Video Game / SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab

"Ah! Peaceful, sleepy Bikini Bottom! The creatures of the sea are deep in slumber, their night-brains exploring the mysterious world of dreams..."

— The Narrator

SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab is a video game published by THQ and developed by Blitz Games based upon the Nickelodeon series SpongeBob SquarePants. The game was released on the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS during October and November of 2006 respectively. A version for the Wii was later released during the latter month of that year internationally and in Japan (alongside the PS2 version) a year later.

The game follows the adventures of SpongeBob, Patrick and Plankton as they travel through their dreams. However, as the player goes deeper into the game, things become... strange. The three protagonists each have their own stories that eventually intersect with each other.

SpongeBob's story has him participate in a racing competition with several characters as well as exploring the hot rod-ified Bikini Bottom. Patrick's story has him as the superhero Starfishman, battling against the Dreaded Patrick, who wants to Take Over the City, and saving the citizens of the comic-book-esque Bikini Bottom. Plankton's story has him steal a Krabby Patty crumb and use it to create a Krabby Patty, only to end up with a giant, fish-eating Krabby Patty who he must now escape from.

Containing things like edgy versions of the SpongeBob crew, a trip inside an Alaskan Bull Worm, and a giant Plankton wrecking Bikini Bottom, this game is... interesting, to say the least. The game is also released in Japan for the Wii and PS2 (simply as SpongeBob due to it being the first game from the franchise to release there) and South Korea for the PS2 exclusively. There is also a PC game developed by AWE Games (Operation Krabby Patty and Employee of the Month) originally released as Nighty Nightmare in August 2006, later retroactively retitled due to its similar plotline.

Now has a character page.

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SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab provides examples of the following tropes:

