Apparently, SpongeBob Squarepants transcends the Simlish language barrier, because the IP has officially come to The Sims 4 in two new Kits released Dec. 4. Aligning with the upcoming release of The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants later this month, players can now purchase SpongeBob’s House Kit and SpongeBob Kids Room Kit. Reactions to this Kit have been extremely mixed, with some decrying it as a cash grab from a company out of ideas, and others genuinely excited by its whimsy. After spending some time with the pack, I believe that both those ideas can coexist.
When I was growing up, one of my best friends had a completely SpongeBob-themed room — bright yellow walls, curtains covered with his face staring down at you, the whole nine yards. So honestly, the gaudy aesthetic a lot of the items in this pack possess barely phased me. However, I do love versatility in furniture, and I set out to determine if making a room with any semblance of normalcy is possible with this Kit.
The answer is: Kinda. Some of the pieces like the fishing-hook end table, a versatile rug, and even some swatches of the oversized fishing lure have some widespread applications and could easily fit in Brindleton Bay as well as they do in Bikini Bottom.
The next level of items is very clearly a SpongeBob reference, but not excessively garish, like the dinghy bookcase and framed wall art, which has a lot of different swatches with references to things like Mr. Krabs’ first dollar (both the original and the one covered in paint) and handsome Squidward. The latter item especially I can see used in adult Sim households as a sort of ironic millennial decor.
At the heart of it, though, both Kits are designed to be very boldly SpongeBob, which does make them great for child Sims (particularly the Kids Room Kit, obviously, but they both have some merit for youngins). There are a lot of swatches for creating a room themed around a myriad of different SpongeBob characters, from Patrick to Pearl to the yellow guy himself, and as someone who loves family-oriented gameplay, I’m always excited by new theme options for children’s rooms.
Some of the items have a level of detail I didn’t expect, like the Krusty Krab playset. When Sims play with it, you can see dolls of Man Ray and Barnacle Boy, and I found that delightful. Perhaps my favorite surprise was the foghorn alarm clock, which shakes the entire house when it goes off and made me audibly cackle at its ridiculousness.
There are a few disappointing items, most of all the magic conch. For such an iconic item, the design is so bad. It looks like a vague collection of purple polygons, and there is no interactivity whatsoever. If there had even been just one interaction, where Sims could pick up the conch and pull a string and have it say a Simlish “no,” it would’ve been so much better.
There are also some areas that just feel like missed opportunities. There’s no pool decor, for instance — how hard would it have been to just get a few decals to stick on underwater tiles, or even just a separate kiddie pool with a SpongeBob theme?
So did this Kit really need to exist? It’s undeniably got undertones of movie tie-in slop, and some of the items are really not up to snuff, but it by no means feels entirely unthoughtful and soulless, either. By definition, Kits are the lowest form of DLC that The Sims 4 possesses, so they’re never going to do anything mind-blowing.
You know what this Kit did do, though? It gave me some moments of genuine silly joy. Does it all just boil down to the Leo pointing meme of me recognizing references from my childhood? Pessimistically, sure, but I don’t care, because I can now hang “Bold and Brash” in my Sims’ homes, and I love that for me. I also think it’s easy for a lot of adult Simmers to forget that many children also love the game, and many of them probably love SpongeBob, too.
I don’t mind the inclusion of real-life brands within The Sims 4 — I once spent an entire afternoon hunting down specific meshes so that I could put Lush products in my Sim’s bathroom, so the immersion-breaking argument never really held water for me. For players that don’t care about SpongeBob SquarePants or that hate the idea of existing IPs in the game, this Kit is not for you, but I do think there’s a specific audience that will enjoy it.
The Sims 4 SpongeBob’s House Kit & SpongeBob’s Kid’s Room Kit are available now on PlayStation, Windows PC, and Xbox. The DLC was reviewed on PC using a prerelease download code provided by EA. You can find additional information about viraltrendingcontent’s ethics policy here.
