Just Ask Wanda: “Nicktoons Unite!” For GameCube
Developer: Blue Tongue Entertainment Pty, Ltd.
Publisher: THQ Inc.
Genre: Action, Platformer
Release Date: Late 2005, Early 2006
I finally went and set up the means to play the console Nicktoons Unite games (though it will potentially be a tad tricky to do the Wii games, depending on what those require in terms of motion controls...). I have already played the other GameCube title, “Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island”, so now let’s see what the very first game of the series has to offer, the one that started it all...
Story
SpongeBob is enjoying a fine day at Bikini Bottom when Plankton suddenly arrives with a bunch of machines and starts kidnapping everyone, declaring himself and the Syndicate as the new rulers of Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob hides behind his house, worrying that this means that Plankton will steal the Krabby Patty secret formula as SpongeBob has his priorities straight. A portal then abruptly opens before him, revealing a robotic dog called Goddard.
Through a screen on Goddard, Jimmy Neutron speaks to SpongeBob and tells him that Plankton has teamed up with villains from other universes, calling themselves the Syndicate. SpongeBob follows Goddard to the portal and arrives at Jimmy’s lab, where Jimmy, Timmy Turner and Danny Phantom are also at. Jimmy further explains that Professor Calamitous stole the plans for a dimension-opening invention from Jimmy, called the Universe Portal Machine, and created one for himself. Using it, he gets Denzel Crocker, Vlad Plasmius and Plankton in order to form the Syndicate. With the help of their newly found allies, the Syndicate members begin to steal energy from their respective worlds for some mysterious purpose.
With that, the heroes set off to stop the Syndicate from siphoning the energy and find Professor Calamitous’ secret hideout!
Thoughts
I find it weird how the console version seemingly only calls them the Syndicate and not the Syndicate of Evil like the Game Boy Advance version does. The machine also has a lamer name in this version in comparison to GBA, where it is called the Neutronic Reality Projector.
This game has also been the only one (thus far) to acknowledge Danny wanting to keep his Phantom persona separate from his Fenton identity, interestingly enough. It is also said in the game that a rule in “Da Rules” is that one cannot wish for changes in other worlds, hence why Timmy can’t just wish for the bad guys’ plan to be ruined in this game and any of the other Nicktoons Unite games when he has access to magic.
Gameplay
The game is split into four worlds—Danny’s, SpongeBob’s, Timmy’s and Jimmy’s—each of which end with a boss fight. Weirdly (when compared to other Nicktoons Unite games), each world doesn’t have an equal amount of levels. Danny and SpongeBob’s have three standard levels and then a boss, Timmy’s has two levels and then a boss, while Jimmy’s has one level and then the final boss. I guess the developers lost steam toward the end, but I would consider this better than needless padding. The bosses in this game are of course the Syndicate members.
This game is similar to “Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island” in that it is also a platformer with enemies to fight through. However, there are a lot of significant differences. For one, you always have Jimmy, Timmy, Danny and SpongeBob to choose from—there are no other playable characters. Secondly, this game also has an upgrade system, where you can use these collectable coins (both scattered throughout the level and dropped sometimes by defeated enemies) called NRG Tokens (which unfortunately sounds like a cryptocurrency coin...) in order to make your attacks stronger in one form or another. You don’t have to upgrade, but it does make the game easier. Another strange difference is that you can only single-jump in this game—no double-jumping for you!
Each character starts with a standard attack—melee for SpongeBob and Danny, ranged for Jimmy and Timmy—and eventually acquires three special abilities throughout the game that (mostly) have both combat and environment-affecting capabilities. Most of the special abilities require power, displayed through a purple power bar that is kept track of separately for each character, so one character can have an empty power bar while another has a full one (which is also how health operates, displayed through a green bar). You can also bring up a shield that will consume some of your power bar when it is hit but will prevent damage to you. Pressing the attack button in the air makes the character perform a ground pound that stuns nearby enemies.
There are pickups in the form of green health and purple power, which respectively restore certain amounts of health and power. These pickups will restore health or power for all the heroes, but the character who picked it up will get more restoration; so it can be worth it to switch to the character with the lowest bar and grab the pickup. Enemies will sometimes drop small versions of these pickups upon defeat. You also have the shield and damage power-ups which make you invulnerable or have stronger attacks, respectively, for a limited amount of time. These only affect the character who picked it up. Enemies do not drop these power-ups; you can only find them in a level.
While this is a platformer, there seems to be more of a focus on the combat in comparison to “Battle for Volcano Island”, as you often have enemies to defeat. While newer enemies do get introduced later on, there is no change to the enemies for each world (excluding SpongeBob’s world where they wear glass helmets like Sandy Cheeks in order to breathe underwater)—you always have these grunt ghost enemies and robot enemies. More enemy variety would have been nice to see, even if it were just an aesthetic swap like we see in the handheld versions.
