SpongeBob and Patrick may chatter and chirp out exposition between levels, but the real bones of the plot are filled in not with words but with your stylus. In our Drawn to Life universe, Patrick revives Hitler by stitching his severed head to the body of an octopus. Thus, the newly christened Hitlerpus, an angry, boneless individual who sleeps on a bed of spikes, heads out on a platforming adventure armed only with a set of springy-bouncy high-heeled shoes and a small tabby cat, with whom the Fuhrer shields his head from falling rocks.

So as you can see, thanks to your ability to draw aspects of the game from scratch, Drawn to Life is quite literally what you make of it. As a game, it’s a scourge on the human race – a lazy platformer which isn’t helped by a terrible new combat system where you draw shapes directly onto the playing field. But it simply has to be experienced at least once. Actually, if you played last year’s predecessor, probably only once.

Oct 9, 2008