I’ve never written a review on the App Store but as a full grown adult, I truly love this game. Most of the negative reviews are in reference to not having enough energy. This is my two cents - trust the developers. As someone who has completed all of the available locations.. you don’t want to rush through this game. I will admit when I first downloaded the game there was not enough available energy. But, I have been playing for probably almost a year now and the developers have added SO much. I actually love the setup they have now and hope they don’t change it too much going forward. I love that the blue jelly fish multiplier encourages/rewards you for logging in everyday. Getting that 3x energy makes a big difference. This isn’t the kind of game you sit on for hours+. I usually play for a bit before bed and if I’m really working toward a task I’ll make sure to hop on for 5-10min throughout the day. I do spend money on the game but only $5-$10 here and there so it is definitely playable without spending money - I am just impatient. Hence why I have completed all locations and am here telling you it’s OK to take it slow, the game is worth it. There is truly nothing quite like it on the App Store (I’ve looked).

If you aren’t someone that wants to spend a ton of money on a game this isn’t for you. I will spend money on a game when it seems worth it this game is not. I’ve had this game about a week and I’ve already gotten to a point that I cannot move forward without buying resources. The energy bar only fills up to 50 and without finding more around the game or buying it you have to wait for your bar to fill back up to clear up the maps. Some things cost 120+ to break and that makes no sense at all. Maybe don’t cap the energy limit as low or maybe raise it as you progress? The price to production ratio is totally off. One of the only ways to get coins is to fulfill orders but the things that it takes to fill the orders take hours to make and you don’t get enough coins to warrant that amount of effort. I’m at level 18 and I’ve been saving my coins since 16 to build one building. Every time you fill an order it gives you points to level up along with the coins- that’s great, however, I level up faster than it takes to even save enough money to build the buildings that correspond to my level and now I have 5 different buildings to build with not enough coins to build them. 300 coins an order on average and 20-30,000 to even build anything. Also there isn’t a way that you can put everything in your inventory to plan where you want anything and it’s just annoying to move things around.

I really like this game, and I spend down time playing it almost everyday! The graphics are nice and very true to the actual show, which I grew up watching (and still watch honestly). I like the farming and harvesting competitions where you earn tons of extra energy as well. My only gripe is the rate at which energy is replenished versus spent. Clearing debris is expensive in comparison to how much energy is earned. They have different ways to earn energy, but it seems like the more you progress through the various locations outside of Bikini Bottom, the more expensive it is to clear debris. (Ex: At King Krab’s Castle, it costs 145 energy to get more kelp, and then you’re only given like 5 or 6 kelp.) A good example of a proper exchange rate for energy would be the side quest in SpongeBob’s couch, where clearing debris cost at most 10-15 energy and you got a lot of product. This kept me motivated to play the side quest more than the actual game before it closed after two weeks. In addition, once you move to another location, you cannot access it again after 48 hours, so if you had a lot of debris left that you could harvest, it’s lost. Outside of those things, I do really enjoy playing the game!

As other reviewers have noted, the energy and resource disparity is a major problem. It caps at 50 and that doesn’t expand… I’m currently level 22, on the 7th world, King Krab’s Castle. Clearing 1 item costs anywhere from 145 to 300 energy in that world. What’s worse is they output the same number of resources per item. Need wood? Spend 260 energy to clear a log and receive 3-5 wood max. That’s waiting 5 hours minimum with Gary giving energy to clear a single item, but cost for the light wood board is 6 wood and two shells… so hours for no progress at all. Getting around this map takes absolutely forever, even if the maps and items are creative and engaging. As someone else said pies are hard to acquire, and there is no point playing the events because you waste precious energy for trash prizes. The order board is totally skewed, you spend a lot of high value resources to get minimal reward that causes you to level up way too fast. 150 energy for an order that cost me 600 energy at this level… worthless. Recommendation to new players, stay at the lower worlds and collect every resource, even though the game encourages you to travel, it’s a pay trap. After world 5 you will have to pay or stop playing. This is fun until they box you into paying to progress. Great concept, but terrible execution for energy and resource metrics.