This game has tutorials in the form of interactable question marks that bring up a text box with information when interacted with. That system by itself was fine and did the job; however, a common issue with the tutorials was their placement. There were several occasions while playing that I would be required to do something (such as utilize a mechanic of a special ability) and then afterwards get a tutorial about that very thing. At that point, the tutorial is useless. It was very bizarre for this to happen multiple times—it feels like someone should have noticed and pointed out this flaw.
Characters
As said before, all the characters have their own special abilities and also have some differences in their standard attacks. An important note here is that the attacks and special abilities change a bit depending on your upgrades, and I did not get all the upgrades. In fact, I tried to be thorough with grabbing all the NRG Tokens that I could, including optional paths, and I didn’t even have all the characters’ standard attacks fully upgraded by the end (I probably could have had I not upgraded a few of the special abilities). I would have to do a considerable grind in order to get the rest of the upgrades, and that doesn’t sound appealing right now; so I don’t have a full picture as to what each character is capable of if given all the upgrades. Apologies if I misjudge your fave because of this.
(Also, thanks to the writers and editors over at the Fairly Odd Parents Wiki for having the names of the special abilities written on their “Nicktoons Unite!” article. I did not want to scrub through videos or play through whole sections of the game again just to track them down.)
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants uses his kah-rah-tay gloves in order to chop at enemies in close range at a quick speed. When upgraded, you can hold the attack button in order to charge a high-damaging slam attack. For his special abilities, he has the Water Soak, DoodleBob Lure and Bubble Bomb.
When SpongeBob is standing in water (and I suppose specifically brine in the case of SpongeBob’s already underwater world), he can soak it up, walk around and then spit the water back out. He can use this water in order to put out fires, fill buckets or water plants, allowing entry into areas that couldn’t be accessed before. Although you can walk, you cannot jump while soaked, nor can you fall from too great a height, as you will just slam against the ground and cause the water to leave SpongeBob. That slam mechanic seems to have a combat use if upgraded, but that is a very niche scenario and I never tried it.
The DoodleBob Lure has you throw an airplane, which unfolds into DoodleBob once it hits the ground. Enemies get distracted by DoodleBob and go toward him. There are only two instances where you are required to use this in order to get an enemy to walk over a switch that you cannot access. I didn’t bother with this ability otherwise.
Using a bubble wand, SpongeBob can create a Bubble Bomb. He or any of the other heroes can then pick up the bomb and throw it. Obviously, you can use this in combat in order to blow up enemies. The bomb can also be used to break through cracked walls or flimsy metal. I didn’t use this for combat (excluding one part where it is required), but it was needed a fair amount in order to make progress platforming-wise. This was a tad awkward to use, given that you had to use one button in order to drop the bomb and then press a different button in order to pick it up. It would have made more sense to just press one button and have the bomb be in SpongeBob’s hands immediately.
Danny Phantom
Danny also has a melee attack in the form of his punching and kicking, though his attacks come out slower than SpongeBob’s. He also gets a charge attack when his melee is upgraded. His special abilities are Overshadow, Phase Shift and Ghostly Wail. Interestingly, Danny is unique compared to the other heroes in that all of his special abilities do actually come from his cartoon.
When an enemy is stunned, Danny can Overshadow them, or possess them, and use their own attacks. There are also occasions where Danny can Overshadow non-enemies, such as a big ape in order to break down scaffolding or citizens of Danny’s hometown in order to push out enemy ghosts that are also possessing—er, Overshadowing them. This ability is used for a fair amount of puzzles and can be utilized in combat, although I personally didn’t use it given I could just punch the baddies myself. I didn’t recall Overshadowing being the term for possession in the cartoon, but the Danny Phantom wiki also uses the term, so I guess it was? I am not about to rewatch a whole three-season cartoon in order to figure that out, though.
Phase Shift has Danny become intangible and able to pass through certain bars and walls. When he jumps, you can also hold the jump button in order for him to slowly fall down, giving him some extra horizontal distance so he can make jumps that the other heroes can’t. While Phase-Shifted, he can also grab objects, thus also turning them intangible. I don’t recall if Phase Shift has any effect in combat.
Putting his lungs to the test, Danny can let out a Ghostly Wail capable of breaking through crystal and also damaging enemies. There are a few sections where crystal guards a switch or an enemy and thus require the Ghostly Wail. It is slow to come out, but it does have the funny effect of repeatedly hitting an enemy if you catch them on a wall with it.
