Video Game / The SpongeBob Movie Game

aka: The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie

"Vacuuming up manliness, even in the corners!"

— SpongeBob

The video game adaptation of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, made by the same company as SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, Heavy Iron Studios (thus as a result uses the same engine). The plot more or less follows the film, but with a few changes made. While David Hasselhoff makes a guest appearance in the movie, the game doesn't actually refer to him by name.

There was also a PC version made, and it was a Point and Click Adventure game (modeled after Employee of the Month), as well as a GBA version, which was, for the most part, a 2D Platformer.

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Contains examples of:

Tropes that apply to all versions

• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The original movie barely spends a minute on SpongeBob and Patrick in the desert before the action turns to the Thug Tug. In the game, the desert takes up two whole levels (a platforming stage and a sliding stage) with a new subplot where SpongeBob and Patrick must destroy broadcast towers advertising the Chum Bucket. This also changes the plot slightly, as the two learn about Plankton's takeover of Bikini Bottom much earlier than in the movie (in the film, Mindy informs them after they give up following the Patty Wagon's destruction just outside the Trench).
  • In the movie, our heroes are confronted by Dennis after a long trek from the Trench through a valley; the console version expands on that by depicting the valley they go through as a junkyard (likely an exaggeration of the junk that is seen in the background where they meet Dennis), in which they must destroy various televisions broadcasting Plankton's propaganda.
  • After the first fight with Dennis and the Cyclops grabbing them, the game adds a Dream Sequence in which SpongeBob and Patrick wind up in a Goofy Goober-themed city and must follow Goofy Goober to escape.
  • In the movie, David Hasselhoff shoots SpongeBob and Patrick straight to the Krusty Krab using the power of immense pectoral control. In the console game, the pair instead spend two levels trekking through and dismantling Planktopolis before finally arriving at the Krusty Krab. Plankton is also aware of the duo's return after they set foot in the city, showing up at the end of "Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions" to taunt SpongeBob over Mr. Krabs' rapidly-approaching execution.
  • The PC version plays this even straighter, having three chapters that were never featured in the original movie. One chapter is dedicated to Mindy escaping Neptune's castle so she can find SpongeBob and Patrick and warn them of Plankton's scheme. One chapter completely omits the Trench and the monsters altogether and replaces them with the foggy abyssal plains, where the entire plot is focused on solving a mystery at a hotel in the middle of nowhere in order to obtain a key item and return it to a cave. And finally, one chapter features a strike being orchestrated by invertebrates because they can't see a chiropractor, and the plot is essentially trying to make peace with them and the vertebrates. At least Mindy's chapter makes a little sense because it's shown in the movie that she got to SpongeBob and Patrick by carriage, implying that to be the case, but the other two have no relation to the movie (or even the overall plot) whatsoever.
• Adapted Out: In the movie, Mindy gave SpongeBob and Patrick a bag of wind that they can use to get back to Bikini Bottom. This was removed in the game.
• Spoiler Cover: More like spoiler disc, with the exception of the Gamecube version, the disc features an artwork of SpongeBob battling A brainwashed King Neptune.

Tropes specific to the PC version

• Adaptation Dye-Job: Perch Perkins is purple in the movie, but green in the PC port.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: In the movie, the two rednecks got their mouths removed by Dennis. But because they never state this in the narration aside from showing the scene with them, people playing the game would get confused on why their mouths are a different color.
• Adaptation Name Change: The Patty Wagon from the movie is called the Patty Mobile in this game.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: SpongeBob is the main playable character for most of the game, but there are a few chapters where the player controls other characters.
  • Chapter 2 stars Plankton as he puts Plan Z into motion by venturing to King Neptune's castle to steal the crown.
  • The fourth chapter stars Mindy, who has been grounded by her father and has to find a way out of the castle so she can follow SpongeBob and Patrick.
  • In the first half of Chapter 7, only Patrick is able to survive the heat lamp at Shell City, and he has to find a way to get SpongeBob some water to revive him.
• Anti-Climax: Remember the scene where SpongeBob destroys Plankton's bucket helmets as a guitar-playing wizard? The PC version lacks this climax. Instead, you just play a bunch of off-tune notes on some guitar strings and you just win.
