SpongeBob HeroPants

Gameplay

SpongeBob's dreams are coming to life, altering the very fabric of space and time. Players progress through alternate manifestations of Bikini Bottom as they attempt to repair SpongeBob's mind. To restore order, players need to employ the unique superpowers of six playable characters - SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Sandy, Mr. Krabs, and Plankton - to solve challenges, battle enemies, and unlock new areas. In addition to platforming combat and exploration, the game features puzzles, boss battles, upgradable skillsets, and a plethora of hidden items to discover.

Plot

Taking place sometime after the events of Sponge Out of Water, SpongeBob walks to the Krusty Krab and thinks he's going to have a "normal" day at work. Later, SpongeBob opens the front door of Krusty Krab and then notices that Sandy and Patrick are coming along, too. When Patrick, SpongeBob, and Sandy enter the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs, Plankton, and Squidward are getting chased around by random objects and SpongeBob states things are going not normal at all. SpongeBob thinks it's Plankton causing this, but suddenly, Bubbles the Talking Dolphin comes out of a space triangle and tells SpongeBob and his friends that Plankton isn't responsible and explains that someone is using the last page of the magic book to make weird things happen (while the book was destroyed in the movie, the final page wasn't) as well making duplicates of the page. He then holds up a feather and writes in one of the clone pages he found, which suddenly gives SpongeBob and his friends temporary superhero powers that can save Bikini Bottom from a mysterious group of enemies someone created and recover the other clone pages.

After tangling with Plankton's Giant Robot and Squidasaurus Rex, SpongeBob and his friends discover that SpongeBob is the one who caused the not normal events, judging by the handwriting as the last page somehow entered his mind. Plankton then writes on one of the pages they found, having him, SpongeBob and the others to enter SpongeBob's mind to get the last page and wake SpongeBob up (in which he had fallen asleep when everyone else went into his mind). After the last page is collected, the gang exits SpongeBob's mind and begins to celebrate. Bubbles then appears again to get the collected pages and depending on the amount of pages that have been collected in the game, one of the two alternate endings is shown.

If you didn't collect all the pages, Bubbles gives the gang Plankton's time machine from the movie so they can retrieve the last few pages. Then a Patricksaurus comes and tries to kill the gang, so they quickly escape in the time machine. If you did collect all the pages, Bubbles gives then the time machine so the gang can relive any moment from their exciting day. Bubbles then invites the gang to watch him breakdance, to which all of the characters leave except for SpongeBob and Patrick.

Reception

Reviews for the Xbox 360 version have been generally unfavorable. It received an average score of 28 from Metacritic based on 13 reviews.

Reviews for the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS versions were more positive, gaining an average score of 58 on Metacritic.