2002 video game
SpongeBob SquarePants:
Revenge of the Flying Dutchman
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e8/Spongebob_Squarepants_-_Revenge_of_the_Flying_Dutchman_Coverart.png/220px-Spongebob_Squarepants_-_Revenge_of_the_Flying_Dutchman_Coverart.png) North American PlayStation 2 box art
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Developer(s)
| BigSky Interactive, Inc. (PS2, GC)
Vicarious Visions
(GBA)
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Publisher(s)
| THQ
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Director(s)
| Vasken N. Sayre
(PS2, GC)
Jonathan Russell (GBA)
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Producer(s)
| Billy Joe Cain (PS2, GC)
Di Davies (GBA)
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Designer(s)
| Vasken N. Sayre
Jeremy Arntson (PS2, GC)
Jonathan Russell (GBA)
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Programmer(s)
| Mike Bowman
Waylon Calabrese
Paul Hyman
Jim McHugh (PS2, GC)
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Artist(s)
| Matt Scibilia
Grant Pimpler (PS2, GC)
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Composer(s)
| George Oldziey (PS2, GC)
Martin Schioeler (GBA)
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Series
| SpongeBob SquarePants
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Platform(s)
| PlayStation 2
,
GameCube
,
Game Boy Advance
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Release
| Game Boy Advance
- NA
:
September 12, 2002
[1]
- EU
:
March 28, 2003
PlayStation 2
- NA
:
November 21, 2002
[2]
- EU
:
March 14, 2003
GameCube
- NA
:
December 17, 2002
[3]
- EU
:
March 28, 2003
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Genre(s)
| Platform
,
action-adventure
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Mode(s)
| Single-player
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SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman
is a 2002
platform game
based on the animated series
SpongeBob SquarePants
, developed by
Vicarious Visions
and BigSky Interactive, Inc. and published by
THQ
for the
GameCube
and
PlayStation 2
, and
Game Boy Advance
. It was the last game to be developed by BigSky Interactive, Inc. The game was released in North America in late 2002, while in Europe it was released in early 2003. The Game Boy Advance version was also released on a Twin Pack cartridge bundled with
SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge
in 2005.
[4]
Plot
[
edit
]
Home console version
[
edit
]
A screenshot of the Jellyfish Fields level in the home console version
One day,
SpongeBob
wakes up and begins playing fetch with
Gary
, leading the snail to dig up a
treasure chest
. SpongeBob opens the chest and finds a bottle, which, upon rubbing it, releases
doubloons
all over
Bikini Bottom
and releases
The Flying Dutchman
. The Flying Dutchman tells SpongeBob that he will take Gary to work on his ship for all eternity for digging him up; after briefly leaving to check on his ship, he makes good on this promise.
SpongeBob proceeds to travel across seven different locations to recover letter tiles; there are nine in each, which spell out his name, and each set leads to a treasure. These treasures, as explained by one of
Squidward's
books on "How to Defeat
Evil Spirits
", are personal possessions from when the Dutchman was alive, which can apparently weaken him; according to the book, collecting all seven will make SpongeBob immune to the Dutchman's
hypnotizing
spell, allowing him to put up a fight to save Bikini Bottom.
To collect the tiles, SpongeBob must complete a wide assortment of challenges and missions for other characters, such as delivering food for
Mr. Krabs
in Downtown Bikini Bottom, fixing Patrick's TV antenna, helping
Sandy
rid her tree dome of
bees
and
wasps
after giving her a
beehive
(that he mistakes for an
acorn
) as a gift, bringing Patrick food, winning a jellyfishing contest, beating all the games at
Plankton's
new amusement park "Chum World", assisting Sandy with cleaning up garbage, curing Patrick's stomachache, chasing down Plankton, and defeating
Larry the Lobster
and Sandy in
karate
matches.
As SpongeBob continues in his quest and becomes increasingly impervious to the Dutchman's power, the Dutchman hypnotizes and kidnaps his other friends (apparently extremely satisfied with Gary's hard work, unlike his old crew) and terrorizes Bikini Bottom. This culminates with attempting to murder SpongeBob by dropping heavy crates and barrels into his house, forcing him to flee. He winds up in the Dutchman's graveyard, where he assists the Dutchman's disgruntled
pirates
get their fair share of "booty" (i.e. doubloons) in exchange for the use of their
cannons
and collects the seventh and final treasure.
