Nintendo and Mario, Sega and Sonic… THQ and SpongeBob? Honestly after an amazing run with the franchise, I feel like it’s safe to say that THQ Nordic and Spongebob go together like peanut butter and jellyfish.
While SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom has become a cult hit within the last few years or so with a banger of a remaster, cartoon and movie tie-in games are generally regarded as less-than original IPs, and for good reason. After all? Who wasn’t young once and was gifted a copy of something like Seinfeld for the Gameboy Advance?
However Battle for Bikini Bottom broke the mold and is a solid game in its own right, but can THQ Nordic and the devs at Purple Lamp continue working with our most absorbent of cartoon mascots without relying too much on his star power?
SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide
Developer: Purple Lamp
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Platforms: Windows PC (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series
Release Date: November 18, 2025
Price: $39.99
Titans of the Tide tells an all new story where two of Bikini Bottom’s biggest egos, The Flying Dutchman and King Neptune clash over waiting in line for Krabby Patties. It’s funny, it’s simple, and it’s the kind of blown-out-of-proportion premise that fits SpongeBob.
After getting angry, The Dutchman lets loose his ghostly powers, tearing up the ground and cursing many residents of Bikini Bottom into ghosts. As expected, it falls to Patrick and SpongeBob to save Bikini Bottom once again. You would think after saving the entire city several times they’d get a little more respect.
The ability to swap between Patrick and SpongeBob is the key feature in this latest title. SpongeBob can karate kick to enemies and points of interest and use a bubble wand to solve puzzles, meanwhile Patrick can burrow under sand and lift and toss heavy objects. Each character has a different tool set.
This actually lends itself to some skill expressive gameplay, swapping between characters mid-jump to interact with specific objects is a staple of the game’s later challenges. You need a surprising amount of coordination for what looks like a game for young children, but thankfully Titans of the Tide has the trademark of every great platformer: it’s actually fun for all ages.
Younger players will find the main story to be a suitable challenge, meanwhile genre veterans will be incentivized to win every race, every platforming challenge, and find every secret. I’ve always stood by the idea that truly great platformers are easy to beat, but difficult to 100%. It’s this balance of skill and proper rewards that spur on curiosity to explore and experiment.
I do have a small complaint in this regard. Some secrets are hidden behind picking up the small coins, for instance a chest may appear after picking up every little coin in this one formation. It happens just enough to make me paranoid about missing it, but not often enough for it to be worthwhile to do. I think cleverly hiding some secrets is perfectly desirable, but this little gimmick just feels annoying. If it were like Banjo-Kazooie where you could track every note that might be something.
There’s also the matter of “coinflation”. Chests and quests give so many coins in addition to the coins you incidentally pick up through normal play, that I’m just not incentivized to slow down for them otherwise. I’m running through a stage and see three half-buried coins I need to dig as Patrick for… honestly? I’m not going to stop for them.
Graphically, there’s nothing to complain about, it’s a cartoony platformer and nobody should be expecting any needlessly intense graphical showboating. What matters is that points of interest are clearly distinguished, and there’s even a “drop shadow” for the player so you can accurately land or ground pound where you want to. It shows a level of respect for the genre that some larger devs tend to neglect.
The music is fantastic, or maybe that’s nostalgia talking. But not only in-game, but also in advertising. The David Hasselhoff parody of “Wellerman” got me hooked before I even started. In-game there’s plenty of familiar Bikini Bottom vibes, little steel guitar Hawaiian melodies, and more. Just like from the cartoon.
As for voices, the game is fully voiced and features the voice actors from the show. Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Doug Lawrence, and more continue to give the same quality performance they bring to the cartoon.
THQ Nordic continues to impress with the SpongeBob IP and Purple Lamp has more than proven they have what it takes to realize the legacy of what Battle for Bikini Bottom. Together, this publisher-developer duo has in my eyes elevated the standard for franchise tie-in games, and makes SpongeBob feel like a fully actualized platformer mascot like Mario, Banjo, and others. This isn’t a spin-off game, to me THQ’s SpongeBob games are as legitimately a part of the franchise as the cartoon itself and they should be proud of what they continue to do for Nickelodeon.