• Art Evolution: SpongeBob, Patrick, and Plankton have updated models, with SpongeBob having moveable, more detailed pupils (in the last three AWE Games, they were drawn on the texture, whereas here, they are modeled as well), and better, smoother animations. Patrick and Plankton's updates are more subtle, but their models were polished up and also have better animations.
• Demoted to Extra: Dennis barely appears in this version, only being in two of the storybook cutscenes and not making an appearance in-game, and he doesn't appear again after getting stepped on by the Cyclops.
• Take Your Time: Just like in the movie, SpongeBob only has a limited number of days to return with Neptune's crown before he fries Mr. Krabs, but the game itself has no time limit of any kind. Even in the final chapter, where Plankton has brainwashed Neptune and both of them are already in the Krusty Krab to finish off Krabs, SpongeBob can take as much time as he needs to get all the items necessary to save everyone.
• Villain Protagonist: In Chapter 2, the player takes control of Plankton on his mission to break into King Neptune's castle and steal his crown.
• You Are Grounded!: Chapter 4 has Mindy grounded by her father, and she has to find a way to escape so she can help out SpongeBob and Patrick.

Tropes specific to the console versions

• 11th-Hour Superpower: SpongeBob only gets the Sonic Wave Guitar during "Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions", the final platforming level. However, he can use it in previous levels, which is required to obtain several Goofy Goober tokens.
• 100% Completion: Collecting every Goofy Goober token unlocks a secret ending cutscene showing SpongeBob working as the manager of the Krusty Krab 2, mirroring the credits of the actual movie.
• Absurdly High Level Cap: The max amount of Manliness Points you can hold after getting all upgrades is 99,999, but getting to this Cap is easier said than done and requires A LOT of effort, time, and patience due to Anti-Grinding being in effect. However, only 35,000 points are needed to max out the health and abilities of SpongeBob and Patrick, effectively making the grind to maxing out manliness Empty Levels.
• Adaptational Karma: A bit of a twist on this trope. The two rednecks who taunt SpongeBob and Patrick early into their journey get a different taste of karma here—rather than having Dennis rip their lips off, they are crushed by a radio speaker after spending the entirety of Three... Thousand Miles To Shell City mocking our heroes.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • It's understandable for Plankton's bucketheads to be Mooks, but that certainly doesn't explain why the Goofy Goober's staff is downright homicidal (though concept art packaged into the game shows there were plans to make them mind-controlled, too).
  • Played even straighter with the monsters of the Trench—most of them are very much hostile, and instead of winning their friendship through a big song-and-dance number, SpongeBob and Patrick resort to the tried-and-true tactic of beating the crap out of them.
• Airborne Mook: The Flinger and MERV enemies.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Much like in the movie, Plankton takes over Bikini Bottom. Only this time it happens earlier, with Plankton statues and monuments being put as SpongeBob and Patrick escape town.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Both SpongeBob and Patrick have outfits unlocked by collecting a certain number of treasure chests or inputting cheats.
  • SpongeBob gets:
    • His Mermaid Man costume from "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy";
    • A "plain" outfit that turns him into a realistic kitchen sponge with no arms or legs;
    • SpongeGar from "Ugh";
    • His beach outfit (complete with torn blue shorts) from "Ripped Pants".
  • Patrick gets:
    • A disco outfit;
    • A "plain" outfit that makes him naked;
    • Patar from "Ugh";
    • A Goofy Goober-themed outfit that gives him his Goofy Goober underwear from the movie and a Goofy Goober hat.
• Anti-Climax: * The fourth and final arena level only has a single jellyfish to defeat. See Joke Level.

• Anti-Frustration Features: Since the pause menu doubles as a level select, if you want to warp to another level, you have to agree three times. This is to stop you from accidentally warping to another level or token and losing a ton of progress.
• Anti-Grinding: In order to prevent excessive farming of Manliness Points in each level for upgrades, the value of Manliness Points you receive from enemies, crates, and combos will drop over time until it eventually reaches a point where everything is just worth one Manliness Point, prompting the player to proceed to the next level at a steady pace. Subverted in "Bubble Blowing Baby Hunt"; all the enemies (logically) drop much more manliness points than enemies from any other level, though the value still drops over time.