• 2½D: "Super-Sized Patty" is a 2D side-scrolling level where you run across a linear path to escape the mutated Krabby Patty, jumping over gaps and shooting obstacles and enemies with the Freeze Ray in classic platforming style.
• Accidental Hero: At the end of "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster", the Krabby Patty latches on to SpongeBob's plane without him really knowing what's going on. The following level, "It Came From Bikini Bottom", has him repeatedly escaping from Giant Plankton with the Patty, never realizing why Plankton is chasing him. This is averted in the Game Boy Advance version, which shows SpongeBob rescuing the Patty from Plankton intentionally.
  • Also, Patrick in "StarfishMan to the Rescue", where he takes the mayor's request to "clean up the town" too literally and runs around town collecting laundry detergent, defeating Dreaded Patrick's minions along the way and unknowingly fulfilling the mayor's actual request.
• Acid Reflux Nightmare: It is revealed that the entire game is caused by someone eating a Krabby Patty before going to sleep, and that someone is Gary the Snail. SpongeBob somewhat lampshades this in the bonus cutscene, saying that "(he) shouldn't eat it before bedtime, it might give (him) nightmares".
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: The DS version still keeps the twist that the game is Gary's dream but the cutscene is just zooming out from SpongeBob, Patrick and Plankton's sleeps to show Gary who wakes up, sees a half eaten Krabby Patty in front of him and eats it and burps and goes back to sleep.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: Plankton's first level, "Super-Sized Patty" involves him running away from the giant Krabby Patty.
• Advertised Extra: Despite how heavily it was featured on the game's case and commercials, Plankton rarely gets the chance to be playable. He only gets two levels to himself compared to Spongebob and Patrick's three, and the levels that he's actually playable in are significantly shorter than Spongebob and Patrick's platforming levels. Even when counting Hypnotic Highway, he still has less levels than Spongebob and Patrick, since all three are playable.
• All Just a Dream: While a given considering the premise, the real twist is who's actually dreaming: Gary the Snail.
• Ambiguous Ending: Shortly after the ending cutscene of Gary awakening from his nightmares, discovering the Krabby Patty that started it all and falling asleep shortly afterward, we're treated to another cutscene: showcasing Gary wandering around town and witnessing things that are similar to the events of the game. Then, he returns to SpongeBob's pineapple and goes to sleep. Or at least he tries to, because he witnesses SpongeBob being devoured by an Alaskan Bull Worm, and faints. The End.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: While the international boxart depicts SpongeBob having a determined look on his face (pictured above), the Japanese boxart is just a simple cute face of SpongeBob himself.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: While trapped in an Alaskan Bull Worm, SpongeBob remarks how "It's horrible! It's slimy! It's... surprisingly spacious."
• Art Evolution: Although the game reuses most of its assets from the SpongeBob games developed by Heavy Iron Studios, there are some minor subtle tweaks to them. For instance, SpongeBob looks smoother, has slightly smaller eyes, different sock texture mapping, and, in the case of the Wii version, pushed-in pores (only in the platforming segments though; the rest of the levels use his original model)
• Art Shift: Various levels are depicted in differing art styles. "Starfishman to the Rescue" has a cel-shaded comic book style, "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster" looks like an old kaiju film, and "Diesel Dreaming" is an odd surrealist Diesel Punk style reminiscient of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Ratfink.
• Ascended Extra: In the show, Old Man Jenkins, aside The Sponge Who Could Fly, only appears as a stereotype character for elders. In this game, he's a pilot that helps SpongeBob escape the Alaskan Bullworm and fight Plankton.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
  • In "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster", Plankton grows to more than 50 ft. tall and rampages through Bikini Bottom while chasing a Krabby Patty. The level itself is a direct call-back to an early SpongeBob episode called Sleepy Time.
  • Subverted during Plankton's first attempt to grow larger than the patty.
  Plankton: I'm huge! I'm gigantic! I'm vast! I'm - (sees fish about as big as him) Huh?
  Fish (unaware of the patty): Morning!
  Plankton: Well, it's still an improvement.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Played for Laughs at the end of "StarfishMan to the Rescue". When Patrick (aka Starfishman) proceeds to free the starfish hostage from the rocket, Dreaded Patrick's minions knock him out from behind and instead, tie him up on the rocket. This is even lampshaded by Patrick as he's about to get launched into space.
  Patrick:: You're the vile villain, I'm the good guy! I'm supposed to (rocket launches) wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!
  Dreaded Patrick: Ok, now that's my arch enemy defeated. Now what? Mow the lawn?
  • The ironic part is that the rocket plows through a ring-shaped asteroid, which falls back to earth and traps Dreaded Patrick. So in hindsight, Patrick still got a karmic victory.
  • In Plankton's ending, he succeeds in building a Krabby Patty utopia. For a while.
• Big Bad: Plankton is made to look like one, when it is actually the giant Krabby Patty, at least as of the last level.
• Blow You Away: One of Patrick's new abilities in this game, which is called the Bluster Puff, can be used to attack enemies, spin propellers, and remove posters.
