If you enjoyed any of the SpongeBob adventure games for the PS2, then you should pick this one up right away! SpongeBob’s: Lights, Camera, PANTS (SLCP) game for the PS2 provides you or your child with a fun storyline, 30 games with various challenges, and a chance to use all sides of your brain!
Storyline/Playing the Game
When you start a new game of SLCP in Story Mode, you will enter the Bronze Store Challenge. This is for one player only, and you will select between Spongebob, Mr Crabs, Patrick, Plankton, Sandy or Squidward. I get to choose whether it will be Easy, Medium or Hard. So far, I’ve only played on Easy. What’s neat is I also get to choose my three competitors from all the remaining characters. I can set each one to make them Silly, Normal or Smart, but I haven’t really noticed if this makes them play any different. Now the story begins!
Director, Gil, is planning the anniversary special of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, but they still need to fill some roles. He says that all contestants will go through 3 “scenes” for each role, and the winner will get the part. The most popular contestant overall will get the coveted super villain role! The first contest is hosted by Bubble bass. He is to put us through 3 challenges to cast the Waiter Role. The first challenge was “Flippin Out”, where I had to flip burgers to my partner and serve the ones he flipped to me. Three minutes later, “I won, naturally” because my partner Mr Crabs and I kicked butt! But maybe it’s because I played this game like 20 times already 🙂 Then our popularity was rated, and I got 5000 (maximum) popularity points! The chart shows that I need 12000 to win the role.
Time for another challenge! This time I had to take orders, make orders and serve them with the help of my partner, Sandy. This was pretty easy once I realized the tray colours matched the tables (who knew!) I won again 🙂 and got another 5000 pts!!! The final and deciding challenge was “The Bouncers”, where all I had to do was bounce food to the storeroom with my partner Mr Crabs. Needless to say, I won again 🙂 And another perfect score! With 15000 popularity points, I won the waiter role, and filming began immediately. They showed me the scene right away, and I did great, I must say!
The game repeats in this fashion for eight more roles. At the end of which the person with the total popularity points gets cast as the supervillain! Once you finish bronze story mode, you get to see the whole anniversary special from start to finish with all the winners in their roles. Ideally, your character would be in every role. After you complete Bronze Mode, you will be able to play Silver Mode, which is basically the same thing, except it’s a little harder to get enough Popularity points to move on. I can only assume there is a Gold mode to follow since I’ve not yet completed the Silver Mode. Even when you finish all modes, the game can keep getting more challenging because you can start a new game but this time, set it to Medium or Hard.
Cartoons (the Show)
Every time a role is won in story mode, you get to see the winning character in that role. This is cool because the scene changes slightly based on who the winner was and who is playing the part! At the very end, you can see the entire show, which is pretty much as long as a regular cartoon! See each character in each role they won and see if Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy can save the day 🙂
My minor disappointment was that it seems to be the same story for Silver Mode as it is for Bronze. I thought that if you got to the advanced story modes, they would have a different “show”. That would make it much more worth it to keep playing and beat the Silver and Gold modes!
MultiPlayer action!
Grab 1, 2 or 3 friends and compete! In MultiPlayer mode, you can play any of the unlocked challenges (unlocked as you get through them in story mode). You and your friend(s) will each select a character. The remaining players will be computer characters of your choosing, so you always have four competitors. You can compete in 1-5 challenges by selecting each one you want. After each challenge, popularity points are awarded. When all challenges are completed, the player with the total popularity points has won!
Controls
Overall, X is used in almost every game, and sometimes X and the directional buttons are all you need. In other games, Triangle, Square and Circle come in to play. You never use the R1 and L1 buttons. So the controls are easy, but since you are only using limited buttons, it does kind of make it too easy at parts. Your kids won’t be getting as much mental challenge with using the remote as they would in other games. However, the easy controls do make it so even the youngest kids can join in.
Sounds and Sights
This game really looks a lot like Spongebob the show and sounds like it too! The music will match the challenges as necessary and is fun and lively. The characters will talk as they play, but they only say a very limited number of phrases. I would have liked to hear more variety from them.
