The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Windows)

This game is not ready for a promotion.

***The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*** is a point-and-click game based on the film of the same name. It was developed by AWE Games and published by THQ for Microsoft Windows. It was released on October 27, 2004, in North America, the same day as the other SpongeBob SquarePants Movie game adaptation for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox and Game Boy Advance.

## Why It's Not Ready For A Promotion

1. This game has some compatibility issues with newer versions of Windows.
	* Alongside this, the game only runs at a single resolution with no way to change it or make it higher.
2. Walking in the game is a chore at best. SpongeBob and co. walk VERY slowly compared to the other versions of the game, and while you're given the ability to speed him up a bit by clicking again on where you want to walk, it's still quite slow.
3. The dialogue cannot be skipped compared to the console versions. This means that, should you accidentally click on someone you don't want to talk to, you have to wait for them to finish speaking before you can advance.
4. It's easy to get lost. Sometimes you have to walk around and click on things for a while to figure out what to do.
5. There are 8 chapters in the game, and while this may seem like a lot, each chapter only lasts about 15-30 minutes, resulting in a relatively short game.
6. There is no replay value. Once you beat the game, there's nothing new for you to do except to replay the story.
7. Every cut-scene that plays between chapters is nothing more than a glorified slideshow of images. Worse yet, they skip a lot of important story elements from the movie during these scenes, such as the events involving Dennis' pursuit of SpongeBob.
8. A lot of the events that happen in the game don't actually happen in the movie. One example of this is in Shell City where, in the game, Patrick is somehow not dried out and has to use an onion to make SpongeBob cry.
9. The music is rather forgettable compared to the other versions.
10. The game has a lot of repetition at points.
	* During the last chapter of the game, you have to play a Pac-Man-esque mini-game where Robot SpongeBob chases you down and you have to collect Krabby Patties. You have to play this mini-game two times.
	* A frequent mechanic in the game is combining two items together (or, in later chapters, using items you have on the environment to make new items.) Often times the game never tells you that you're supposed to be doing this, such as dipping the stick in tar in Shell City.
	* Every chapter involves finding something for someone at least once.
11. The guitar mini-game at the end of the game is quite confusing and the game doesn't really explain what you're supposed to do.
12. Pressing F12 skips the FMV cutscenes, which can be a nuisance if you're trying to take a photo of the game while it's open in a program like Steam.

## Redeeming Qualities

1. The script is fantastic. It makes a lot of references to outside media, such as a Zork reference in the chapter "Entrenched!" and a reference to "unstable Windows", referring to how prone earlier versions of Windows were to BSoD and other faults.
2. The voice acting is still pretty solid, just like the home console versions, with most of the voice actors from the movie and TV show reprising their roles here.
3. Some of the solutions to the various situations you're put in are actually quite clever, such as using glue in "Free Mindy!" and distracting the guard near her door to trap the guard to the window.
4. The game has a small text window at the bottom of the screen at all times that gives a tiny description of what the mouse is hovering on. This removes one of the biggest gripes with point and click games where you can't figure out what's actually clickable, as the game will tell you what it is.

## Trivia

* This is the only SpongeBob point-and-click on PC that is not based directly on the console version of the game it shares a name with, rather being more based on the actual movie.
	+ Despite this, the American cover for the PC version is identical to the home console game's box art. -->