SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide review for PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X

Even though I’ve never seen a second of SpongeBob SquarePants, I’ve still managed to play about half a dozen or so of the platformers starring him. And the thing that’s struck me the most about them – the latest one, Titans of the Tide, included – is how incredibly similar they all are.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, either. Every time I play a Spongebob 3D platformer, I feel like whoever designed it decided that 3D platformers peaked about 20 years ago – say, around the time of Battle for Bikini Bottom – and has been trying to capture the same collect-a-thon vibe ever since. Which, honestly, isn’t the worst thing for 3D platformers to do.

It’s definitely the case with Titans of the Tide, at the very least. It may look nicer than previous Spongebob games, but the gameplay feels awfully familiar. There are coins galore to pick up, to say nothing of objects to smash and items to pick up, which means that if you have a tendency to get waylaid by shiny objects when playing these kinds of games, you’ll have that happen a lot here.

But, again, that’s not a complaint. Titans of the Tide feels like it was designed for players to run around smashing objects and gathering items, without getting any deeper than that. The plot is perfectly serviceable – just enough to give you a reason to explore the game’s different worlds, but nothing that will stick with you after you’ve turned off the game. Likewise, the worlds themselves are nicely varied – again, nothing hugely memorable, but you never feel like you’re just playing the same levels over and over again.

And even if the game probably won’t blow you away, it’s also guaranteed not to disappoint you since it follows such a well-established template. Just about the only negative I can think of is that the characters’ catchphrases may get annoying after you hear them repeated for the dozenth time. But if that’s a game’s biggest sin, it’s hard to say that it’s really doing anything wrong.

In other words, SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide is kind of like comfort food for 3D platforming fans. Even if you aren’t a fan of the TV series, it still delivers the kind of action you want with a minimum of fuss, and it’s not like you need to know the show very well to keep up with what’s going on. It wraps all that up in a solidly competent package, which means that if you’re a fan of the genre, you could do a lot worse than picking this up.

THQ Nordic provided us with a SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide PC code for review purposes.