• Boss-Only Level: Patrick's third level, "Rooftop Rumble" consists entirely of a series of boss fights against Giant Plankton. The fight lasts for a whopping five phases.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: SpongeBob tries to break his fall by landing on that nice, soft Alaskan Bullworm.
• Brick Joke: Plankton's story begins with him using a shrink ray to grow a Krabby Patty crumb (or krumb?) into a full Krabby Patty, kickstarting the main plot. In the intro to "Hypnotic Highway", when the 'doctor' states that the events of this game is the result of someone eating a Krabby Patty, Plankton states that he has had a crumb of it.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: During "It came from Bikini Bottom", Plankton states that SpongeBob will "just be another story for my therapist." In the ending, his wish comes true.
• Bystander Syndrome: At least one of these tropes came into play on why no one bothered to even consider helping Plankton when he was chased by a giant patty, let-alone point it out. However, it's implied that Let the Bully Win is why Sandy didn't interfere and Bystander Syndrome is why the announcer and audience didn't interfere.
• Call-Back: "Revenge Of The Giant Plankton Monster" bears close resemblance to a scene from the episode "Sleepy Time", which also involves Plankton having a dream where he turns into a giant and terrorizes Bikini Bottom.
• Call-Forward: One of Plankton's lines is taken directly from The SpongeBob Movie Game.
  Plankton: Nothing can stop me now! Hey, SpongeFool, why don't you just give up? There's no one left to help you, no one left at all!
• The Cameo:
  • Sandy appears in the background at one point during Super-Sized Patty, watching as Plankton gets chased by the patty.
  • Squidward also makes a minor appearance in one of the loading screens for Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster.
• Comically Missing the Point: At the end of "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster", …SpongeBob sees Plankton, who is 50 feet tall and holding a Krabby Patty, that there's something different about him. New haircut?
• Darker and Edgier: It's probably the darkest SpongeBob SquarePants video game ever produced, having more instances of nightmare-inducing stuff than others.
• Dark Horse Victory: In "Hypnotic Highway", when the 'doctor' establishes that there the events of this game is the result of someone eating a Krabby Patty, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Plankton points out that they ate a Krabby Patty recently and during the race they fight over on which one of them owns the dream. So, whose dream was it? It was Gary's.
• Dash Attack: SpongeBob and Patrick can dash to stun armored enemies, move objects, and break through breakable walls.
• Diesel Punk: SpongeBob's first level, "Diesel Dreaming", where the structures are based on car parts. SpongeBob himself takes on an odd Ratfink-like appearance on the track, as do Patrick, Plankton, and Gary.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Plankton is presented as the Big Bad in the levels "It Came from Bikini Bottom" and "Rooftop Rumble", but there's still one more stage after those two.
• Dream Land: The whole game takes place in the dreams shared by SpongeBob, Patrick and Plankton. Or rather, they all live in Gary's dream.
• Dream Within a Dream: In every level intro, SpongeBob, Patrick and Plankton wake up in order. This goes on until it was revealed to be Gary the Snail's dream.
• Dreamworks Face: SpongeBob on the international boxart.
• Dueling Player Characters: SpongeBob, Patrick and Plankton have to race against each other to win the Krabby Patty and the chance to escape their dreams in "Hypnotic Highway".
• Easter Egg: Doubles as a Creator Cameo. Throughout the levels, you will occasionally find a strange yellow fish placed in hidden areas and will sometimes appear in cutscenes as a Freeze-Frame Bonus. This fish is the mascot of the team that was behind the game's graphics named "Team RocFISH", and they serve no real purpose in the game other than being a nice visual nod.
• Earn Your Bad Ending: The most positive ending of the three characters is SpongeBob, where he cuts the giant patty into smaller ones to serve to the customers, who can be played as without any Sleepy Seeds. The endings for Patrick and Plankton have the patty become a Karma Houdini.
• Episode Title Card: Also used as loading screens! The only time this doesn't really count is when the part of the Giant Plankton fight" is loading where you play as Patrick.
• Eternal Engine: "Super-Sized Patty" features two areas where Plankton runs through an industrial park and a jellyfish factory.
• Expy: The cardboard box enemies strapped to chains in "StarfishMan to the Rescue" look and act very similar to the Chain Chomps from the Super Mario Bros. series, right down to them being defeated by a Ground Pound to the objects they're chained to.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Happens three times.
  Spongebob: I'll land on that nice, soft Alaskan Bullworm. (Beat) ALASKAN BULLWORM!?
  Patrick: Nothing bad is happening. No worms, no patties, no- (Beat) ...being strapped to a dumb space rocket traveling faster than the speed of thought! Woo-hoo!
  Plankton: Whew, another bad dream. Happily, all is normal. I'm fine, I'm - (Sees patty) in a great deal of trouble.
• Eye Beams: Giant Plankton's Atomic Eye Laser.
• Forced Tutorial: The anonymous Phone Guy in the earliest parts of "StarfishMan to the Rescue" offers unskippable tutorials. It even gets lampshaded by Patrick himself.
  Patrick: "(To The Dreaded Patrick) You again! And there's that phone again too! Why? Why?"
• Foreshadowing: In "Diesel Dreaming", the last race has SpongeBob go up against Gary the Snail. And in "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster", one of the sculptures presented at Mount Fishmore is Gary. In addition, the loading icon is Gary's shell Go ahead and guess whose dream(s) it really is.
• Freeze Ray: In "Super-Sized Patty", Plankton wields one to temporarily freeze the Krabby Patty that's chasing him.
  Plankton: Good thing I'm wearing my Dispiculator.
  Karen: It's just a freeze ray, dear.