• Arrow Cam: Much like Battle for Bikini Bottom's Cruise Bubble, SpongeBob's Sonic Wave Guitar attack also functions this way by having the camera shift to the sonic wave's point-of-view during flight, allowing you to steer it into your intended target for no less than five seconds. When upgraded, the Sonic Wave Guitar gains an ability to home in on the target by pressing the same attack button again if it's highlighted by a yellow targeting square.
• Attack Reflector: With SpongeBob's and Patrick's upgraded Spin Attacks, certain enemies like the Flingers, Turrets, and Poppers can be defeated this way by reflecting their projectiles back at them. Curiously enough, the only one immune to this is the Frogfish boss; the alternate phase where it fires the blue projectile slops at you can be reflected like so, but it won't inflict any damage to it.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: For some home console versions, the third and final stage of the Final Boss fight against brainwashed King Neptune replaces the background music of the first two stages with the "Goofy Goober Rock" song from the climax of the movie.
• Backtracking: The game forces this on you whenever you reach a new level and don't have enough Goofy Goober Tokens to gain a new move from Mindy needed to clear the level, prompting you to backtrack to previous levels for Tokens you've missed earlier. There are also certain Tokens and Treasure Chests in earlier levels which cannot be reached until Patrick gets his Throw move and SpongeBob gets his Sonic Wave Guitar.
• Badass Driver: SpongeBob and Patrick in the stages where you drive the Patty Wagon.
• Bad Guy Bar: The Thug Tug in the Bubble Blowing Baby Hunt level.
• Bag of Spilling: Both SpongeBob and Patrick have to relearn several of their attacks from Battle for Bikini Bottom:
  • SpongeBob loses all his bubble-related attacks and has to replace them with non-bubble equivalents throughout the game; the only move he retains from the start is the Spin Attack, which was changed from a bubble wand spin to a karate chop. The bubble bounce was removed altogether with no replacement given.
  • Patrick has to relearn his throw and slam abilities (and later upgrade the latter to regain its shockwave stun attribute), but gains a new cartwheel attack and his short-ranged belly attack was replaced with a Spin Attack that hits all around him.
• Balance Buff: In Battle for Bikini Bottom, Patrick was designed with one purpose in mind: picking up and throwing things, and beyond a Ground Pound which let him stun enemies, he was very one-note in comparison to Sandy's platforming abilities or SpongeBob's versatility. Since he's playable in more levels, his moveset was expanded upon: not only does he retain his throwing abilities and Ground Pound, his short-ranged belly attack was swapped out for a longer-ranged spin that can reflect projectiles, and he gained a cartwheel attack that lets him move faster and the ability to swing across gaps using floating ice blocks (which used to belong to Sandy).
• Big Door: The Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions level has a few.
• Bleak Level: Almost every level from "Bubble Blowing Baby Hunt" onwards has noticeably darker and unsettling environments, even when they're based on lighthearted parts of the movie (e.g. "Now That We're Men", which plays the depths of the trench for grotesque horror rather than comedy). To wit, "Bubble Blowing Baby Hunt" takes place in the Thug Tug, a seedy and dimly-lit bar full of rugged brutes, "I'll Let You Pet Mr. Whiskers" is set in a field littered with the skeletons of the Frogfish's victims, "Rock Slide" and "Now That We're Men" take place in a dark trench full of ghoulish monsters, "Shell City, Dead Ahead" and "Name's Dennis" are set in a dingy scrapyard, and "Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions" and "Drive of the Knucklehead-McSpazitron" are set in a dystopian version of Bikini Bottom full of smoggy skies, lava, spikes, heavy machinery, and oppressive monuments.
• Book Ends:
  • The first and last platforming stages take place in Bikini Bottom, feature SpongeBob as the main playable character, and depict him en route to save the Krusty Krab. The first time around, it takes place during the dream sequence that opens the movie, in which SpongeBob rescues a Krabby Patty accidentally served without cheese. The second time, it takes place after Plankton has turned Bikini Bottom into Planktopolis and features SpongeBob destroying Plankton's monuments to break the latter's control over the Bucketheads while rushing to return Neptune's crown and halt Mr. Krabs' execution.
