SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide PS5 Review. Ever since 2001, SpongeBob SquarePants has graced the realm of video games with varying success, and it’s quite stonking when you realize that SpongeBob remains one of the only significant licensed animated shows to still be churning out video games in the modern era. Take 2020’s Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. Besides existing as a remake of the 2003 PS2 game, this classic had seemingly and appropriately rehydrated interest in SpongeBob platformers.
2023’s The Cosmic Shake confirmed this renewed interest with a brand new adventure for the chirpy sea sponge, and now SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide continues on with SpongeBob and company’s insatiable shenanigans. Does Titans of the Tide set sail for the SpongeBob seas of success, or does it crash into an iceberg made of mediocrity?
SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide Review (PS5) – A Tidal Titan Fall
SpongeBob starts Titans of the Tide down at his place of work The Krusty Krab clearing tables and collecting ingredients. It all seems chill and as cozy as ever down in Bikini Bottom until a ghostly green pirate known as The Flying Dutchman shows up in all of his lingo-spewing malevolence to engage in a row with King Neptune. When all is said and done Bikini Bottom becomes cursed and a hex is put on SpongeBob, turning the cheeky ebullient sponge into a miniature green floating ghost atrocity.
Not only this, but when SpongeBob touches Patrick with his BFF ring, he turns Patrick into a miniature green floating ghost as well, while at the same time turning SpongeBob back to his original form. Of course it is the silly duo’s job to lift the curse and turn back the titans and their tide to once again free Bikini Bottom of nefarious scourge.
The story and premise are welcomingly light as you can expect from a licensed game based on a delightful animated TV show. The usual SpongeBob cast returns along with the flavourful puerile jokey essence the series has built its name from. Don’t expect anything deep or exceptionally different from The Cosmic Shake or other fully-fledged SpongeBob titles, but you will be serviceably entertained. Just to note though, it’s odd that Nepture is the god of the sea, but he has no power to stop The Flying Dutchman cursing Bikini Bottom-but SpongeBob and Patrick have gotta be heroes somehow.
A Curse-ory Glance
Titans of the Tide is a platforming adventure with a knack for simplicity and suitability for children, as such it is a zippy and punchy adventure platformer predicated on running, jumping, bounding, bouncing and bopping along in a jolly and spirited rhythm. Movements are effortless and don’t require much thought, which includes special moves like SpongeBob’s aerial kick that can knock down obstacles and can keep him aloft every time he finds a red-colour foot sign floating about.
Patrick meanwhile has the ability to pick up and manipulate objects, and he has a slime-like tether which can pull him towards foes. Patrick can dispose of enemies by hurling boxes and explosive barrels at them, and you can utilize them to reach otherwise unreachable surfaces, as well as stacking these objects to reach higher heights. Patrick can also destroy huge boulders that reveal secrets with the help of explosive barrels. In addition, Patrick can burrow under the ground to pick up treasures and avoid attacks, which will prove especially useful during boss encounters.
Exploration in Titans of the Tide is split up into the worlds SpongeBob and Patrick visit, and include Bikini Bottom citizens you can interact with and carry out favours for. Mr Krabs has his eyes on buried treasure, and along with his daughter Pearl, you enter unpredictable areas like jungles and cemeteries in order to locate the sumptuous plunder.
On the side, you’ll engage in races and clear up the putrescent trash that sullies the lands, but it’s not all taxing labour because SpongeBob can roll around on a surfboard to reach lighthouses and other landmarks surrounded by water. Using the surfboard is a welcome addition for getting around and serves to make traversal more enjoyable, though it would’ve been nice if it was used during story missions to add some excitement.
Accessible Plunder
Titans of the Tide isn’t a difficult game, which you might be able to tell due to the amount of fresh underpants that are thrown to you by SpongeBob and that can be found in the environment encased in bubbles. SpongeBob and Patrick love their underpants, so ensure you grab them to both survive in battle and to keep them fresh.
Even when Titans of the Tide leans into puzzle territory, the puzzles aren’t taxing at all. One such puzzle early on that is repeated a couple of times is locating stone heads and placing them on graves to open paths forward. One instance has you exploring an enclosed area for the heads, and the other similar puzzle is broader and features pressure sensitive foot paths to open up gates to areas where enemies and traps dot the way to the stone heads you need to proceed onwards. Therefore, all you really need to get by when SpongeBob throws puzzles your way is a sprinkle of observational tact.
Sometimes objective locations have fun slides SpongeBob and Patrick can slither down and through in order to exit a level. It’s always fun and mischievous to escape areas on a slide, but such pleasures don’t come across that often in Titans of the Tide. Combat is basic and slapdash with SpongeBob’s slap and spin moves and Patrick’s brawling and object throwing doing the (no pun intended) heavy lifting.
Boss fights are few and although they are decent markers of progression, they aren’t very imaginative. Jumping over and diving under to avoid attacks is cliche and beating up a boss when prone is par for the course here. It’s enjoyable enough and each boss conveys the particular spirit of Titans of the Tide, but there’s nothing outstanding about them.
Scraping The Bikini Bottom Of The Barrel?
Though Titans of the Tides’ accessibility shouldn’t be besmirched in doubt, there’s certainly a lot left to be desired as relates to the poor quality of the game’s technical performance. Objects don’t explode with pop, but rather fade slowly-which runs counter to the dynamic pop of the anaemic combat. Attacks are very basic and without imagination or whimsy, and fighting off these green ghost pirates fails to be satisfying, though beating up the portly floaters can be gratifying if you’re able to dodge their swooping lunges and bamboozle them with some of that old fashioned blunt force trauma – yeah it’s SpongeBob doesn’t box, but he’s a crafty fellow.
Easily the biggest ding against Titans of the Tide is the camera. There’s no excuse for the camera to be unwieldy, but at times the camera can venture into a mind of its own, and bears a true reminder of the range of PS2 games with terrible cameras. Usually it’s when you’re up close in combat, but sometimes the camera will bolt during platforming sections, and when it does you can really tell the game lacks refinement.
Despite the pleasantries Titans of the Tide offers that makes it easy breezy and a fair old hoot for SpongeBob fans, you would expect this latest entry to improve on The Cosmic Shake, rather than behaving like a slippery sidestep. Unfortunately, Titans of the Tide is out of its depths because it comes across as an unfinished game that has some sparkling ideas, but the execution is hamstrung by its terrible camera and banal combat, platforming and puzzles. If you want to delve into another SpongeBob game this one might do just fine, but for everybody else Titans of the Tide is a titanic case of meh.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide will be released on November 18 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.
Review copy was kindly provided by the publisher.