Timmy Turner
For Timmy’s attack, Cosmo and Wanda transform themselves into a pseudo-gun-esque-thing (okay, I admit that I don’t know what it exactly is), allowing Timmy to shoot out a star in a ranged attack. When fully upgraded, Timmy shoots out three stars instead of one in a fan and his charged attack makes enemies into a harmless toy. Timmy’s attack is faster and reaches farther than Jimmy’s ranged attack. Timmy has the special abilities Freeze Glove, Cleft the Boy Chin Wonder and Remedy.
With the Freeze Glove, Timmy dons a cute parka and is able to shoot out a trail of icicles which freeze enemies and various objects. Frozen objects eventually thaw out, so it isn’t permanent; what is permanent, though, is breaking the frozen enemy or object and thus destroying them or it. There are several points in the game where you either need to freeze and break something or use it as a stepping stool in order to make progress. This special ability saw more usage in the early game (it is one of the first special abilities you acquire, in fact), but there were still a good amount of points where it was needed.
Timmy takes on his superhero alter ego, Clef the Boy Chin Wonder, who is equipped with a strong metal arm for some reason? Maybe this was in the cartoon, but I personally can’t remember. Anyhow, the strong metal arm allows Timmy to twist otherwise stuck valves and carry very heavy objects. This also gives him access to a strong melee attack. Strangely, this special ability doesn’t consume any power, even though it feels like it should.
(EDIT: Yeah, he did have a metal arm in the cartoon while in his superhero alterego. I don’t know what the hell past me was on about. Oh, how fickle memory is...)
Remedy is the only special ability in the game which only has combat use and isn’t used in any puzzles whatsoever. With Remedy, Cosmo becomes a first aid kit and sends healing magic toward Timmy and any nearby heroes at the cost of power. I didn’t really use this as health pickups are pretty common and it takes a while to pull out the kit and activate it.
Jimmy Neutron
Jimmy also has a ranged attack in the form of a Tornado Blaster which sends out a puff of air; however, his attack doesn’t travel as far as Timmy’s (unless upgraded fully) and also doesn’t come out as fast. Jimmy’s special abilities are the Shrink Ray, Neutron Flare and Quarterback Gear.
Using the Shrink Ray, Jimmy can shrink stunned enemies and also large objects. Shrunk objects can then be used as a platform or can be picked up and placed elsewhere. Upgrading the Shrink Ray gives you a charged attack where you can shrink all enemies in a certain radius. I don’t think I ever used this in combat.
The Neutron Flare has Jimmy rock a pair of sunglasses as he holds a strange flare gun. Using the gun, he can send out a flare which stuns any enemies caught in its area of effect. In addition to that, the flare will also knock out any ghosts that are currently Phase-Shifted, allowing you to whoop on them again (while Phase-Shifted, they are impervious to attacks). I didn’t use the Neutron Flare much to stun enemies, but I sure did use it to get ghosts out of Phase Shift; otherwise, it is a lengthy process to defeat such enemies. This was especially helpful with the Phase Soldier enemies who would spawn grunt enemies and Phase-Shift often.
For whatever reason, Jimmy puts on some Quarterback Gear and rushes, tackling any enemies in his path. Without upgrades, you only go a short distance, but when upgraded, you can keep the rush going (although Jimmy only goes where you initially directed him towards and won’t accept further inputs). I... don’t understand why they gave the brainiac a special ability based on a sport. I don’t think Jimmy’s cartoon has anything like this? My only thought is that Jimmy is Texan (as his hometown, Retroville, is in Texas), and American football is pretty popular in Texas? Yeah, I’m really not sure.
Comparison
Remember how Timmy was the best in the Game Boy Advance version and arguably the worst in the Nintendo DS version? Well, he is back to being the best again. (Let him have his moment; he gets cut out of the series entirely once we reach “SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom”!)
His standard attack is the best out of everyone’s due to being ranged, fast and far-reaching, as he can just spam his attack from afar and likely kill the enemies before he even reaches them. When upgraded once, his standard attack gains a charged version which allows him to shoot three stars at once, which isn’t really worth it. However, when fully upgraded, his charged attack instead becomes a giant star which turns the enemy that it hits into a toy. Where does that leave the three-star attack? Oh, you know, it just becomes his non-charged attack! So now the spam-from-afar attacker just got even more spam-from-afar.
The only downside to his ranged attack is that hitting enemies right by him tends to not register... so good thing the game just gives him a strong melee attack in the form of his special ability, Cleft the Boy Chin Wonder. And to reiterate, Cleft doesn’t consume power, so you can just use this indefinitely if you wanted. Then to top it all off, Timmy gets the only healing move in the game—granted, it doesn’t mean much given how common health pickups are, but it just serves to make Timmy all the more powerful.
