SpongeBob SquarePants: Employee of the Month is a Point-and-Click adventure game in which SpongeBob gets free tickets to Neptune's Paradise, an apparently popular amusement park, but gets caught up running errands for other characters on the way.
As is typical for Point-and-Click adventure games, the player must guide SpongeBob into picking up items, interacting with others and solving puzzles in order to advance. The game is 4 chapters long, each with their own unique map of locales.
The game is preceded by SpongeBob SquarePants: Operation Krabby Patty.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Employee of the Month contains examples of:
- 555: The number for Sublime Seafoods is 555-4444.
- Accidental Misnaming: Grandma SquarePants calls SpongeBob "Patrick" whenever she talks to him.
- All for Nothing: Subverted; it looks as if the events of the game were this, due to Neptune's Paradise being closed for a private party. However, said party is actually for SpongeBob.
- Anti-Frustration Feature: A hint system is available pretty much the whole game. Although, sometimes it just mouths off generic hints and doesn't tell you what to do.
- Are We There Yet?: SpongeBob asks this multiple times to Sandy while she drives her rocket to Neptune's Paradise.
- Armor-Piercing Question: SpongeBob asks Rock Bottom weatherman Gary Gulper one.SpongeBob: I'm not sure I understand. If you built a device that controls the weather, then what does the station need you for?
Gary Gulper: Well, er... Well umm... you see... errr... Uh-oh. - Artistic License – Marine Biology: The sea snake looks more like a cobra than an actual sea snake.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- When looking at the fake sandcastle façade at Goo Lagoon, SpongeBob comments that game developers should be given a bigger budget.
- The TV studio in Rock Bottom has a poster for Operation Krabby Patty hanging on a wall. Clicking on it has SpongeBob comment on how that was "[his] very first game".note
- Often, when a new area is unlocked or a key item is discovered, SpongeBob will turn towards the player and do a quick dancing animation.
- Broken Record:
- SpongeBob says "Are we there yet?" And Patrick says "I have to go to the bathroom" countless times while they're riding in Sandy's rocket.
- Marty the Bus Driver says "I told you so" multiple times to SpongeBob once they get stranded in Rock Bottom.
- Call-Back: In the News Station in Rock Bottom, a poster for Operation Krabby Patty can be seen, which SpongeBob lampshades.
- Canon Foreigner:
- Neptune's Paradise is unique to this game.
- Bottoms Up is also completely unrelated to the rest of the series and the only chapter in the game that takes place in a locale exclusive to Employee of the Month.
- As well as the hippie store Sardine's Sundries, which is also exclusive to the game.
- Rock Bottom is also heavily expanded in this game. The town's original appearance only depicted the bus station, bathrooms, and candy machine. The game also gives us the WSEA TV station, a bar called "The Rusty Anchor", and Marlin's wizard lair. Several unique Rock Bottomites exclusive to the game also appear.
- Conspicuous Consumption: Carlton Ritts' house is made of gold. SpongeBob lampshades this, saying that there are better things he could be spending his money on.
- Continuity Nod: The "SpringBoob SquirePin" joke was reused from "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II".
- Disproportionate Retribution: SpongeBob gets violently kicked out of Sublime Seafoods for daring to order a Krabby Patty in a high-class restaurant.
- Door Dumb: Patrick does this in the cutscene before Chapter 3, attempting to pull open the right door before he notices a young child exit through the left door, which opens inward.
- Drinking Contest: Off-screen, Patrick and Mermaid Man have a cola-drinking contest in a bar in Rock Bottom. Patrick being, well, Patrick, he out-drinks Mermaid Man to the point of giving the old man indigestion, which he still hasn't recovered from by the time SpongeBob encounters him.
- Drunk on Milk: Mermaid Man acts drunk/hungover after a cola-drinking contest.
- Employee of the Month: The plot of the game is kicked off when SpongeBob wins another Employee of the Month Award, which makes him Employee of the Year and which earns him two tickets to Neptune's Paradise.
- Felony Misdemeanor: The people of Sublime Seafoods obviously hate anyone from Bikini Bottom or any kind who would order anything "despicable" to their taste, so when SpongeBob comes to the restaurant for a jacket and asks for a Krabby Patty, the waiter is so offended that he not only bans him from the restaurant, but physically throws him out.
- Fetch Quest: Most of the game is this. SpongeBob expresses frustration about this at one point.
