SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake (Review)

Developer: Purple Lamp
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Available On: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One
PS4 version reviewed on PS5

The story behind SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is one of my favorite industry stories of the past few years. The developers at Purple Lamp were responsible for the 2020 remake of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, a 3D action platformer from 2003. While their remake received mixed reviews from critics, the general audience loved it and it became a commercial success that sold over 2 million copies. Purple Lamp was then given the opportunity to make their own SpongeBob game to act as a spiritual successor to Battle for Bikini Bottom, taking everything they learned from working on the remake to craft a brand new adventure. As it turns out, the team at Purple Lamp is more than capable of creating their own game, resulting in an experience that’s brimming with nostalgia and feels like it was directly pulled from the early 2000s era of licensed platformers.

Banjo-Kazooie (Review)

Developer: Rare
Publisher: Nintendo / Microsoft Game Studios
Available On: Nintendo 64, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One
Xbox 360 version reviewed on Xbox Series S

It feels like I’ve been flirting with Banjo-Kazooie for most of my life. A friend of mine (shoutout to Joey P.) had both this game and its sequel, Banjo-Tooie, when we were kids, and although I remember watching him play them at his house, I don’t think I ever borrowed them or purchased my own copies. Two console generations later, Rare (the studio that made the Banjo series) was acquired by Microsoft and ported both Banjo games to the Xbox 360. While I downloaded the demo for this re-release and played it multiple times, I never pulled the trigger and bought the full game. Banjo-Kazooie has always been that game that I’ve been “meaning to play”, and now, 25 years after its initial release, I’ve finally done so and now find myself wishing I had played it sooner.

Contrast (Review)

Developer: Compulsion Games
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Available On: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One
Xbox One version reviewed on Xbox Series S

To say I’ve had a long and complicated history with Contrast is a bit of an understatement. It was an early PlayStation Plus offering during the launch of the PlayStation 4 in 2013, but since I wasn’t able to secure that shiny new next-gen hardware when it first came out, I ended up not being able to claim the game. It wasn’t until a month or so later that I found out I could have just gone on the PlayStation website and claimed it that way, which left me feeling annoyed with myself. While I could have bought it at any point thereafter (it ended up on sale frequently) it slowly became this weird mythical game for me. This was “the game that got away” and for some reason I let it keep that status instead of just dropping the $10-15 for it. Now, a decade later, I noticed it was on Xbox Game Pass and decided to finally sit down and put this self-imposed legend to the test.

Tinykin (Review)

Developer: Splashteam
Publisher: tinyBuild
Available On: PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S
Reviewed on Xbox Series S

Although I watched the movie multiple times as a child, there was always something about “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” that scared me. The thrill of being tiny and examining your home from a different perspective was something I found fascinating, but the fear or oversized bugs, being accidentally squished by a family member, or drowning in a bowl of cereal always freaked me out. With Tinykin, the developers at Splashteam have crafted a charming little game that lets you live out that childhood fantasy of being shrunken down from the comfort and safety of your couch.