Every level in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a loving twist on beloved locations in the SpongeBob mythos, courtesy of THQ Nordic and Purple Lamp Studios. Karate Downtown Bikini Bottom transforms the inner city section of SpongeBob’s hometown into a massive film set, with a transformed Squidward Tentacles as the Director and SpongeBob and Sandy set to star!
With Jelly Monsters, nosy paparazzi, and dangerous film sets aplenty, SpongeBob’s got his work cut out for him in this fantastical caper. Here’s a walkthrough of Karate Downtown Bikini Bottom in The Cosmic Shake.
Back Lot Boondoggle
SpongeBob starts off at the front door to a Red Carpet event, where the Director and his assistant, Pearl, are begging SpongeBob to hurry and get to the film set as soon as possible. Forced to bypass bouncers by hopping in and out of the red carpet into side lanes, SpongeBob cuts through crowds and curtains to reach the back lot, through a doorway off to the left where Pearl is waiting for SpongeBob. Making their way down, the player finds themselves having to bypass stored film equipment and actor trailers, as a new foe presents itself. A new kind of Jelly Monster is waiting next to a button SpongeBob needs to press to progress forward.
This variant is large and muscular, wielding a bathtub as its signature weapon, and has three moves that it will use to attack the player. It will either spin around in a circle, swinging the bathtub like a club, or it will smash the tub downward, the tub becoming stuck briefly either on the first or second attack. SpongeBob can only attack this Jelly monster when it is recovering after one of its attack cycles, not during and not beforehand. Once defeated and the button has been pressed, a pair of doors will swing open and lead the player to a new challenge.
Framing Is Everything
Now, officially on the film set, SpongeBob is confronted by the director formerly known as Squidward, now going by the name Squid Van Hammerschmidt, but we’ll call him Director Squidward for brevity’s sake. He’s furious that his star actor, SpongeBob, is both extremely late to today’s film shoot and looks nothing like a typical Karate action star, but decides to adjust on the fly and sends SpongeBob to his first scene: Fighting through the crime-infested streets.
This is where the level throws a curveball the player’s way: It’s an auto-scrolling segment, framed as though the film camera is sliding down a track and SpongeBob has to keep up, fighting Jelly Monsters and avoiding obstacles the whole way. At two points during the halfway mark and the end, the camera will stop and a long fight against Jelly Monsters will ensue, but still, the player cannot let SpongeBob exit either side of the screen, or it’s an automatic death and the whole scene will have to be done over again. Once done, a side door opens and SpongeBob can again proceed as normal, with Kassandra dropping by to remind SpongeBob to stay on task and not get lost in the hype of filmmaking.
Low Roof Kicks
Reunited with Director Squidward, SpongeBob and the player are told they need to up the ante to make this film shoot more exciting, and a new move is introduced: The Karate Kick. By jumping, then hitting the corresponding button (Triangle on PlayStation, Y on Xbox) when prompted, SpongeBob will fly through the air and deliver a mighty karate kick to an enemy or karate-marked object, allowing new combat combos and unique traversal methods previously not possible for the player to perform. After practicing this new move on a karate balloon and wall prompt, the player will have to put this new technique to the test to traverse the rooftops, timing jumps to match karate-prompt jumps, pitfalls, and enemies that can be used as magnets in a sense, using the Karate Kick prompt to fly across the air and kick the Jelly Monster in question.
Eventually, players will reach a drop-off point, leading down from the rooftops to the ground of another film set. This leads to a quick cutscene that introduces yet another enemy type: a Jelly Roller, a tiny, spike-backed enemy that revs up and will rush the player with a headbutt. The only way of damaging them is to either Karate Kick them, or trick them into running into a wall or obstacle, either of which will visibly daze the Jelly and leave it belly-up for a moment, allowing it to be attacked and killed in a single blow. Afterward, Director Squidward will call for SpongeBob over the set’s intercom, stating he needs help dealing with paparazzi photographers that have snuck onto the set.
Smile & Wave & Whack-A-Intern
SpongeBob is brought up to speed by Pearl, who tells him that paparazzi have snuck onto the set to get behind-the-scenes photos of the film to get negative press about it and Squidward out on the front pages before it’s ready to be released. SpongeBob agrees to help, and the player is now tasked with tracking down 5 paparazzi around the film set. Each one is marked one after the next with an objective marker by default, and has rather poor disguises to boot, making them easy targets to track down. Upon interacting with them, the name of the game is simple: Look good and draw their attention. Players need only hit the prompted button to begin, then mash the next button prompt to make SpongeBob cycle through a series of animations (many of which are references from the animated series), while the paparazzi photographs them repeatedly. Repeat this 2 to 3 times per photographer, and they’ll be satisfied with their images for the day and leave, removing their intrusions from the film set, much to Director Squidward’s delight.
Pearl will thank SpongeBob for his help in removing the paparazzi, then send him down into a connecting storage unit between sets, the door sliding open when approached and interacted with. Director Squidward will look SpongeBob over and put him through an impromptu training exercise to further hone his skills. This takes the form of a Karate Kick whack-a-mole game, with film set assistants, and Patrick, serving as the moles. The game gives players a generous timer of 30 seconds to work with and only requires the player to jump and Karate Kick 10 crew members while avoiding hitting Patrick, who will subtract one point every time he’s struck. Satisfied with SpongeBob’s skill set, Director Squidward sends SpongeBob forward to the next set piece to be filmed.