- French Jerk: Waverly Hills is a town of the incredibly wealthy and snooty, with most natives you come across featuring hilariously goofy French accents. The waiter at Sublime Seafoods in particular loses it with SpongeBob for ordering a Krabby Patty at an upper-class establishment.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: At the end of the game, SpongeBob holds up his ticket to the ticket vendor to show that his ticket was valid. If you pause the scene online (at 1:55:09
), the text reads as follows below. Since the game was originally played on older computer monitors, the text would've been too blurry to have been read properly, especially since the ticket goes by too quickly for anyone to notice what was written on it."Admits 1 for fun and frolicking in the sun you overgrown ball hair. James tells corny ass jokes." - Furry Reminder:
- Early on, the Barg'N-Mart cashier offers to give SpongeBob Urchin Chips for free in exchange for washing his boat outside, something accomplished with a simple mini-game involving scrubbing the grime off by wiping the mouse over it. What does the player use to wash the boat? SpongeBob himself, of course!
- At one point in Bottoms Up, SpongeBob requires getting past a gate that only opens to a weighted pressure plate. The solution is to have him soak up the (underwater) water from a nearby fountain and become heavy enough to walk in.SpongeBob Woah boy... I feel bloated...
- Gasshole: Mermaid Man becomes one from all the cola he drank during the aforementioned drinking contest.
- Get Out!: The lobster waiter says this word-per-word to SpongeBob in Sublime Seafoods when he orders a Krabby Patty, which is considered "despicable", resulting in him banning SpongeBob from the restaurant.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The anchovy guy that SpongeBob assumes is the same guy he meets every time turns out to have hundreds of brothers who look just like him.
- Informing the Fourth Wall: Using something in the wrong place prompts this message:SpongeBob: I don't wanna do that (or) I don't think that's a good idea.
- It Came from Beverly Hills: The high-class town from Chapter 4, Bottoms Up, is named Waverly Hills, and contains multiple mansions (and Cowfish Craig's shack) behind a gated community.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The game literally starts with the main cast posing for a photo shoot of the show's logo.
- Loophole Abuse: People cannot get into Oxygen Springs unless they're wearing jackets; while SpongeBob manages to get one from Sublime Seafoods, Patrick gets around this by climbing over some coral away from the intercom.
- Manchild: Larry the Lobster still plays with beach toys, namely a toy shovel and pail, which he names "Ole' Shovely" and "Mr. Pail" respectively, and is protective of them.
- Mellow Mantas: Ray is a manta with the personality of a laid-back Surfer Dude.
- Mouse World: Much like the show itself, this game features several large buildings that are heavily implied to be of human origin that sunk to the bottom of the sea. Series mainstays like the Krusty Krab (based off of a lobster trap), the Barg'N-Mart (based off a treasure chest), and houses in Bikini Bottom (based off of car mufflers) are featured, Rock Bottom features the bus station (which appears to be some kind of submersible that is itself half-submerged in the sand), the WSEA TV station (based off of a giant CRT TV), and The Rusty Anchor (which is a giant, literal anchor), and Sublime Seafoods in Bottoms Up (based out of a sunken ship).
- Naked People Are Funny: Mr. Krabs can be found naked in the Barg'N-Mart after having sold his clothes to some random guy.Mr. Krabs: Yes sir, someone with a keen eyes for fashion made me an offer I couldn't refuse!
SpongeBob: But... you're naked.
Mr. Krabs: (singing to himself) Money money money money money money money... - Naturally Huskless Coconuts: Huskless coconuts are shown growing on palm trees in Goo Lagoon and Waverly Hills, with Carlton Ritts in the latter area owning a tree that grows golden ones.
- "No Peeking!" Request: After SpongeBob gives Patrick his pants in Oxygen Springs, Patrick asks SpongeBob to turn around while he gets dressed, as he doesn't want him to see him naked.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Less "scary" and more "creepy and atmospheric", but Rock Bottom is the only major region to not have any background music playing throughout it — instead mostly featuring the ambient sound of heavy rain — emphasizing how dark and removed from Bikini Bottom the place is.
- Oil Slick: A small hazard in the parking lot of Goo Lagoon. SpongeBob slips when walking over them.
- Oh, Crap!: SpongeBob when he angers the Sublime Seafoods waiter by asking for a Krabby Patty, resulting in him getting thrown out.SpongeBob: Uh-oh, now I've done it.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted; aside from Mr. Krabs, there's another Eugene at the Barg'N-Mart (the cashier whose boat SpongeBob has to wash), and Rock Bottom's weatherman is called Gary. SpongeBob comments on the latter, much to said weatherman's irritation.
- Persona Non Grata: SpongeBob gets banned from Sublime Seafoods when he orders a Krabby Patty, which is considered "despicable". However, they forget to remove his jacket, allowing SpongeBob access to Oxygen Springs.
