Dirty Bubble Busters is a SpongeBob platforming game developed by Sarbakan for the Nickelodeon website. It focuses on SpongeBob and Patrick, who are on a mission to save Bikini Bottom from the Dirty Bubble by cleaning up all the trash and other evil bubbles that the Dirty Bubble has spread all over the city.
Controls[]
- Left/Right: Move
- Up: Jump
- Down: Crouch
- Mouse: Drag to aim, click to use vacuum
Gameplay[]
Dirty Bubble Busters consists of four platforming levels where you have to make your way to the end while picking up trash and defeating enemies along the way. Both trash and enemies can be dealt with by sucking them up with your vacuum, which can be enhanced if you collect any power-ups that appear in various spots.
SpongeBob and Patrick share a life system in this game, which makes for a rather unique dynamic. On each life, you start out playing as SpongeBob, and if he dies, no lives are lost; instead, Patrick will spawn in, and if he dies a life is lost and you get to play as SpongeBob again. Furthermore, since most enemies attack by trying to possess your characters, SpongeBob can actually be rescued by Patrick if he gets possessed by having an enemy bubble get stuck to his head; doing this allows you to play as SpongeBob a second time on the same life after Patrick dies.
Power-Ups[]
- Extra Strength: Boosts the strength of your vacuum, allowing you to suck things up more quickly.
- Extra Width: Boosts the width of your vacuum's range, giving the vacuum a wider range of influence.
- Extra Length: Boosts the length of your vacuum's range, allowing you to suck things up from a further distance.
- Invincibility: Temporarily makes you invincible and boosts your vacuum's range so it can suck up everything within a 360-degree radius around you.
Enemies[]
- Rolling Bubble: Rolls back and forth across the ground. Possesses you if you come into contact with it.
- Floating Bubble: Floats around in a preset pattern, usually either back and forth in a straight line or in a circle. Possesses you if you come into contact with it.
- Homing Bubble: Floats in the air and chases after you. Possesses you if you come into contact with it.
- Bubble Fish: A fish with a bubble stuck on his head. Runs back and forth, and sometimes throws mudballs at you. If you get the bubble off the fish but don't suck up the bubble, it'll become a Homing Bubble.
- Jellyfish: Electrocutes you if you touch it or suck it up, briefly stunning you.
Bosses[]
- Bubble Worm: A giant chain of evil bubbles that travel together like a giant worm, encountered at the end of the second level. To defeat it, you have to try to get to the back end of the Bubble Worm and suck up all the bubbles one by one, but be careful not to get hit as the Bubble Worm keeps chasing you. Once there is only one bubble left, it'll self-destruct, ending the battle.
- The Dirty Bubble: The villainous Dirty Bubble himself, encountered at the end of the fourth level. To defeat him, you have to suck up the pufferfish that sometimes appear in the room and shoot them at the Dirty Bubble as he floats around the room. But be careful not to get hit as he'll sometimes stop to spit mudballs at you.
Errors[]
- The Dirty Bubble's attack animation for when he spits mudballs has him colored differently.
Trivia[]
- This game was released on Earth Day as part of an Earth Day campaign called The Big Green Help.
- You can unlock a bonus minigame by entering a code in the title screen; the code is WALMART.
- SpongeBob and Patrick's outfits in this game are a reference to the Ghostbusters uniform.