Stuck In The Dirt, Jellies To Blame
The next set-piece is from SpongeBob’s ‘nemesis’ for this film, having fled the scene of a bank robbery and leaving Jelly monsters and trapped citizens in their wake. Another timed event, 3 minutes this time, tasks SpongeBob with freeing the trapped citizens around the area, identifiable from the feet kicking and squirming from piles of debris around the area. The Jelly Monsters are optional if players do not wish to be tied up fighting them for extended periods, and the citizens can be easily freed with a single attack from SpongeBob, making this task a breeze as players maneuver around the fenced areas of the bank and nearby buildings. Once completed, the player has to navigate a tight, low-ceiling sewer segment right next to the main crater by the bank to reach Director Squidward, jumping over collapsing platforms all the way.
Arriving in front of the Director and briefly pausing for some publicity photos, Squidward directs the player to make the first big publicity stunt for the film, in the form of a long-chain Karate Kick jump. Starting with a kick to a Karate-Board, SpongeBob is propelled across a parking lot of photographers and parked limos. The player has to hit over half a dozen Karate Kicks in a row, back-to-back, from balloons to Jelly Monsters and back, the balloons specially marked to spell out ‘KARATE’, as SpongeBob crosses the other side and into a parking lot at the end.
Car Chases, Dojos & Cranes, Oh My!
A speeding limousine, the same one from the bank scene, speeds off from the parking lot. Squidward directs SpongeBob to follow in pursuit using a clean, red sports boat for the film’s big chase scene, but SpongeBob declines due to not having a boating license. Now, he has to scavenge the parking lot for some sort of vehicle he CAN use to give chase. After defeating another wave of Jelly Monsters, a sliding door will open, and a glowing dumpster will catch the player’s eye, seated next to a seahorse and some talking crew members. The seahorse proves to be a fake-out however, and striking the dumpster will reveal the true ride that SpongeBob will use in pursuit of his nemesis. A unicycle.
The player will now find themselves in the midst of a chase scene in a Temple Run-styled highway pursuit. Players will have to guide SpongeBob across incoming traffic, jumping over pedestrian boats and limos while swerving midair to avoid massive industrial trucks. Eventually, the gameplay transitions to a cutscene where SpongeBob follows the limo onto an off-ramp, and the Limo escapes behind a locked gate to a massive dojo skyscraper. The massive doors to the dojo are locked behind a combination based on 4 symbol-engraved gongs in a sand garden in front of the gate. The combination can be completed by matching two gongs to two of the symbols on either door, then hitting the gongs in order from top-to-bottom for both doors. Once open, players will be confronted by Director Squidward, upset at how long this segment of the film is taking, and orders SpongeBob to pick up the pace, and get to the roof of the dojo to face his nemesis.
Having to once again scale the rooftops, this time well above the clouds, players will truly be tested on their platforming abilities. There are a multitude of chain jumps where Karate Kicks need to be done one after the other over perilous drops, chained together to scale the sides of a building, eventually bringing the player to a gathering of industrial cranes, the final bridge leading to the dojo of SpongeBob’s mysterious nemesis. The cranes are narrow passages, so traversing from one to the next, and avoiding the Jelly Monsters that dot the surface of several cranes, will require fast action and finesse to avoid deadly pitfalls. The final crane will ascend higher than all the others, carrying SpongeBob above the glass dome of the dojo, with a massive Ground-Pound button atop, asking to be pressed. Gliding down and delivering a mighty blow, the dome shatters and SpongeBob is finally face-to-face with his nemesis.
Boring Conversation, Anyway
Our film nemesis is revealed to be Sandy Cheeks, wearing the same Kill Bill-inspired outfit from her starring role in the episode ‘Karate Island’. The two of them exchange some expected Hollywood dialogue, heroic voices and all, before Squidward interrupts the shot, saying that his audience isn’t watching movies for the dialogue. Moviegoers want action, spectacle, and eye-watering special effects so cut the chit-chat and get on with it. SpongeBob and Sandy oblige, and the battle begins.
Sandy’s boss battle comes in segmented phases, each one interluded by alternative attacks or minion rushes. First, several panels on the floor will glow bright blue, then flip over to reveal stacks of explosive barrels, while Sandy, standing atop a tree in the arena’s center, has her floor flip to reveal a mechanized hamster wheel she’s piloting. The floor will light up blue to indicate the direction she’s going to attack and will track SpongeBob for a period before locking her direction and shooting forward. If players guide her attack pattern to line up with one of the barrel stacks, she’ll launch forward and her wheel will be destroyed. Upon its destruction, Sandy will be left dazed on the ground and open to being Karate Kicked.
Once she’s been struck, she’ll retreat to the tree in the middle of the arena, and one of three possible scenarios will occur. Sandy will either summon a wave of Jelly Monsters to attack SpongeBob, a horde of bouncers will spawn and will charge SpongeBob while rotating in a line around Sandy’s tree in a line, forcing SpongeBob to dodge twice, or Sandy will summon an alternative Hamster Wheel. This wheel is laid out flat on the ground and is coated in spikes, which Sandy will bounce around the arena like a pinball, forcing SpongeBob to dodge until she retreats. After destroying three of Sandy’s wheels and striking her with the Karate Kick attack three times, the boss fight will conclude. As Director Squidward fawns over the potential of a trilogy and begins filming the sequel immediately, SpongeBob seizes the opportunity and uses the Magic Bubble Wand to bring himself, Patrick and Sandy back home to Bikini Bottom.
