OK, REAL TALK FOR A MOMENT. YOU KNOW WHAT GIVES ME NOSTALGIA, SEROTONIN, AND DOPAMINE LIKE NOTHING ELSE?
THE FREAKIN SPONGEBOB PC GAMES.
I've only played Employee of the Month when I was 7-12 on my family's old desktop and I LOVED IT. I still have the game, but my laptop doesn't have a CD port AND newer versions of pcs aren't compatible with old games like this (F*** planned obsolescence) Modern Spongebob has tried to make more 3D content, but neither Sponge on the Run nor Kamp Koral compare to the genius behind these games.
Starting off with the OG, Operation Krabby Patty: Truth be told, I don't know much about it. According to the reference EotM made, this was the first game. I'm not that impressed by the actual gameplay since it's mostly a series of mini-games rather than a point-and-click adventure like the rest of them. But what I really liked were the cutscenes because of how creative and funny they were. Some of the jokes in here are funnier than entire episodes of modern Spongebob. The 3D animation in these cutscenes also wasn't so detailed that it came off as super unnerving. It actually looked like Spongebob but with more depth. And the best part of this was that the rest of the games would go on to use it's KILLER SOUNDTRACK. Seriously, I could vibe to the nostalgia of this music for hours.
Employee of the Month is the only game I actually played and it was awesome. The plot took you everywhere, you got to see all the different parts of Bikini Bottom including those you've never seen in the show, and it was overall an amazing adventure. You went from Downtown Bikini Bottom to Rock Bottom to Conch Street and Jellyfish fields to some kind of Beverley Hills spinoff near the Kelp Forest. And it would get crazy. Spongebob met with a Merlin wizard cameo named Marlin (a fish like a swordfish) who controlled the weather. He met an anchovy with 4,132 twin brothers that basically trolled him the entire adventure. He met a hippie who gave him glasses that sent him into Squidward's dream and turned him into the shape of squidward. YOU CAN'T GET THIS ANYWHERE ELSE. And the gameplay itself rocked. I loved going on these little missions to collect miscellaneous objects from different sources and interactions with various characters to move the adventure along. One thing I would do would be to point and click on every possible thing on the screen because there were so many details that Spongebob would comment on (Something these point-n-clicks have in common). And there would also be a bunch of easter eggs like these video tapes showing the animating process. It was AMAZING.
I haven't actually played Movie or Light, Camera, Pants, but from the walkthroughs I've seen, they're both at least as awesome as EotM.
Movie felt like someone put you into the events of the Spongebob Movie while also giving you behind the scenes looks at parts of the story that haven't been shown in the theaters. Arguably, I'm actually more inclined to watch the walkthrough again than the actual movie because it has way more content. You could play as Mindy sneaking out of the castle to help Spongebob and Patrick, Spongebob went into a cave and saw his entire future life play for him, Spongebob had to infiltrate the headquarters of invertebrate terrorists to settle a dispute between them and the local chiropractor, THERE WAS A MYSTERY IN A HOTEL WHILE THEY WERE DOWN THE TRENCH THAT THEY JUST BRUSHED OVER WHILE THEY WERE SINGING "Now that we're men"! YOU CANNOT TELL ME HE DIDN'T EARN THAT MANAGER POSITION AFTER ALL THAT! And the parts of the movie that was on screen was followed to a tee! It followed the dialogue exactly, MOST ADAPTATIONS DON'T BOTHER TO PULL THIS OFF, BUT THIS PC GAME DID.
And finally, Lights Camera Pants. This one was incredible and could have it's own movie because of how good it was. Spongebob is trying to get as many people and props together to upgrade the new Mermaidman and Barnacleboy movie. Not everyone is like me to try to look at all of the content in these games, but this one made it an INTEGRAL PART to try to talk to as many of the characters as possible because literally every NPC had a part to play in this movie. And that didn't stop the plot from going nuts because he went ALL OVER THE PLACE IN BOTH SPACE AND TIME. YES, TIME. THERE WAS TIME TRAVEL INVOLVED AND YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHO HE MET. (Hint: It's from my favorite Spongebob episode of all time. It was a pre-movie special starring a certain trio. Sorry, if you still can't get it, you have to see it yourself because I'm not spoiling :P)
Bro, these games were the peak of the franchise and I will die on this hill. Some of the video games probably deserve their own post, but this will always have a place in my heart and childhood as peak Spongebob...
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