  • Both the first and last driving stages take place in Bikini Bottom. The first time, you start at the Krusty Krab and end at the city outskirts. The second time, you take the same route backwards to return to the Krusty Krab.
• Bonus Stage: The SpongeBall, Floating Block, and Combat Arena Challenges are special stages that can be entered via special panels you find throughout the levels. Completing each one awards the player with a Goofy Goober Token.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: The final boss King Neptune would be invincible if it weren't for the conveniently-placed tables around the Krusty Krab II.
• Boss-Only Level: I'll Let You Pet Mr. Whiskers, Name's Dennis, Dennis Strikes Back, and Turn the Tables on Plankton, in which the player respectively fights the Frogfish, Dennis, Dennis again, and the brainwashed King Neptune. In each case, the level consists entirely of its respective boss fight and only awards one Goofy Goober token — that for defeating the boss.
• Bowled Over: SpongeBob's SpongeBowl attack allows him to bowl over enemies or objects in his way using a literal bowling ball. And when upgraded, the bowling ball becomes a spiked ball that emits an electrical discharge to harm any enemy or object within its vicinity.
• Call-Back:
  • A robot from Battle for Bikini Bottom appears as trash at the beginning of Shell City, Dead Ahead.
  • SpongeBob refers to himself as "SuperSponge" in one quote, which is the name of another SpongeBob game.
  • In Sundae Driving, the pictures hanging on the walls of the "Goober World" building include posters for Battle for Bikini Bottom.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: SpongeBob and Pat have no problems acting manly and spouting cheery one-liners even in the most dangerous situations.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Downplayed. The levels start off pretty goofy, upbeat, and lighthearted as you'd expect. From "Bubble Blowing Baby Hunt" onwards, the overall atmosphere of the levels get considerably grimmer and more tense, particularly with regards to the music. Well at least until "Sundae Driving". It picks up again later with the 2nd and final Boss Fight with Dennis followed by the dystopian state of Bikini Bottom from "Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions" onwards.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Buckethead enemies' antenna lights will change color depending on their behavior: green for when Spongebob and Patrick are out of range, yellow for when they notice Spongebob and Patrick, and red when they're actively attacking Spongebob and Patrick.
• Composite Character:
  • Patrick has most of his moves from SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, but he also has Sandy's ability to jump over large gaps by latching onto something (in this case, ice blocks with his tongue).
  • Flingers are a mixture of the flying enemies from "Battle for Bikini Bottom" like Chuck, but they spit out slippery liquid like Slick.
• Concert Climax: SpongeBob stages one in the Krusty Krab for the final boss.
• Convenient Enemy Base: SpongeBob and Patrick land near the Krusty Krab after escaping Shell City.
• Crate Expectations: Plankton's Plan Z Supply Crates, which give out Manliness Points when destroyed. There are five types of them in the game: a Wooden Crate, a Floating Box, a Thunder Barrel, a Plan Z Computer^note Disappears out of sight if you get too close to them and can only be destroyed by distant attacks, and a Steel Safe^note Completely immune to normal attacks and can only be destroyed by an explosion from a Thunder Barrel and certain upgraded attacks like the SpongeBowl and Sonic Wave Guitar. Sound familiar? That's because they're clearly based on the Tikis from Battle for Bikini Bottom.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Most apparent if you are switching over from Battle for Bikini Bottom to this or vice versa, since both games play similarly to each other. Because of this, sometimes you'll forget that some of SpongeBob's and Patrick's moves are either reassigned to a different button on your controller or are completely replaced with an entirely new move.
• Death Mountain: Rub a Dub Dub, Slip Slide in a Tub is set in a canyon that bridges the gap between the desert in Three... Thousand Miles to Shell City and the Thug Tug in Bubble Blowing Baby Hunt. The level revolves around sliding across various buttes, mesas, and plateaus in order to knock down Plankton's broadcast towers.
• Demoted to Extra: Sandy, after being a playable character in the previous game, is reduced to a single cameo late in the game here. Justified in that she had a very minor role in the movie itself.
