The best ideas are usually the craziest. Pac-Man, one of the most recognizable game characters in the world, was inspired by the shape of a pizza minus one slice. The premise for SpongeBob SquarePants may not have resonated as well as, say, a mouse that can talk. But kids still fell in love with the zany, over-the-top characters and well-written comedy. It's silly humor that viewers of all ages can appreciate.

In the game world, SpongeBob's best ideas have been his craziest. Battle for Bikini Bottom was a fun, action-oriented platformer with a great deal of replay value. The inventive level designs, enjoyable combat and amusing story sequences were steps above other licensed games.

Not all of SpongeBob's adventures have fared equally well. On the Nintendo DS, SpongeBob's Atlantis Squarepantis turned out to be one of the best action/adventure games of 2007. The game also had success as a puzzler for mobile phones. It did not, however, do well as a mini-game collection for PlayStation 2.

The good news for the Wii edition is that the controls are less cumbersome than they were on PS2. The bad news is that it is the exact same game in every other respect.

SpongeBob MiniPants

What do Simon Says, a camera, a cave, and an ice cream-shooting tank have in common? They're all featured as mini-games in Atlantis Squarepantis. The game opens smoothly with a tank battle against a group of enemies and automated gun turrets. I was surprised by the pre-level instructions, which told me to turn the Wii remote on its side and use the D-pad to maneuver the tank. This contradicts the box information, which shows both the remote and the nunchuck as being supported. The nunchuck isn't supported though – you'll play through the entire game without ever touching it.

Tank controls are limited to driving and shooting, and are well refined for a game that doesn't use an analog stick. Shots are targeted automatically by the location of your tank and the location of the object you're trying to shoot. It has to be a target-specific item (enemies, door switches and pillars) for the lock-on to occur, otherwise the ice cream will splat elsewhere.

Each tank level is broken down into three or four sections, as are all mini-games in Atlantis Squarepantis. The first focuses on survival while inching from the entrance to the exit. The other sections focus specifically on destroying enemies to unlock a door, hitting switches to unlock a door, or destroying enemies to reveal switches that need to be hit to unlock a door.

In the Simon Says stages, the up, down, left, right, 1 and 2 button icons are scrolled across the screen – just like DDR and other music games. Most of these aren't in sync with music. You press the shown buttons to keep your characters, such as SpongeBob and Patrick, from getting kicked out of the walking spree. They walk across the screen as the button icons scroll. They don't do much else – just walk. Occasionally they'll stop to deal with an obstacle, such as a giant monster thing that wants to keep you from progressing. Once the "shake the remote" note and meter appears, shake it with all your might. If the meter is filled before the time runs out, the monster will be defeated. You'll move on and get back to playing Simon Says.

The camera stages are SpongeBob's version of Pokemon Snap. It's also one of the few places where the Wii's motion capabilities come into play for something other than shaking. Aim with the remote, snap photos with the A button, and throw burgers with the B button. Burgers, believe it or not, are quite hazardous. Fire one at a security guard – who will do his best to stop you from taking pictures – and he'll be stunned temporarily, allowing you to proceed.

Venturing outside of mini-game madness for just a few moments, the cave/puzzle stages trap players in a large top-down environment. The goal is to find whatever item is needed to open the exit, such as a ladder or something to pick a lock. Doing this means having to open gates and move boulders with SpongeBob (he uses his spatula to lift them), throw characters across gaps with Patrick, run up conveyer belts with Squidward, and so on.

Having already gotten through them on PS2, these stages were no longer a nightmare. But I fear for those experiencing them for the first time, especially kids expecting action and excitement. All they get is monotonous confusion. The goal is made clear but the path to the goal is not. “That’s part of the puzzle,” you could say. That would be a justifiable statement if the solution were logical and fun. But it ends being little more than a hurdle – one with repetition, snail-paced movement, and virtually no reward for its completion (aside from not having to put up with it anymore).

The one thing that ties these mini-games together is their inability to know when to quit. If you were to take out one section from each mini-game, Atlantis Squarepantis could be finished in an hour or less. That’s why there are multiple sections – to artificially inflate a short game. Not only do the mini-games themselves repeat, but each section is nearly identical to the one that came before it, creating a game of been there, been there again, and isn’t it over yet?

Gameplay: 5.0
Atlantis Snorepantis.

Graphics: 5.0
Several years behind some of SpongeBob’s older and more entertaining adventures.

Sound: 5.0
Aside from the occasional line of amusement, Atlantis Squarepantis doesn’t have much to offer in the area of sound. The music and sound effects aren’t terrible but have little value.

Difficulty: Easy
You’ll be frustrated by the confusing caves, infuriated by the Simon Says stages, and annoyed by the boring tank skirmishes.

Concept: 5.0
It thinks it wants to be a party game, an action game, a music game. But it can’t be all of them without fully developing the core mechanics of each genre. As a result, it isn’t any of them.

Multiplayer: 4.0
Retro-style mini-games are offered as a single- and multiplayer bonus. This would be great if they were fun to play.

Overall: 5.0
Great on the DS, fun on mobile phones, Atlantis Squarepantis is not a series to ignore entirely. The Wii version, however, is not the one that deserves your attention.