SpongeBob SquarePants: Legend of the Lost Spatula

SpongeBob SquarePants: Legend of the Lost Spatula
Developer: Vicarious Visions Publisher: THQ Platform: Game Boy Color Released in US: March 14, 2001 Released in EU: May 4, 2001 This game has unused areas. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Legend of the Lost Spatula is SpongeBob's first solo video game outing. It follows SpongeBob's ongoing endeavor to become the greatest fry cook in Bikini Bottom, via acquisition of the legendary Golden Spatula.

To do: Regional differences(?)

Debugging Features

Stage Select/All Items

Enter the password D3BVG-M0D3 (Debug Mode) and the game will start with a stage select added to the sub-screen, as well as give you all the items in the game. Among these items is the Power Ring, which if equipped will make SpongeBob invincible (he's still knocked back by attacks) and allow him to jump higher.

When equipped, SpongeBob does a pose extending his fist and his pants turn green and orange. The costume and the pose associated with the Power Ring are a reference to the episode "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" where SpongeBob and Patrick wear costumes associated with the senior citizen superheroes, who also use Power Rings of their own.

Alternately, enter -THQ-0NLY- (THQ Only, referring to the publisher) for the stage select or 1T3MS4FR33 (Items For Free) for all items.

Note that increasing and resetting the "stage number" reflects on how far into the game the player is in regards to a specific area, with 1 being the beginning and higher numbers being later in the game.

Unused Room

There is an inaccessible room off to the right of the Outer Town map. It can be accessed by using a hex editor and changing the value 04A945 to 00, 01, or 05. From the looks of it, it appears to resemble SpongeBob's living room from the Season 1 episode "Jellyfish Jam".

Vicarious Visions' next SpongeBob game actually did feature a minigame based on the episode, so it's possible that it was planned for this game first.