The Spongebob Squarepants Movie is an unusually good game for a kids' game, not to mention a movie-based game.
I'm definitely fine with this, because Battle for Bikini Bottom was a great game in my opinion (I gave it an 8.0 in my review). Most of the changes in this version are minor. There's still a great deal of collecting, but the names of all the collectables have been changed. For example, the "Golden Spatulas" of the last game (the equivilent to the "stars" in Super Mario 64) are now "Goofy Goober Tokens". The "Shiny Objects" (the sorta-equivilent to the "coins" in Mario) are now barbells. But their usage has changed slightly. Now they're only for upgrading your health and special moves. Your health is measured in Krabby Patties instead of underwear like the last game, which I think is more appropriate.
The only major consequence of this game compared to the last, is because of the movie tie-in, a lot of Spongebob characters are missing. Sandy, a playable character from the last game, didn't appear in the movie, so she doesn't appear in this game. That only leaves Spongebob and Patrick as the playable characters, although they do have more moves to make up for the omission of Sandy. Squidward, who only made a minor appearance in the movie, makes no appearance in the game. There are other characters I liked from the last game that didn't make it into the movie, but that's the breaks when it comes to movie games.
The only new gameplay addition comes in the form of driving missions in the Patty Wagon. I always enjoy driving missions in platformers, but these are definitely the least fun missions of the game. The driving joins the on-foot platforming stages as well as the downhill sliding from the last game, which are both still very fun as they were in Battle for Bikini Bottom.
The game is about as faithful to the movie as you get in a video game. All 18 levels are based on scenes from the movie. The story is told through in-engine cutscenes as well as still shots from the movie with narration from the French narrator, who is ironically played by the same voice actor who voices Spongebob in the show, movies and the game.
They obviously took a few liberties in the story to lengthen it, but the only major change from the movie is the omission of David Hasselhoff, who made a cameo as his lifeguard character from Baywatch, swimming Spongebob and Patrick back to bikini bottom. He's been replaced by an animated look-alike and sound-alike, which kinda hurts the joke. But you get to have a boss fight against the assassin Dennis on the look-alike' lifeguard's hairy back as you're cruising through the sea, which is kinda funny regardless. Other than that and other small changes, it's very faithful to the movie.
All in all, the gameplay is a lot of fun. One major problem I have with this game, as I do with most platformers that use the Super Mario 64 style of "collect items before you can move on", is the game is artificially lengthened by the collecting. If you just played all the levels in succession to the end, the game would probably clock in at well under 10 hours. It's bumped over 10 hours by the tougher challenges and necessity to collect a lot of Goofy Goober tokens, but it still feels shorter than the last game, likely due to the movie tie-in. Unlocking everything still takes a long time, though.
The graphics are about the same as Battle for Bikini Bottom. It's a pretty good 3D rendition of the Spongebob cartoon, but it's definitely not the most visually impressive game of that time period. Still, the graphics get the job done. The sound effects and music are very good. It even has the parody of Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock", titled "Goofy Goober Rock", which plays in the final 1/3 of the final boss fight. It's awesome. Heh.
In the end, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie is an unusually good game for a kids' game, not to mention a movie-based game. But it's not quite as good as Battle for Bikini Bottom. If you're a fan of platformers and you like Spongebob, definitely get Battle for Bikini Bottom first. But if you've already beaten that one, I recommend The Spongebob Squarepants Movie. It's a largely successful sequel that remains as fun and charming as the last game. Scoring:
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 7
Sound: 8
Value: 6
Tilt: 9
Overall Score: 7.6