  Plankton: I invented it, so I get to name it. And I name it the DISPICULATOR!
• Gameplay Roulette: Each level features a different type of gameplay, whether it be racing, beat-em-up, platformer, or shmup.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The patty UFO that appears in "Rocket Rodeo" and makes a small cameo in "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster". It only serves as something for Patrick to fight against, and it's never stated if it had connections to the patty Plankton grew.
• Godzilla Threshold: Plankton wakes up in his bed, turns and sees the giant Krabby Patty, then he rushes over and turns himself into a giant and begins chasing the patty himself.
• Good Morning, Crono: More like "good morning 7 times". Lampshaded when Patrick states that riding an out of control rocket is a bad place to fall asleep at.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: Collecting all Sleepy Seeds found throughout the levels will unlock Patrick and Plankton in "Hypnotic Highway", the final level, as well as their respective endings.
• Ground Pound: SpongeBob and Patrick can slam on the ground to defeat enemies and activate buttons.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: "Super-Sized Patty" has Plankton get chased by a giant Krabby Patty that he accidentally brought to life though a malfunctioning growth ray. This situation is reversed in "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster" when Plankton uses the ray to make himself a giant, before giving chase to the now-retreating Patty.
• Jigsaw Plot: At first all three characters' plots are presented separately, but eventually all three converge into one story.
• Kaiju: What Plankton essentially acts as in "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster", though they somewhat play with it by giving him a goal (mainly, tracking down the monster patty) rather than making him thoughtlessly rampage throughout Bikini Bottom (although he does enjoy the destruction he causes) The level is a reference to several kaiju films, particularly Godzilla (1954) and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
• Karma Houdini: The Giant Patty in the ending of both Patrick (where he avoids getting eaten by Patrick by knocking him out with the doors to Krusty Krab) and Plankton (where he destroys all of the buildings that Plankton made and when it seems the Krusty Krab will be squashed, the Chum Bucket gets flattened instead). Played with in that in the real world, the patty was eaten by Gary.
• Land, Sea, Sky: "Hypnotic Highway" has this dynamic with the three playable characters and their vehicles:
  • SpongeBob is Land, remaining on the ground as he drives his bug-car across the track.
  • Patrick is Sky, flying his rocket through the air and dodging obstacles.
  • Plankton is Sea, with his hovercraft being used to traverse water, aside from the rare land section.
• Levels Take Flight: The level "It Came From Bikini Bottom" has SpongeBob flying a plane, as pictured on the boxart.
• Limit Break: Plankton has one in "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster", called the Super Roar, which can destroy anything around his vicinity but requires collecting megaphones to use it.
• Literal-Minded: The level "StarfishMan To The Rescue" has the mayor ask StarfishMan/Patrick to clean up the city. Cue StarfishMan collecting laundry detergent from defeated goons to make the city 'squeaky clean'. When StarfishMan tells the mayor that he has detergent to clean the city, the mayor corrects him that he already took care of Dreaded Patrick's minions. StarfishMan then asks what he's supposed to do with the laundry detergent.
• Marathon Level: Nearly every level in the game qualifies as one, with many of them having numerous sections and long minigames in-between. However, "Alaskan Belly Trouble" is by far the longest level in the game, and finishing the level will roughly take around an hour on average.
• Meaningful Background Event: While Plankton is trying to grow himself larger than the Super-Size Patty, Karen's offscreen dialog foreshadows that it won't be what he expects.
  "Warning! Size modulation insufficient — power failure imminent!"
• Mighty Roar: Plankton gains one as a giant.
• Mind Screw: All over the place, considering that the game is about dreams. The Ambiguous Ending that is borderline Gainax doesn't help either.
• Most Definitely Not a Villain: The doctor in "Hypnotic Highway", aka The Krabby Patty. Even after he takes off his disguise, Patrick has a Delayed Reaction.
• Multiple Endings: Three, depending on what character you play as in the final level, "Hypnotic Highway".^note Patrick and Plankton can only be playable once you have found all of their Sleepy Seeds.
  • In SpongeBob's ending, he brings the Krabby Patty back to the Krusty Krab and chops it up into smaller Krabby Patties to serve to all of the customers. When one customer complains that his Patty has relish, SpongeBob was about to take his request when he suddenly notices that everyone has Gary's shell on their backs. Including SpongeBob himself.
  • In Patrick's ending, he celebrates with a party at the Krusty Krab. When Patrick is about to eat the Krabby Patty, it jumps out of his hands and begins to run away. Patrick gives chase, but the Krabby Patty slams the doors right on him, knocking Patrick out and causing him to see multiple Garys circling him.
  • In Plankton's ending, he builds a Krabby Patty utopia in Bikini Bottom and boasts about his victory over the Krusty Krab. But when the Krabby Patty appears right in front of him, it summons a rain of giant Krabby Patties that destroys every building Plankton had built. One Patty with Gary's eye stalks drops from the sky, bounces off the Krusty Krab, and crushes the Chum Bucket afterwards.
  • Regardless of the endings however, they all lead to one conclusion. The entire game was All Just a Dream of Gary the Snail.
