A child’s perception of the world always seems to differ from reality through the images they draw. Their self-portrait might lack a nose and their hand-drawn bicycle might be out of proportion and the size of a house, but ask them what they just drew and they will tell you with utmost pride. The original Drawn to Life was a charming concept that did away with pre-made characters and allowed the player’s imagination to tell the story. The concept proved a success and so now THQ have decided to try the formula out once again to now challenge gamers in a familiar world with SpongeBob and friends ready to aid you through your quest.

Set within a pre-established universe of characters and locations, the experience of Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition reminds me of those personalised storybooks you could order through the back page of the TV Guide. The story would always remain the same; it was just up to your imagination to fill in the blanks. Instead of little Johnny fighting alongside Spiderman, here you are teaming up with SpongeBob SquarePants.


After a pencil falls to the ocean floor from a clumsy artist out to sea, Patrick mistakenly brings the evil Doodlebob to life trying to remember the one thing he is not allowed to draw. Doodlebob makes off with the pencil and wrecks havoc on Bikini Bottom. Uncovering a second pencil nearby, SpongeBob attempts to draw up a hero to save the day and this is where you step in. Assuming the role of the aptly titled Doodlepants, you must save the citizens of Bikini Bottom from the evil Doodle’s chaos, rescuing familiar faces along the way with the help of SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward to aid you through your journey.

On the surface, Drawn to Life presents a simple 2D platformer like what we’ve seen time and time again. You run, you jump and you collect coins from one level to the next, with the occasional boss fight or coaster ride to keep things fresh. The platforming antics are solid, if a little drab and unoriginal - but it is the ability to draw your own adventure that sets Drawn to Life apart from other platformers.

The ability to create every element, really allows you to let your imagination run wild. If, like myself, you chose to make a penis man who lives in a vagina house, then the innocent nature of the gameplay is perhaps lost on you, but for younger gamers or the young at heart, the concept of Drawn to Life adds a nice personal element for the artistic gamer.

It is nice to give your character a sweet top hat when tasked to design a helmet or bouncing off plates of jelly instead of a conventional spring, but as the game progressed, my desire to put effort into my designs wore thin. Each time you uncover a new element the game takes you out of the 2D world to a virtual canvas. You need to put the d-pad aside, remove the stylus and pause as you design the new element’s appearance. Soon enough designing new elements feels less of a privilege and more of tedious task. Perhaps the lack of creativity in my ‘old age’ is to blame, but the stop/start mechanics that crop up every time you uncover a new item really disrupt the flow and become more of a hindrance than a blessing.


Where this, the SpongeBob Edition of Drawn to Life, falls flat is in its ability to capture the actual charm of the TV show. Without any voice clips or video to bind the game together, the humour relies entirely upon text-based dialogue, which is more or less simply informative. The cartoon has always been so completely spontaneous and yet the game feels so sterile and standardised except for the areas in which you have injected a dose of personality to. It really feels as if the licence has failed to be executed to its full potential.

At its core, Drawn to Life is a simple 2D platformer of typical proportions. Gameplay is solid if nothing taxing, but it challenges the player to use their imagination and design the experience they want, how they want it. It’s just a shame that the design aspect of the game becomes more of an undesired chore as the game progresses, but then again maybe I’m just getting old and impatient.