Who am I again?
The hardest thing to adjust to in this game is remembering which character you are playing. There is no “player 1” indicator like most games would have. So if you play SpongeBob today and Squidward tomorrow, you may lose track of yourself every so often.
Additionally, players are not always in the same location on the screen. For example, in partner challenges, you are partnered up randomly, and you could be in a different spot every game. Or, in single challenges like the drum challenge, you may find your character in the top left or the lower right. You just have to remember who you are!
Unlockables
As you play, accomplish goals, break records, you will unlock various art gallery items or action figures. However, you really don’t know what unlocks these items… it’s just luck! They give you a hint that if you save three prisoners at once in one game, you will get an unlockable, but overall you don’t know what you have to accomplish to unlock these, so just try everything!
Conclusion
Spongebob Lights, Camera, PANTS! is a fun game for all ages. Kids will enjoy being able to be SpongeBob or their other favourite characters! Adults who like SpongeBob will be amused. If you get really competitive, it can be even more fun! The games, once mastered, can turn into a real battle between you and your friends! So pick it up today… Enjoy!!
Mini-Games
This part is long but is here in case you want to know more about the types of games on here! Feel free to skip if you don’t care!
There are 30 mini-games to play, most of which you HAVE to play in order to complete the story modes. I have only gotten to 24 of them so far, and the rest have noted that they still need to be unlocked. Below is my rating of each game.
Before you play each game, instructions show you the basics of what you need to do. My problem with this is that the instructions automatically flip between points. So if I’m still reading instruction 1, it moves right on to instruction 2, and you have to wait for it to start over again. My other issue with this is that you cannot easily bypass the instructions. So every time you get to the same mini-game, you have to wait for the same instructions to go through before you can play. You should be able to turn off instructions if you already know how to play. The instructions are also located in the book with a little more detail.
Skills used/learned: Things your child (or you) will learn or use to play this game (a lot of games use the same skills)
Difficulty: 1 = Easy, 10 = Hard (thinking of a kid playing, easier for adults or those who play it a lot)
Fun Level: 1 = Kinda Fun, 10 = Extremely Fun
Partner?: Yes = play with a computer char, No = you’re on your own!
1. Flippin Out – Flip burgers to your partner and to customers. Do it fast before they burn up!
Skills used: Coordination, Timing, Teamwork
Difficulty: 5
Fun Level: 3 – Can be a little dull
Partner: Yes
2. Order Up – The first player must put together trays of orders; the second player must serve the orders to customers. Halfway through, you switch jobs.
Skills used: Waiter uses Memory, Speed and Efficiency; Cook uses Timing, Speed and Efficiency
Difficulty: Waiter 5, Cook 2 – easier once you realize try colours match table colours
Fun Level: 9 – Fun because of the variety and the memory challenge
Partner: Yes
3. The Bouncers – bounce food between you and your partner until it gets to the platform.
Skills used: Teamwork, Timing, Patterns
Difficulty: 3 – Pretty Easy once you learn the patterns
Fun Level: 6 – Enjoyable, b/c it is easy
Partner: Yes
4. Inflatable Pants – blow your pants up to float through a racecourse.
Skills used: Timing, Figuring out the amount to blow, Gravity
Difficulty: 7 – Takes some getting used to
Fun Level: 4 – It’s ok, but it can be frustrating
Partner: No
5. Weight and Sea – With a partner, load matching coloured weights onto a barbell, then help the lifter lift it straight up