• New Work, Recycled Graphics: Despite being developed by a different team (but still published by THQ), this game borrows quite a lot of assets from Battle for Bikini Bottom, The SpongeBob Movie Game, and even Lights, Camera, Pants!. For example, the main character's models were ripped straight from the former two (with some very subtle tweaks), some of the NPCs in "Diesel Dreaming" reuse the biker models from "Bubble Blowing Baby Hunt" in Movie, and the boat models were originally from Lights, Camera, Pants!.
• Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: The narrator says this twice, first when he calls "peaceful", and when he runs out of ideas on what to talk about in the final loading screen of "Super-Sized Patty".
• Or Was It a Dream?: After "Diesel Dreaming", the main characters tend to dismiss the previous events as nothing more than dreams. By the time "Alaskan Belly Trouble" is reached, this is evolved to Instantly Proven Wrong.
• Paper People: All of Dreaded Patrick's henchmen in "StarfishMan to the Rescue" are flat paper cutouts that often spawn from billboards on the walls. Given that the setting of the level is based around being inside a comic book, it makes sense, and offers some contrast to the cel-shaded 3D models and environments.
• Pickup Hierarchy:
  • Primary: Level-specific collectables like the hot rod parts, stolen clothes and Jellyfish Power Cells.
  • Secondary: Sleepy Seeds
  • Tertiary: Snooze Zs, Hearts, Megaphones (the latter two are exclusive to the Giant Plankton level)
• Pun: Given that this is a SpongeBob game, the main characters will attempt to throw puns around at every opportunity, even Plankton.
  SpongeBob: I'm the crank-iest! [Laughs]
  Plankton: Chill out!
  Plankton: Patty's on ice! For a while...
  Plankton: Maybe I should give you a helping hand!
• Run or Die: The main gameplay style of the "Super-Sized Patty" stages. You can slow the titular patty down by freezing it, but this buys you a second at most.
• Rushmore Refacement: At one point in "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster", Plankton uses his laser vision to re-sculpt Mount Fishmore in his image. For some odd reason, Mount Fishmore contains the busts of SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Gary. However, keep in mind that the entire game takes place in a dream.
• Sheet of Glass: At one point during the lengthy plane chase, one of the obstacles SpongeBob has to shoot are two fish carrying a sheet of glass. Lampshaded, as one of the fish says something along the lines of, "I knew this was a bad idea!" when it gets shattered.
• Silence Is Golden: The stinger in the American Nintendo GameCube version, due to the audio file being missing (it is intact in the European release, though). It most certainly doesn't kill the mood though...
• Space Zone: "Rocket Rodeo". It consists of Patrick (aka StarfishMan) flying through outer space on the rocket he was strapped onto, and you have to dodge asteroids and other such things.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: You will encounter enemies who carry shields in the levels "Diesel Dreaming" and "Alaskan Belly Trouble". To defeat them, you must dash into their shields first to stun them, and then use your Spin Attack on them.
• Shockwave Stomp: One of Giant Plankton's attacks has him stomp on the ground to create a shockwave that damages nearby buildings. It is also the only way to eliminate certain obstacles that could otherwise trip Plankton over and leave him vulnerable to enemy attacks.
• Shout-Out: Several — Diesel Dreaming pays tribute to Ratfinks, Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster spoofs various kaiju films and B-movies, as mentioned above, and in the aforementioned level, there's an alien ship on a farm.
• Spin Attack: SpongeBob's and Patrick's primary way of attacking.
• Spoiler Cover: The game's boxart spoils the climactic showdown between SpongeBob and a giant Plankton, which only happens near the end of the game.
• Surreal Horror: The last level "Hypnotic Highway" qualifies for this.
• Tempting Fate:
  • In "Super-Sized Patty", the announcers in Oyster Stadium are hoping that a giant patty doesn't show up in the middle of a game. Sure enough, it does, and causes a particular team to lose for the 76th time in a row.
  • After (seemingly) escaping the patty, Plankton goes from Dirty Coward to Smug Snake. Guess how long that lasts...
  Plankton: No patty is going to stop me now! [Splat] Tag. [Sigh] I'm it...
• Those Two Guys: The two unseen announcers Rick and Dale, who only show up to provide commentary and their back-to-back banter during the race sequences in "Diesel Dreaming" and "Hypnotic Highway". They also make a brief cameo in the Oyster Stadium section of "Super-Sized Patty".
• Underwear of Power: As StarfishMan, Patrick alternates between a normal pair of blue shorts and a pair of tighty-whitey briefs each time he does his spin attack. While wearing the latter, he ends up invoking this trope as a result of him pretending to be a superhero.
• The Unfought: Dreaded Patrick, Patrick's Evil Counterpart in "StarfishMan to the Rescue", is never really fought directly, and the supposed "showdown" you have with him is nothing but an Elevator Action Sequence where you fight his minions instead and dodge hazards.
• Variable Mix: In most of the platforming levels, the music will change from a calm and smooth tune into a more fast-paced and action-oriented version of the same tune whenever you encounter enemies.
• Villain Protagonist: Plankton is one of the three playable characters.
• Womb Level: The level "Alaskan Belly Trouble" is the digestive tract of an Alaskan Bull Worm, as SpongeBob tries to find a way to escape by building a plane.
• What Would X Do?: When Patrick faces the patty UFO at the end of "Rocket Rodeo", he asks what SpongeBob would do: shoot it's wings!
• Your Size May Vary: The Giant Sized Patty is first shown to be much bigger than an average fish in the level named after it, but come "Revenge of the Giant Plankton Monster" , it's notably smaller than SpongeBob and Patrick.

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