SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman

SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (released as SpongeBob: Return of the Flying Dutchman; スポンジ・ボブ：空飛ぶオランダ人の帰還 Suponjibobu: Soratobu Oranda hito no kikan in Japan) is a video game based on the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants, developed by Vicarious Visions and BigSky Interactive, Inc. and published by THQ for the GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2 home video game consoles, and the portable Game Boy Advance video game console. It was the last game to be developed by BigSky Interactive, Inc. The game was released in North America and Japan in late 2002, while in Europe it was released in 2003. The Game Boy Advance version was also released on a Twin Pack cartridge bundled with SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge in 2005.

Home console version
One day, SpongeBob wakes up and begins playing fetch with Gary, leading the snail to dig up a treasure chest. SpongeBob opens the chest and finds a magic bottle, which, upon rubbing it, releases doubloons all over Bikini Bottom and releases The Flying Dutchman. The Flying Dutchman tells SpongeBob that he will take Gary to work on his ship for all eternity; after briefly leaving to check on his ship, he makes good on this promise.

SpongeBob proceeds to travel across seven different worlds to recover letter tiles; there are nine in each world, which spell out his name, and each set leads to a treasure. These treasures, as explained by one of Squidward's books on "How to Defeat Evil Spirits", are personal possessions from when the Dutchman was alive, which can apparently weaken him; according to the book, collecting all seven will make SpongeBob immune to the Dutchman's hypnotizing spell, allowing him to put up a fight to save Bikini Bottom.

To collect the tiles, SpongeBob must complete a wide assortment of challenges and missions for other characters, such as delivering food for Mr. Krabs in Downtown Bikini Bottom, helping Sandy rid her tree dome of bees and wasps after giving her a beehive (that he mistakes for an acorn) as a gift, winning a jellyfishing contest, beating all the games at Plankton's new amusement park "Chum World", assisting Sandy with cleaning up garbage, and defeating Larry the Lobster in a karate match.

As SpongeBob continues in his quest and becomes increasingly impervious to the Dutchman's power, the Dutchman kidnaps his friends (apparently extremely satisfied with Gary's hard work) and terrorizes Bikini Bottom. This culminates with attempting to murder SpongeBob by dropping heavy crates and barrels into his house, forcing him to flee. He winds up in the Dutchman's graveyard, where he assists the Dutchman's disgruntled pirates get their fair share of "booty" (i.e. doubloons) in exchange for the use of their cannons and collects the seventh and final treasure.

Believing himself to now be immune to the Dutchman, SpongeBob boards the Dutchman's ship and rescues his friends, but is confronted by the Dutchman. His cockiness is crushed by the omniscient narrator, who informs him that Squidward's book was out of date and that the new edition explains he is mostly immune to the Dutchman's magic, not completely. He proceeds to fight the Dutchman anyway, and his victory is cemented by sucking the Dutchman back into his bottle.

Afterward, as the Dutchman's ship catches fire, SpongeBob escapes with his friends on a flying boat to celebrate at the Krusty Krab.

Game Boy Advance version
SpongeBob SquarePants is giving Gary the Snail a walk through Jellyfish Fields. Gary then smells Kelp Nip and runs off. After SpongeBob finds Gary he finds a chest. SpongeBob opens it and finds a bottle. SpongeBob then opens the bottle and the Flying Dutchman appears. After SpongeBob mistakes the Dutchman for a genie that will grant him a wish, he tells SpongeBob to find his ten treasures and doubloons that got scattered around Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob does so, but the Dutchman ultimately abducts Gary, Patrick, Squidward, Sandy, and Mr. Krabs. After SpongeBob finds all of his friends on the Dutchman's ship, he battles the Dutchman himself. After the Dutchman is defeated, the player is given a list of wishes to choose from, one of them involving giving SpongeBob his own TV show. When that one is chosen, a screenshot of the show's original logo appears.

Gameplay
The home console versions consist of 3D platform gameplay. Playing as SpongeBob, the player gains several abilities throughout the game that are needed to progress. The player can alternate between abilities by entering tents set up in each level. Throughout each level, the player must locate and collect letter tiles. After each level is completed, the player must solve a jigsaw puzzle that forms a picture of where to locate the next treasure.

The Game Boy Advance version is a side-scrolling platform game with five worlds: SpongeBob's Home, Jellyfish Fields, Sandy's Treedome, the Krusty Krab, Doubloon Bonus World, and a final world on The Flying Dutchman's ship. All levels have SpongeBob looking for Gary, the ten treasure (which are unlocked with three keys), and doubloons. Upon completing the game, the player can replay all the levels to go back to what they missed.

Reception
On Metacritic, the GameCube version holds a score of 66 out of 100, while the Xbox version holds a score of 69 out of 100, and with the Game Boy Advance version holding a score of 71, both indicating "mixed or average reviews". The GameCube and Xbox versions have a 72% rating on GameRankings, while the Game Boy Advance version has 75% on GameRankings. Despite the positive reviews of the GameCube and Xbox versions and being fundamentally the same game as on the PlayStation 2 version, (with the exception of an inconvenient loading glitch) the PS2 version was met with mixed to negative reviews. It has a 53% rating on GameRankings.

Anise Hollingshead of GameZone wrote a favorable review of the GameCube version; she praised the use of a checklist, saying it was "motivating and keeps players on track." However, Hollingshead criticized the game's crude background designs and concluded that while it was a "great game" for children, "Older fans of SpongeBob may want to just rent." Steven Hopper of GameZone wrote a generally positive review of the Game Boy Advance version, calling it an excellent game for young children that could also appeal to people of all ages who were fans of the television series.

Mark Ryan Sallee of IGN wrote a negative review of the PlayStation 2 version, criticizing it for its sluggish controls, annoying music tracks, Nintendo 64-style graphics, frequent and obnoxious loading screens, simplistic gameplay, somewhat tedious fetch quests, and the unnecessary use of a checklist (it made the game feel like a chore). Sallee ended his review saying: "...Yes, pre-school-aged kids will probably get a kick out of the game, though they'd likely be more entertained mowing down prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto." Play magazine also wrote a generally negative review, giving the game 2 out of 5 stars, citing its mediocre and sparse levels, bad models, and the fact that there are loading times where there should not be any.

The Game Boy Advance version sold an estimated 740,000 copies; in August 2006, the game was ranked at number 31 on Edge magazine's list of "The Century's Top 50 Handheld Games," arranged by the number of copies sold. Edge called it "yet another mediocre game that sold brilliantly because of the sponge on its cover," writing that, "Most major review outlets don't even cover these games as they know their opinion won't matter, and they're right – this game knew exactly where its audience was, and delivered right to them."

In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of two sixes, one seven, and three fives for a total of 34 out of 40 for the PlayStation 2 version; and two eights, one five, and one nine for a total of 30 out of 40 for the Game Boy Advance version.