SpongeBob SquarePants: Legend of the Lost Spatula is a 2001 Game Boy Color game developed by Vicarious Visions and published by THQ, notable for being the very first video game based on the world famous loony loofah. The game is a side scrolling platformer where you go through five different levels, fighting enemies and bosses while gaining a few new power ups along the way.
The plot is straightforward: one day, while SpongeBob is riding his unicycle through Jellyfish Fields, he runs into what appears to be a statue of a fry cook standing on an oven (who, curiously, was also a sponge). Intrigued, SpongeBob runs to the Krusty Krab to tell Mr. Krabs about the statue. Mr. Krabs then explains to him the statue was actually the entrance to the Flying Dutchman's underworld, and tells SpongeBob of the old legend surrounding it, that in the city of Palm Bay, there lived a master fry cook who ruled with the Golden Spatula. But Mt. Kabloovious buried Palm Bay, which ended the civilization. Then the Flying Dutchman took over the city and his first mate buried the key somewhere in Goo Lagoon. Mr. Krabs also explains that if SpongeBob manages to obtain the Golden Spatula, he will become the master fry cook. So SpongeBob sets out on an adventure to enter Palm Bay and retrieve the spatula for himself.
Tropes:
- Advertised Extra: Patrick, Sandy and Squidward are prominently featured on the games boxart, even though they only get small cameo roles in the actual game in the form of side quests to get items/weapons with better functionality.
- Bankruptcy Barrel: As part of a sidequest, Patrick loses his shorts and is forced to don a barrel until SpongeBob retrieves them.
- Beach Level: Goo Lagoon is ostensibly this, though the bulk of it as actually set away from the beach, either in a cavern beneath the water or the skies above a rocky area.
- Beneath the Earth:
- A big chunk of Goo Lagoon is set in an underground cavern accessed by riding a giant anchor through the water
- Rock Bottom, the games penultimate level, serves as this. Dutchman's Underworld, the level right after it, combines this with Big Boo's Haunt.
- Bubble Gun: SpongeBob's basic attack is blowing a short range bubble from his bubble wand.
- Call-Forward: The Kelpazoic Jungle is clearly meant to be the Kelp Forest, which wouldnt appear in the series proper until "Club SpongeBob" a year after this games release.
- The Cameo: The staple cast of the series, including Patrick, Sandy, Squidward, Mrs. Puff, Larry Lobster and even Plankton get small cameo roles.
- Canon Discontinuity: As with all the other SpongeBob tie-in games, this games events are non-canon to the show,
per word of Vincent Waller. - Continuity Nod: A few of the shows locales pop up, and since this game was released very early in the shows life, they were intended to be this.
- The Golden Spatula itself is loosely inspired by the same item from "Neptunes Spatula".
- If you bug Mrs. Puff enough, she'll give you the Hall Monitor outfit (which adds an extra hit point to SpongeBob).
- The Carnival makes a return as a level.
- Rock Bottom serves as the games penultimate level.
- The Moon Man Catcher and Ol' Reliable appear as optional upgrades to the Net Launcher and Jellyfishing net.
- A special item that can be received from Mermaid Man is his Power Ring.
- The Hydro-Dynamic Spatula returns as an optional upgrade to your spatula, and its acquired by a sidequest where you deliver a Krusty Krab pizza.
- When SpongeBob talks to some people at Goo Lagoon after obtaining the map, they will ask if he is okay, then he shows his ripped pants and responds that he is not okay because of his said pants.
- Continuity Snarl: This games' Golden Spatula has an entirely different backstory than the one given to it in "Neptunes Spatula", where it was simply trapped in a giant blob of grease and could only be pulled out by whoever was worthy of it.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Jumping is mapped to B while attacking is mapped to A. This can be annoying to people who are more used to the traditional A to jump and B to attack.
- Death by Gluttony: Among SpongeBob's arsenal is the ability to launch Krabby Patties at enemies, which bloats them up enough to defeat them. This is actually required to defeat the Cowboy Fish boss in the Undersea Desert. This method is also how you defeat the Flying Dutchman, though given that he's already dead, this just tires him out instead.
- Defeat by Modesty: SpongeBob's health is measured by his on-screen clothing; If SpongeBob gets hit, his clothing falls off. If SpongeBob is wearing the Hall Monitor power-up, he loses it when he is hit. If he takes a hit without it, his pants fall off, leaving him to run around in his underwear. If his underwear falls off, he sheepishly looks at the player and covers his nether regions and loses a life.
