SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off is an Arcade-style game in the vein of the countless “Restaurant Tycoon” games, released on iOS in 2020 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game puts players in the role of SpongeBob as his boss has him serving customers different kinds of food in different food stands, trying to complete orders without making customers wait too long.

It’s a formula that we’ve seen countless times by now, and all I can really say about it here is, it works as well here as it does anywhere, although I definitely wish I could reassign buttons, because I don’t care for this layout.

The main difference from all of those other games in this genre here is, well, SpongeBob himself. However, the game’s visuals aren’t particularly good – the game’s 2D visuals are animated in the “paper doll” style that’s not at all impressive, the characters aren’t voiced, and the “story” text makes the most pathetic half-hearted attempt to match the personalities these characters have from the show, but overall this absolutely lacks the humor, the energy, and the whimsy that SpongeBob is known for. Tack on repetitive ukelele music, and you have a lazy presentation that just seems like a mobile game with the SpongeBob skin slapped on top.

For this half-hearted affair, the folks selling this game are asking $15, a truly absurd price for just how low-effort this game is, and one that absolutely no one would pay if it didn’t bear the SpongeBob license. As a result, there’s zero reason to play this game – if you want SpongeBob, you have plenty of other games to choose from that better capture the character’s zany personality. If you want a cooking game, go for one of the Cook, Serve, Delicious! games that have a similar style of gameplay but are much better-crafted and have a far wider range of options, all for a lower price than this. Don’t let this game take your money, which will only end up making you krabby.

tl;dr – SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off is an Arcade-style game in the vein of “Cooking Tycoon” games, and while this is a functional entry in the genre, it does nothing interesting. In fact, this seems to just be an excuse to slap the SpongeBob on a lazy effort to make money with an inflated price tag. Don’t fall for this – both SpongeBob fans and players looking for fun cooking-themed games have much better options.

Grade: C-

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