Believing himself to now be immune to the Dutchman, SpongeBob boards the Dutchman's ship and rescues his friends, but is confronted by the Dutchman. His cockiness is crushed by the
omniscient narrator
, who informs him that Squidward's book was out-of-date and that the new edition explains he is
mostly
immune to the Dutchman's magic, but not completely; while he is immune to the hypnosis spell, he is not immune to getting hurt. He proceeds to fight the Dutchman anyway, and his victory is cemented by sucking the Dutchman back into his bottle. Afterward, as the Dutchman's ship catches fire, SpongeBob escapes with his friends on a flying boat to celebrate at the
Krusty Krab
.
Game Boy Advance version
[
edit
]
SpongeBob SquarePants is giving Gary a walk through Jellyfish Fields; Gary then smells Kelp Nip and runs off. After SpongeBob finds Gary, he finds a chest, opens it and finds a bottle. SpongeBob then opens the bottle and the Flying Dutchman appears. After SpongeBob mistakes the Dutchman for a
genie
that will grant him a wish, he tells SpongeBob to find his ten treasures and doubloons that got scattered around Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob does so, but the Dutchman ultimately abducts Gary,
Patrick
, Sandy, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward. After SpongeBob finds all of his friends on the Dutchman's ship, he battles the Dutchman himself. After the Dutchman is defeated, the player is given a list of wishes to choose from, each one depicting a screenshot of said wish. One of them involves giving SpongeBob his own TV show; when that one is chosen, a screenshot of the show's original logo appears.
Gameplay
[
edit
]
The home console versions consist of
3D platform
gameplay. Playing as SpongeBob, the player gains several abilities throughout the game that are needed to progress. The player can alternate between abilities by entering tents set up in each level. Throughout each level, the player must locate and collect letter tiles. After each level is completed, the player must solve a
sliding puzzle
that forms a picture of where to locate the next treasure, each time that happens SpongeBob has a
diving rod
that would let him know if he (and the player) is close.
The Game Boy Advance version is a
side-scrolling
platform game with five worlds: SpongeBob's Home, Jellyfish Fields, Sandy's Treedome, the Krusty Krab, Doubloon Bonus World, and a final world on The Flying Dutchman's ship. All levels have SpongeBob looking for the ten treasures (which are unlocked with three keys) and doubloons. Upon completing the game, the player can replay all the levels to go back for what they missed.
Reception
[
edit
]
The game's frequent loading screens, featuring the same bubbles in the transitions from the animated series, were a subject of derision for reviewers.
On
Metacritic
, the GameCube version holds a score of 66 out of 100, while the Game Boy Advance version holds a score of 71, both indicating "mixed or average reviews".
[9]
[8]
The GameCube version has a 72% rating on
GameRankings
,
[6]
while the Game Boy Advance version has 75% on GameRankings.
[5]
The PlayStation 2 version was met with a mostly negative reception due to a glitch that causes the game to freeze while loading. It has a 53% rating on GameRankings.
[7]
Anise Hollingshead of GameZone wrote a favorable review of the GameCube version; she praised the use of a
checklist
, saying it was "motivating and keeps players on track." However, Hollingshead criticized the game's crude background designs and concluded that while it was a "great game" for children, "Older fans of SpongeBob may want to just rent."
[12]
Steven Hopper of GameZone wrote a generally positive review of the Game Boy Advance version calling it an excellent game for young children that could also appeal to people of all ages who were fans of the television series.
[11]
Ryan Jones of
Nintendo World Report
wrote a more mixed review of the GameCube version concluding: "The game has everything you could want if you are a huge SpongeBob fan, but the gameplay and graphics are far from perfect."
[15]
Mark Ryan Sallee of
IGN
wrote a negative review of the PlayStation 2 version, criticizing it for its sluggish controls, annoying music tracks,
Nintendo 64
-style graphics, frequent and obnoxious
loading screens
, simplistic gameplay, somewhat tedious
fetch quests
, and the unnecessary use of a checklist (it made the game feel like a chore). Sallee ended his review saying: "...Yes, pre-school-aged kids will probably get a kick out of the game, though they'd likely be more entertained mowing down prostitutes in
Grand Theft Auto
."