• The Dinnermobile: The burger-shaped Patty Wagon appears in-game. The game implies that the Patty Wagon is fully edible, judging by its appearance when it has only one Hit Point left.
• Disney Death: The scene where SpongeBob and Patrick dry out under a lamp is still here, but reduced to a cutscene with more comedy and no suspense or drama whatsoever.
• Down in the Dumps: Shell City, Dead Ahead is set in a giant pile of sunken human trash, which appears gigantic thanks to the game's cast consisting of tiny marine life. Objects like soda cans, fast food cups, bottlecaps, car windows, and toilet seats serve as platforms and/or obstacles, with various other refuse serving as set pieces.
• Dream Land: No Cheese takes place during SpongeBob's dream of becoming a manager like in the movie. Sundae Driving, meanwhile, takes place during an original dream sequence in which he and Patrick follow Goofy Goober to escape his amusement park.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The Combat Arena Challenges scattered around the levels use the enemy designs from the following level rather than the current — for example, the Combat Arena Challenge in Bubble Blowing Baby Hunt features the monster enemies found in Now That We're Men rather than the thugs. Played with in the first Combat Arena Challenge, which features both the redneck enemies from 3000 Miles to Shell City and the waiters from I'm Ready, Depression. Used to parodying effect in the final Combat Arena Challenge, where, with no more enemies to use, Patrick will fight a single jellyfish as it appears in the first level, No Cheese.
• Easter Egg: Jumping off to a side area on the right in Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions takes the player to a hidden signpost featuring the developers' best times on each driving/sliding stage:
  • Sandwich Driving 101: 2:37
  • Rub a Dub Dub, Slip Slide in the Tub: 2:43
  • No Weenie Parking Anytime: 2:54
  • Rock Slide: 3:33
  • Sundae Driving: 3:55
  • Google-Eyes and Smelly Knick Knacks: 1:23
  • Drive of the Knucklehead-McSpazitron: 2:29
• Egopolis: Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions. Overlaps with Doomed Hometown.
• Elite Mooks: The MERV enemies found later in the game (akin to the Sleepy-Time robots in Battle for Bikini Bottom). They're usually found hovering around areas often accompanied by other Mooks and will shoot a laser at you if you get too close. The only way to take them out is by long-range attacks like the Throw and Sonic Wave Guitar (using the Sponge Bowl will cause them like with the aforementioned Sleepy-Time, to laser the ball off course). A later variant found in Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions can fire rockets at you from a distance that split into smaller ones... Ironically, this extra attack makes them more vulnerable as an early available upgrade to Spongebob and Patrick's basic spin attacks lets you deflect these projectiles back at them fairly easily.
• Evil Laugh: All nearby enemies laugh at you briefly if you take damage.
• Experience Points: A non-RPG example in the form of Manliness Points, which are used to upgrade SpongeBob's and Patrick's health and abilities. While not mandatory, it is recommended to collect them as they'll be really helpful in making tough sections easier with upgrades. Manliness Points can be found scattered around the level, as well as earned by destroying crates, defeating enemies, and scoring smash combos. However, there is a certain limit to how many Manliness Points if you play the same level over and over. See Anti-Grinding above.
• Expy: The enemies are, for the most part, expies of the robots from Battle for Bikini Bottom. All of the Plan Z Boxes are also similar to a type of Tiki from the same game: There's a standard one, a floating one, one that disappears if you get too close (which sadly, cannot be sneaked up on by SpongeBob), an exploding one, and one immune to regular attacks.
• Flunky Boss: Dennis is this in both forms, as well as King Neptune after taking a few hits.
• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • In the "Dennis Strikes Back!" boss level, if you jump off David Hasselhoff's back in a certain spot, you won't bounce off the water like usual but instead sink to the bottom of the ocean, unable to get back to the surface. The only way to get out is to re-load the level.
  • In the slide levels, it's possible to get stuck in the jump animation, which results in you being unable to jump. The only way to fix this is to either lose all your lives, fall off the slide, or restart the level.