As for the worst character... well, that is more difficult to determine. While playing, I was initially going to say Jimmy again, just as he is in the Game Boy Advance version; but then I got his Neutron Flare, and its ability to deal with ghost enemies proved to be very useful. Honestly, I switched through all the other heroes a fair amount in order to do puzzles, so none of them feel particularly underused. I suppose there is no worst character, so much as Timmy just steals the show.
Combat
You might have noticed how I didn’t really use many of the special abilities in combat, and the reason for that is that I didn’t really have much incentive to do so. I could, say, take the time to set up a Bubble Bomb... or I could just use Timmy’s standard attack and deal with the enemies pretty quickly anyhow. Unlike “Battle for Volcano Island”, enemies aren’t really health sponges in this game and go down in a reasonably fast manner. Why go for a complicated strategy when I could do a much simpler one and get the same result in around the same time?
Really, the only special ability that was worthwhile to use in combat for me (that wasn’t just straight up required and thus I had no choice) was the Neutron Flare, and that was because it had a unique and helpful effect in combat that the standard attack didn’t offer me. If the other special abilities had unique and helpful combat mechanics, I probably would have utilized them more.
Final Segment
Eventually, after the heroes defeat Denzel Crocker, Crocker reveals that the energy is going towards a Doomsday device. When the heroes return to Jimmy’s lab, Professor Calamitous calls Jimmy and explains that they already have enough energy for the device, and that they intend to use the device as a means of intimidation, forcing everyone in all four universes to bow down to the Syndicate.
After the call ends, the heroes notice that Goddard is scratching himself, as if he has fleas—however, as a metallic dog, that shouldn’t happen. Jimmy discovers that Goddard actually has a fleabot on him that Professor Calamitous has been using in order to spy on Jimmy and the heroes, which explains how he managed to steal Jimmy’s invention plans. Using a shrink ray, the heroes shrink down, defeat the fleabot and use the signals that it sends out in order to track down Calamitous’ secret hideout.
In the hideout, the heroes discover the Syndicate in a machine that shields them, which is good for them as they start up the Doomsday device and set it to blow up Retroville. With that, the heroes start the final boss fight.
The final boss of this game is actually pretty slow-paced. Hell, all the bosses in this game are, as they all require you to first take down a shield (or something similar to that effect) before actually dealing damage to the boss. In the case of the final boss, you have to ground-pound switches in order to line up parts of a bridge so that you can get to the kill switches for certain shields. Once a Syndicate member’s shield is down, you then have to avoid whatever attacks are being thrown out by the Syndicate’s machine and make it to the member whose shield is down, as they are moving about. In addition to that, there is an attack that can happen which shrinks you down, making you unable to attack, so I would often have to wait for that to wear out before being able to make progress on the boss.
Once the boss is defeated, Professor Calamitous gloats that Retroville is still going to be destroyed, as the device is still set to blow it up. As Calamitous does a stupid dance and the heroes brainstorm ways to stop the device, SpongeBob finds the cords to the machine and unplugs them from their outlet, thus stopping the Doomsday device. It turns out Calamitous never finished creating the backup power supply.
I honestly don’t know why Calamitous is gloating at the end, since it is explicitly stated in the cutscene before the final boss fight that the Syndicate members don’t need to worry about being blown up along with Retroville as they have the shields—but after the boss fight, those shields are down. I feel like Calamitous and the other members should be panicking about getting exploded, but whatever.
Sound Design
Yes, I do have a section dedicated just to the sound of this game, because it sure is something special. A lot of cutscenes in this game are weirdly devoid of sound effects, even when by all means there should be some kind of sound. Take this cutscene for instance, where you are just left with incessant bubbling sounds and Patrick’s grunts, laughter and calls for help. Then during regular gameplay, you can suddenly have really loud sounds play in comparison to the rest of the game. A good example is when you break a specific machine once, as you can see and hear here.
Granted, this isn’t an issue unique to this game—a lot of licensed games have very bizarre sound design—but at the very least some more sound effects would have really helped make some cutscenes less awkward.
Conclusion
Honestly? I think this is a better game than “Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island”. I admit that this game has more jank to it than “Battle for Volcano Island”, but the jank never interfered with my playing of the game and it was pretty funny at times. The combat, even though it does have its problems, also just feels nicer in this game since enemies aren’t health sponges. Normally, it is supposed to be that the sequel to a game is better, but it just seems like that isn’t the case here.
Then again, there is a conversation in this game where all of the heroes are referred to as “puny kids”, even though SpongeBob “Has A Mortgage” SquarePants is literally right there. I cannot handle that level of disrespect toward SpongeBob, so this is an instant F-tier. (Kidding, kidding...)