[13]
Play
magazine
also wrote a generally negative review, giving the game 2 out of 5 stars, citing its mediocre and sparse levels, bad
models
, and the fact that there are loading times where there should not be any.
[16]
The Game Boy Advance version sold an estimated 740,000 copies; in August 2006, the game was ranked at number 31 on
Edge
magazine
's list of "The Century's Top 50 Handheld Games," arranged by the number of copies sold.
Edge
called it "yet another mediocre game that sold brilliantly because of the sponge on its cover," writing that: "Most major review outlets don't even cover these games as they know their opinion won't matter, and they're right ? this game knew exactly where its audience was, and delivered right to them."
[17]
Nintendo Power
wrote a generally favorable review of the GBA version, citing the how: "Great graphics, goofy music and the entire kooky cast of the show add life of the deep-sea derring-do."
[14]
G4 likewise called it: "A great example of how to translate an existing property into a videogame".
[10]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"PR - 9/12/02 - THQ AND NICKELODEON SHIP SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: REVENGE OF THE FLYING DUTCHMAN"
. 2004-04-16. Archived from
the original
on 2004-04-16
. Retrieved
2023-03-19
.
- ^
"PR - 11/21/02 - THQ AND NICKELODEON SHIP SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: REVENGE OF THE FLYING DUTCHMAN FOR PLAYSTATION 2"
. 2004-04-16. Archived from
the original
on 2004-04-16
. Retrieved
2023-03-19
.
- ^
"PR - 12/17/02 - THQ AND NICKELODEON SHIP SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS: REVENGE OF THE FLYING DUTCHMAN FOR GAMECUBE"
. 2004-04-16. Archived from
the original
on 2004-04-16
. Retrieved
2023-03-19
.
- ^
"SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge / Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (GBA) - GameFAQs"
.
GameFAQs
.
Archived
from the original on March 4, 2016
. Retrieved
January 14,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (GBA)"
. GameRankings.
Archived
from the original on October 19, 2015
. Retrieved
July 25,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (GameCube)"
.
GameRankings
. Archived from
the original
on September 10, 2015
. Retrieved
May 13,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (PS2)"
. GameRankings. Archived from
the original
on March 29, 2016
. Retrieved
July 25,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (Game Boy Advance)"
. Metacritic.
Archived
from the original on December 3, 2015
. Retrieved
May 13,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (GameCube)"
.
Metacritic
.
Archived
from the original on March 8, 2016
. Retrieved
May 13,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman"
.
G4 TV
. Archived from
the original
on 2004-04-05
. Retrieved
2021-11-04
.
A great example of how to translate an existing property into a videogame, as it incorporates the elements and characters of the show in such a way that you don't necessarily have to be familiar with the cartoon to appreciate the wacky production design or gentle humor.
- ^
a
b
Hopper, Steven (October 2, 2002).
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman Review - GBA"
.
GameZone
. Archived from
the original
on December 5, 2003.
- ^
a
b
Hollingshead, Anise (January 22, 2003).
"SpongeBob Squarepants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman Review - GameCube"
.
GameZone
. Archived from
the original
on December 4, 2003.
- ^
a
b
Sallee, Mark Ryan (November 25, 2002).
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman review (PS2)"
.
IGN
.
Archived
from the original on July 7, 2015
. Retrieved
March 1,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman".
Nintendo Power
. Vol. 161. October 2002. p. 198.
- ^
a
b
Jones, Ryan (April 23, 2003).
"SpongeBob Squarepants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman"
.
NintendoWorldReport
. pp. 1?2.
Archived
from the original on January 26, 2021
. Retrieved
November 4,
2021
.
- ^
"Spongebob squarepants Revenge of the Flying Dutchman Review"
.
Play
. No. 14.
Imagine Publishing
. February 2003. p. 90.
- ^
"The Century's Top 50 Handheld Games"
.
Edge
. August 2, 2006. Archived from
the original
on September 20, 2008.
External links
[
edit
]
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Main series
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Nicktoons
series
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Favorite Video Game
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Favorite App
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