  • The Gamecube version has the unfortunate tendency to hang indefinitely on loading screens, particularly when the game has been running for a while. The only way out is to reset the console.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: A minor instance, caused by the above Adaptation Expansion. The story bits (told through screencap-slideshows and dialogue) follow the movie as closely as possible, but the gameplay of several earlier levels revolves around destroying various devices Plankton has set up to facilitate his mind-control helmets. In the movie and the game's corresponding story bits, SpongeBob and Patrick don't learn about Plankton's mind-control plot until they reach the Trench.
• The Goomba: The Jellyfish, which are the easiest enemies to beat and will not necessarily hurt you unless you touch them directly. Unlike their variants in Battle for Bikini Bottom, this time they do offer points when defeated.
• The Ground Is Lava: In "Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions", a puzzle called Plankton's Riddle will force you into this situation if you get the wrong combination of buttons once, filling the floor with lava and leaving you with only small platforms to stand on. Further wrong attempts will amplify the issue by sinking some platforms into the lava and sending MERVs to fight, and if you fail the puzzle outright, the lava will overtake the platforms and kill you.
• Ground Pound: Patrick's Smash attack, also named the "[dolphin noise] Smash" by Mindy, allows him to slam onto enemies or objects from the air with his butt. And when upgraded, the attack becomes a Face Plant that creates a shockwave to stun any nearby enemies, allowing Patrick to pick them up with his Throw attack once he gains it.
• Guide Dang It!: Indeed, some of the Treasure Chests will invoke this on players who are aiming to find all of them so here are a few notable examples:
  • In Three... Thousand Miles to Shell City, one Treasure Chest spawns in the Bungee cave if you bash the floating boxes right next to the stacked crates in numerical order. Alternatively, if you have the upgraded Bash attack, then you can use it on either the second or third floating boxes from the entrance and then detonate it.
  • In Now That We're Men, remember the series of Plan Z crates at the beginning of the level across the huge lava pit that you thought was inaccessible? You have to destroy all of them in one go with a well-targeted Sonic Wave Guitar to a specific thunder barrel. A Treasure Chest will appear if you succeed.
  • In Shell City, Dead Ahead, one Treasure Chest will only appear if you hit all the toasts sticking out of the toasters in the background, something that you would never think to do because they're in the background. One toaster near the beginning can be hit with Patrick's Throw attack while the other two can only be hit with SpongeBob's Sonic Wave Guitar.
  • In Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions, it turns out that the geysers blocked by steel safes at the beginning of the level really hinted at something. If you look up, you'll see that the geysers align with a well-hidden SpongeBowl wheel that seems to be out-of-reach. The trick here is to use the SpongeBowl over the geysers so they can propel it upward towards the wheel (that activates a crane lift). Doing so will reveal a Treasure Chest that was hidden underneath it.
• Hailfire Peaks: Can be invoked in Now That We're Men and Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions if you use a Freezy Fruit to temporarily freeze the lava into solid ice.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Zig-zagged for the frogfish and Dennis (both times). All the damage done to them is rendered moot in the cutscenes, but those same cutscenes turn around and hand them their movie-canon defeats. Averted with King Neptune.
• Hitbox Dissonance: The steam vent hazards in Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions can damage SpongeBob before the steam visibly touches him, and conversely they stop doing damage a moment before the steam actually dissipates.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Comes into play during King Neptune's boss fight, where the only way to damage him is to redirect his laser right back at him using the flipped tables scattered around the Krusty Krab II. This stuns him and allows you to lay a direct hit with SpongeBob's Sonic Wave Guitar.
• Human Hammer-Throw: When upgraded, Patrick's Throw attack has the capability of doing this to any enemy he's picked up after being stunned with his Smash attack. By holding the same attack button, Patrick can spin to increase the throwing distance of the enemy he's holding and after letting go, watch as the enemy flies across the area to your amusement, along with a notable small explosion upon contacting a surface.
• Joke Level: The fourth and final Combat Arena Challenge, which is located very late in the game, has you face off against just one Jellyfish.
• Lampshade Hanging: In the Goofy Goober level, if Patrick speaks with Mindy after she gives him the Cartwheel move, he'll ask who she is, since he's never met her before. She explains that they'll meet later on.
• Lethal Lava Land: Rock Slide, Now That We're Men, and Welcome to Planktopolis... Minions.
• Level Ate: I'm Ready... Depression and Sundae Driving.