Skills used: Teamwork, Timing, Patterns
Difficulty: 1 – Very easy to figure out
Fun Level: 6 – I like it pretty well
Partner: Yes
6. Surf Resc-Goo – Fish for objects as they float further away from you
Skills used: Timing, Distance
Difficulty: 5
Fun Level: 5 – Average fun
Partner: No
7. Goo-Ladiators – On a unicycle, squirt your competitors off the platform.
Skills used: Balance! Coordination
Difficulty: 10 – One of the hardest to master
Fun Level: 4-7 – more fun with practice, but frustrating at first
Partner: No
8. Pedal of Honor – Bike ride off ramps and do stunts! (Like Spongebob meets Tony Hawk)
Skills used: Timing, Coordination, Figuring out how many tricks you can do at one time
Difficulty: 2 – Relatively easy to learn
Fun Level: 10 – I like this one 🙂
Partner: No
9. Floor It – Drive your boat through 3 race courses
Skills used: Driving/Steering skills
Difficulty: 9 – Easier once you know the track
Fun Level: 7 – Fun once you get used to it
Partner: No
10. Rock Bottom – Hit and hold musical notes to rock out in a band!
Skills used: Musical ability, coordination, timing
Difficulty: 7 – Probably harder for kids to learn than adults
Fun Level: 9 – Pretty cool! and you can watch them “rock out.”
Partner: No
11. Jig on the Brig – Memorize Squilliam’s button pattern and repeat. Your character will do a dance step if you do it right (like a hoe-down)
Skills used: Memory, timing, coordination
Difficulty: 8 – Kids may have a hard time with this at first
Fun Level: 8 – Real cute to watch them dance!
Partner: No
12. Beats Me – Hit the two drums in the same pattern as Squilliam does… and in the same timing too!
Skills used: Memory, Timing, Musical “ear.”
Difficulty: 7 – easy to get the pattern, harder to get the timing
Fun Level: 7 – Fun once figured out
Partner: No
13. Surface Tension – Pop bubbles as they float around
Skills used: Coordination…nothing else really
Difficulty: 8 – Just because I don’t really get how you score high
Fun Level: 2 – Hard to figure out… and where did I go?
Partner: No
14. Machine Meltdown – Fix machines as they break down
Skills used: Teamwork
Difficulty: 8 – My machines always meltdown!
Fun Level: 4 – It’s alright
Partner: Yes
15. Charge – Use static electricity to charge poles to match your colour
Skills used: Timing…connect the dots
Difficulty: 2 – Easy to learn
Fun Level: 7 – Amuses me for a while
Partner: No
16. Jellyfish Swish – Catch jellyfish swimming in the water by diving in!
Skills used: Timing, Distance
Difficulty: 6
Fun Level: 7
Partner: No
17. Jellyfish Jamboree – Catch jellyfish flying around and throw them into your extractor
Skills used: Aim, timing
Difficulty: 8 – easier once you learn to aim
Fun Level: 5
Partner: No
18. The Tide Piper – Blow your pipe to change jellyfish to your colour, then catch them!
Skills used: Timing, Teamwork
Difficulty: Pipers 7, Netters 5
Fun Level: 4 – Computer characters may make it really hard to win
Partner: Yes
19. Seahorse Stampede – Seahorse polo! that looks more like soccer.
Skills used: Teamwork, aim, timing
Difficulty: 9 – It can be tough to keep the ball
Fun Level: 6 – fun with practice
Partner: Yes
20. Breakin’ Out – Collect prisoners in your basket and take them to the trampoline…avoid the spotlights!
Skills used: Timing, Coordination, avoiding cops!
Difficulty: 5 – Not too bad
Fun Level: 8
Partner: No
21. Rubble Rabble – Smash rocks into diamonds
Skills used: Timing
Difficulty: 8 – Why won’t they smash?
Fun Level: 4 – Tires out my thumbs, computer partner, can get on your nerves
Partner: Yes
22. Rope Burn – One member is climbing a rope, the other is trying to make the ropes move faster with matching coloured batteries
Skills used: Patterns, Timing, Coordination
Difficulty: 1 – Not hard at all
Fun Level: 7 – Fun but a little too easy
Partner: Yes
23. Flingin’ and Swingin’ – Hooked to your partner, swing around to mark as many pegs as you can
Skills used: Timing, patterns, momentum
Difficulty: 7
Fun Level: 7
Partner: Yes
24. Blistering Barnacles – Scrape barnacles off a wall and collect them… Don’t fall!
Skills used: Teamwork, timing, balance
Difficulty: 7
Fun Level: 4 – It’s alright
Partner: Yes