YMMV / Around the Clock at Bikini Bottom

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Mr. Krabs is justifiably heartbroken upon realising Pearl was lost to the Jelliens, but how much of that is normal grief and how much is guilt from prioritzing gathering his money over getting her to safety? There's a definite argument to be made for the latter given that he discards his money after learning this.
  • Did Big Lenny accidentally bump into the fuse box, or did he deliberately sabotage the elevator?
• Fan Nickname: Some fans refer to Suited Prowler as the Goofy Prowler due to his suit.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • The Overlord crosses it right at the start of the game by starting the invasion just out of petty revenge towards SpongeBob for foiling its original invasion.
  • Doodle Patrick crosses it when he erases his own friend DoodleBob, even if he said he was going to redraw him later.
• Narm: It can be a bit difficult to take Doodle Patrick's "Reason You Suck" Speech to Patrick seriously, considering he kind of puts the climactic final chapter on hold just to recap infamous SpongeBob SquarePants episodes that made little to no mention up until this point. What should probably be a moment of redemption just comes off like a rant on Patrick's character.
• Nightmare Retardant: Much like the original Planet of the Jellyfish episode, mayonnaise is the Jelliens weakness. It's no less ridiculous here.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • At the end of their debut level, the Doodles are revealed to be major villains, discussing how to use the invasion to coverup their own takeover and learning how to No-Sell the magic pencil's eraser. After that, they merely show up in the background of levels occasionally and get two small mostly-Big-Lipped Alligator Moment cutscenes showing Doodle Patrick dipping into Bad Boss territory, before Doodle Patrick shows up as a minor boss in the final level of the game. Many felt more could have been done with the idea of the Doodle invasion, as opposed to it building up to be ultimately meaningless.
  • The Prowlers' ability to alter and take over the minds of others could've made the Jellien invasion truly horrifying, making it difficult to trust anyone as you wouldn't even know who could be secretly being controlled by a Prowler. Unfortunately, this Mind Control ability is completely forgotten about after Patrick's Rock.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: It may be a SpongeBob game, but it's a HORROR game, with plenty of elements not intended for younger audiences.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: It's easy to gloss over, but one of Doodlebob's death quotes implies that he murders Gary after killing SpongeBob, which may kill off some sympathy for him.

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