• Macro Zone: Google Eyes and Smelly Knick Knacks revolves around SpongeBob and Patrick escaping Shell City by riding King Neptune's crown across the building's infrastructure. As with the movie, the duo are the size of a kitchen sponge and a real-life starfish, resulting in the building's wires, hoses, and overhead lights being big enough to use as roadways. The fish tanks, meanwhile, are instant-kill hazards, with SpongeBob and Patrick sinking into their depths should they fall in.
• Monster Arena: The Combat Arena Challenges have you face off against large waves of enemies.
• Mook Debut Cutscene: Each new type of enemy gets one, featuring either SpongeBob or Patrick getting beat up by them to illustrate their attacks and defenses.
• Mook Maker: There are Enemy Spawners found throughout the game that will continuously spawn Mooks until destroyed. One hit is all it takes to destroy them, but they go out with a bang.
• Never Say "Die": Horrifically Averted, where during the final battle, Plankton orders King Neptune to "Kill Spongebob". Hearing such a sentence like that in an otherwise light-hearted game starring Spongebob Squarepants can be quite a jarring site to witness to say the least.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: The console versions of this game reuse the same graphics engine that was used in SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom a year earlier, hence why SpongeBob's and Patrick's models, as well as the environments, look really similar. The only difference is that the physics were re-tweaked to flow smoother than its predecessor.
• No Campaign for the Wicked: Averted with Plankton in the PC version. There's one chapter where you have to guide Plankton to Neptune's castle and help him steal Neptune's crown.
• Non-Standard Game Over: Letting the thermometer get too hot in the GBA Shell City levels results in SpongeBob and Patrick being killed instantly with a unique death animation involving them becoming dehydrated and turning into realistic sea creatures (which happened in the movie) as opposed to the usual "SpongeBob falls over while Patrick gets scared" animation.
• Oil Slick: The Flinger enemies shoot out goo that messes up movement and leaves a puddle that does the same.
• Pass Through the Rings: The Ring Challenges in the Patty Wagon and slide levels revolve around the player driving/sliding through rings that appear in various locations throughout the course, oftentimes straying from the beaten path. The Sonic Wave Guitar Challenges also have you fly SpongeBob's Sonic Wave through rings that appear in the platforming stages.
• Password Save: The GBA version has this. Each time you complete a level, you will get a six-slot password made entirely of character icons from the movie, and inputting this will resume your saved progress from where you left off. The downside however is that this is purely a level save, so it doesn't save up your collected golden clams and extra lives (the former of which is needed to unlock those Bonus Stages).
• Pickup Hierarchy:
  • Primary: Goofy Goober Tokens, new moves
  • Secondary: Treasure Chests
  • Tertiary: Krabby Patties, Manliness Points
• Point of No Return: Most levels have one of these, although several have a way to get back to the beginning once you reach the end.
• The Power of Rock: SpongeBob gets a move late in the game that allows him to fire a controllable sonic wave by playing an electric guitar.
• Recycled Soundtrack: The battle theme for the Frogfish boss sounds very similar to two songs from Star Trek: Shattered Universe: M25 and Game B.
• Remixed Level: "Drive of the Knucklehead McSpazatron" (the final driving level) is Sandwich Driving 101 (the first driving level) with a reverse layout and more difficult obstacles to bypass.
• Rise to the Challenge: Inverted with the Skull Cave and Yodel A Sea Doo levels in the GBA version, which force SpongeBob and Patrick to avoid falling walls of skulls by finding holes in the walls (for the former) and constantly getting to lower ground to avoid a giant wall (for the latter).
• Rolling Attack: Patrick's Cartwheel attack allows him to roll over any enemy or object in his way. When upgraded, he becomes surrounded by a red sphere that increases his attack range and damage dealt to enemies.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Defeating an enemy sends it flying back, damaging or defeating others behind it.
• Shifting Sand Land: "Three... Thousand Miles to Shell City".
• Shoryuken: SpongeBob's Bash attack allows him to uppercut the air with a boxing glove to bash any object or enemy in his way. And when upgraded, the boxing glove becomes the spiked gauntlet from "I'm Your Biggest Fanatic", which can stick to any enemy or object and can be detonated at the press of the same attack button.