- Priceless Paperweight: Cowfish Craig and his neighbor, Carlton Ritts, end up in a dispute over a golden coconut grown by the latter in his gold coconut tree, but fell over onto Craig's side, leading to Craig declaring it to be his property. It turns out Craig only kept it just to spite Ritts and is only using it as a paperweight — when SpongeBob finds him a more suitable, cheaper paperweight, he allows to part ways it, allowing SpongeBob to return it.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: The game has our porous pal do some rather questionable things. Over the course of the game, SpongeBob takes an empty can from a stranger (who explicitly refused to give said can up seconds before), breaks into Waverly Hills, steals a jacket from a fancy restaurant (although he can’t return it because they kicked him out), steals Squidward's clarinet while he's asleep (ruining Squidward's dream in the process), manipulates Larry into cheating on his diet to steal his beach toys, and scams a repairman by giving him the wrong soda in the aforementioned stolen can (the bar was out of the soda he wanted, but SpongeBob could have just told him), and never gets any consequences. Given that these are the only ways to complete the quests, you really don't have much of a choice, and SpongeBob does mean well in spite of all of this (he just has to get to Neptune's Paradise).
- Series Continuity Error: None of the residents in Rock Bottom speak the language that they do in the show. They instead speak regular English sans the raspberries.
- Scenery Censor: When Mr. Krabs sells his clothes and is nude in the Barg'N-Mart, a pile of cans in the foreground are covering his crotch. Lampshaded when the curser points over them and the caption displays "Look at Strategically Placed Cans".
- Shell Backpack: The lobster waiter at Sublime Seafoods wears a tuxedo, but the back of it is covered by his shell.
- Ship Tease: SpongeBob has a pin-up-esque poster of Sandy in his Krusty Krab cabinet, claiming that looking at her makes him smile.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Turns out, the tickets SpongeBob won aren't effective until next week, and this week the park is reserved for a private party. However, the person having the party turns out to be SpongeBob himself.
- Shout-Out:
- On Mussel Beach, there's a weightlifter named Arnie, to which SpongeBob says, "He's probably preparing for his next movie."
- While riding the bus, SpongeBob says to a sleeping Patrick, "Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the whole sea?"
- The WSEA TV station features a poster for a show SpongeBob identifies as Touched by an Angelfish (which features a fish being touched, presumably by an angelfish, on the eyeball).
- When talking to the repairman, there is a chance he will say, "All I wanted was a Kelpsi, just one Kelpsi."
- There's a bar called The Rusty Anchor. Grim Fandango has a running gag about rusty anchors and things called Rusty Anchor, including a (mentioned) bar. Possibly a coincidence, but Employee of the Month has other parallels to Grim Fandango, so it's likely the developers had played it.
- The bus station employee at Rock Bottom says "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave!"
- Looking at the calendar in Sardine's Sundries causes SpongeBob to say "That calendar needs to be updated. Who are The Doobie Brothers?"
- Cowfish Craig's neighbor, Carlton Ritts, is named after the Ritz-Carlton brand of luxury hotels.
- Sigil Spam: A lot of the scenery and objects in Waverly Hills (like the coral and seaweed) are shaped like US dollar signs. Just in case you forget that this is a wealthy town.
- Snakes Are Sinister: SpongeBob finds a sea snake residing in his water helmet, which he has to charm out with Squidward's clarinet.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: SpongeBob is kicked out of Sublime Seafoods when he asks to order a Krabby Patty, a food considered "despicable". However, the crew forgot to remove his jacket, allowing him access to Oxygen Springs.
- Vocal Dissonance: Big-Mac — the huge, top-heavy bartender at the Rusty Anchor — speaks with a surprisingly high-pitched, friendly-sounding voice with a slight lisp à la Mike Tyson.
- Weight and Switch: Cowfish Craig steals one of Carlton Ritts' golden coconuts to use as a paperweight; SpongeBob could only take it from him by swapping it with a normal coconut which has the same amount of mass.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To National Lampoon's Vacation. SpongeBob plans on going to Neptune's Paradise, much like how the Griswolds plan on going to Walley World, but ends up either getting sidetracked or facing frustrating roadblocks in his path. The ending is also almost one-to-one, with Neptune's Paradise and Walley World being closed, and SpongeBob and the Griswolds only being let in due to special circumstances.
- World of Jerkass: Not quite as bad as in the show, a not-insignificant majority of individuals throughout Bikini Bottom and beyond have a callously dismissive attitude towards SpongeBob and his incessant optimism, with only a select few having the common courtesy to be merely passive-aggressive in snarking to him.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After arriving at Neptune's Paradise, SpongeBob isn't allowed in due to the park being reserved for a private party for "SpringBoob SquirePin", causing SpongeBob to break down in tears, until Sandy corrects the ticket booth attendant.
