start to appear in games until the music genre took off. But unlike Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, whose rhythmic gameplay is catchy and engaging, Atlantis Squarepantis gives you a plain visual, a boring soundtrack, and no peripheral. You’re stuck using a Dual-Shock 2, which isn’t much fun for this kind of a mini-game.

I don’t know why developers persist on putting mimic stages in their games year after year. I can only imagine that focus tests show that young kids like their simplicity. And maybe they do – in Atlantis Squarepantis, you can’t lose unless you’re not paying attention. The window of time to hit the buttons is too enormous. But if this is the kind of gameplay experience your kids are seeking, they’re likely too young for PS2 and should stick with something that caters to their age group, such as a LeapFrog game machine.

Though Atlantis Squarepantis was a huge success on the DS, its PS2 outing isn’t worth exploring. The mini-game setup, repeated level types, and ridiculous Button Combo Levels are not in the least bit entertaining.

Gameplay: 5.0
Vehicular scavenger hunts, on-foot scavenger hunts, repetitive photography… How do these fit into the world of SpongeBob? Where is the great action/adventure gameplay of Battle for Bikini Bottom?

Graphics: 5.0
SpongeBob has seen prettier days.

Sound: 7.0
The show’s vocal talent appears in the game, but that’s the only good thing that can be said about Atlantis Squarepantis’ sound.

Difficulty: Easy
SpongeBob’s easiest game yet.

Concept: 3.0
The PS2 version of Atlantis Square is a clone game in its worst form. It looks to others for concepts and slaughters every idea it takes.

Multiplayer: 5.0
Two-dimensional arcade game knock-offs are playable with one or two players. They’re not bad solo, but the multiplayer aspect stinks.

Overall: 5.0
Atlantis Squarepantis is the SpongeBob game PS2 owners should avoid.