• Shout-Out: One of Patrick's many lines in the games menu screen is that his mom told him if he can't say something nice, don't blow your nose into your hand.
• Slave Mooks: The mooks in the desert, landfill, and Planktopolis levels have Chum Bucket Bucket Helmets on their heads, allowing Plankton to control them from afar as minions. Said helmets are conspicuously part of the debris that fly off when these enemies are defeated.
• Slide Level: A few levels see SpongeBob and Patrick sliding in a bathtub/clamshell to make it to the end of the slope, which will reward you with a Goofy Goober Token. Additional tokens can be earned by beating the time challenges and the ring challenge on each of those levels.
• Sorting Algorithm of Threatening Geography: The game starts off in SpongeBob's and Patrick's hometown of Bikini Bottom, but as they get closer to their goal the environments become more unwelcoming, going from the dry desert country to the uber-manly Thug Tug to the nightmare-inducing trench to an intimidating aquatic junkyard to the near-death-inducing Shell City before finally returning to the now-dystopian Planktopolis.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • In the console versions, the Patty Wagon is destroyed like in the movie but gets brought back by Mindy near the end, mostly so the game can squeeze in one last driving level to bridge the gap between Planktopolis and the Krusty Krab.
  • In the PC adaptation, only SpongeBob dries out from the heating lamp, and Patrick has to find a way to set the sprinklers off, unlike the movie where they both dry out and their tears short out the lamp, which set off the sprinklers and revive them.
• Special Guest: The Hoff still appears, but for legal reasons, it's not actually him:
  "David Hasselhoff": I'm not a lifeguard, but I play one on TV.
• Spin Attack: SpongeBob's and Patrick's default attacks, the Karate Spin and the Star Spin. When upgraded, they inflict more damage with more range and gain the ability to reflect enemy projectiles back at them. They essentially function the same between each character, with the only difference being that SpongeBob can perform his mid-jump for some extra air while Patrick cannot.
• Spin to Deflect Stuff: The upgraded versions of the Karate Spin and Star Spin respectively allow SpongeBob and Patrick to deflect enemy projectiles, which even works during both fights against Dennis.
• Timed Mission: The Patty Wagon and slide levels have challenges that involve getting to the finish line in a set amount of time. They come in two types: the normal time challenge and the "Macho" time challenge (which is basically just a harder version of the normal challenge with a shorter timer). There's also a "beat your best time" challenge, but it's more of a personal challenge than an actual mission since you're only rewarded with bonus Manliness Points if you beat it. In addition, The Floating Block Challenges are also timed.
• Underground Monkey: The mooks featured in this game have different skins depending on the level.^note There are six skins total: Goofy Goober, Desert, Thug Tug, Trench, Junkyard, and Planktopolis. Generally, they get stronger and harder to defeat in later levels.
• Under the Sea: Unsurprisingly, the whole game given its setting. The only levels that break this mold are Google Eyes and Smelly Knick Knacks and Dennis Strikes Back since they're located above water. The former in Shell City and the latter on David Hasselhoff's back.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: If you use a cheat code to gain all of SpongeBob's and Patrick's attacks early on in the game, this can happen in "Three... Thousand Miles to Shell City" if you use the Sonic Wave Guitar to take out the two Mook Makers in the enclosed area before entering it via springboard, thus bypassing the combat sequence. The thing is that you actually need to defeat all the enemies in that area in order to progress, and with the enemy spawners gone, there will be no enemies to fight. Therefore, you will be trapped in that area with no other way to get out other than to restart the level from the pause menu.
• Warm-Up Boss:
  • The Frogfish serves as the very first boss you face in the console versions. What makes this notable is that despite being the first boss, you face it roughly halfway through the game as opposed to close to the beginning. In the GBA version, the Frogfish is the third boss instead.
  • The thug who steals the patty wagon at the county line gas station serves as the first boss in the GBA version. Unlike the movie, SpongeBob and Patrick manage to put up a good fight against him, but he still steals the patty wagon in the following cutscene.
• Womb Level: Some parts of Rock Slide and Now That We're Men have you go inside the innards of a monster.

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