- Demoted to Extra: All of the main cast beyond SpongeBob get reduced to cameo roles in this game, though Mr. Krabs does help jumpstart the plot and he, Patrick, Squid, and Sandy are part of a lineup of side quests to unlock better equipment.
- Difficult, but Awesome: The spring shoes are very difficult to use at first due to the small screen resolution, but once youre familiar with the level layouts, they become extremely helpful due to the insane height you can gain with them.
- Excuse Plot: The games plot basically amounts to SpongeBob going on a quest to make Mr. Krabs rich.
- Fat Bastard: Bubble Bass appears as a recurring enemy for SpongeBob to fight throughout the game.
- Fetch Quest: The game has a few optional sidequests that the player can perform in exchange for stronger items.
- Finding Squidward a live Jellyfish Hive in Jellyfish Fields will net you a pair of X-Ray Glasses, which allows you see whats inside a treasure chest before opening them.
- Finding Patrick's shorts for him will get you Ol' Reliable, an upgraded jellyfishing net that lets you catch enemies that you couldnt before.
- Finding Sandy's hat for her will get you the Moon Man Catcher, which gives the Net Launcher infinite ammo.
- The most elaborate of these is the sidequest for the Hydro-Dynamic Spatula, which involves SpongeBob delivering a pizza to a customer in the Kelpazoic Jungle and then giving Mr. Krabs the money in exchange for it.
- Green Hill Zone: Jellyfish Fields serves as the games' lush grassy level.
- Idle Animation: Leave SpongeBob alone for a bit, and he'll start dancing in place.
- Invincibility Power-Up: Mermaid Man's Power Ring, which gives SpongeBob permanent invincibility along with increased running and jumping power.
- King Mook: The Big Jellyfish boss in Jellyfish Fields. It's not King Jellyfish or the Queen Jellyfish, but rather the giant one that zapped Squidward at the end of Jellyfishing.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: The Scallops, which can't be harmed by the Bubble Wand nor stunned with the Spatula. You have to equip the Net Launcher in order to deal with them.
- The Lost Woods: The Kelpazoic Jungle, which is a maze like jungle of vine-like kelp that SpongeBob has to navigate through.
- Non-Action Big Bad: The Flying Dutchman is ostensibly the villain of the game, but he's not really doing anything evil—in fact, he doesn't even do anything until the very end. He just serves as the last obstacle to SpongeBob getting the Golden Spatula.
- Password Save: The game allows you to pick up where you last left off via a rather elaborate password system.
- Planet of Copyhats: Bubble Bass, who is a minor character in the cartoons, is portayed as being a series of enemies instead of an individual being in the game.
- Permanently Missable Content: Mrs. Puff will only give the player the Hall Monitor belt if talked to before obtaining the treasure map. Given that one of the paths to Goo Lagoon completely bypasses her, it's possible that the player will already miss the opportunity before first encountering her.
- Point of No Return: Once you get the final key, you're immediately sent off to Rock Bottom to start the endgame.
- Railroading: Heavily downplayed. SpongeBob can enter any of the four main levels in any order desired, but he needs to find the treasure map in Goo Lagoon before he can access any of them as well as two different weapons in the case of the Kelpazoic Jungle (the Net Launcher, which is needed to beat the Jungle Fish) and Undersea Desert (the Spatula, which is needed to beat the Cowboy Fish), and then he must beat all four of them before he can enter the final level.
- Shifting Sand Land: The Undersea Desert is your typical video game desert level, and its also located in very close proximity to Jellyfish Fields given the entrance to Rock Bottom and the Dutchman's Underworld is also located there.
- Shout-Out: The Jungle Fish boss that you fight in the Kelpazoic Forest is clearly a riff on Tarzan.
- Villain by Default: The Flying Dutchman. While he is a villain in the show, he doesn't do much of anything at all, much less anything that could be considered evil, in the game. He's just guarding the Golden Spatula, and SpongeBob thus has to fight him to claim his prize.
- Warm-Up Boss: The Mother Jellyfish in Jellyfish Fields, which is the games first boss fight and a rather easy one since it only takes five hits to defeat and only has one attack at its disposal. Its entirely possible to beat it before it can get a chance to attack you.
