Review | PowerWash Simulator: Spongebob Squarepants DLC

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Jesse 'Doncabesa' Norris June 30, 2023Last Updated: December 28, 2023

0 1,826 3 minutes read

PowerWash Simulator came out of nowhere to capture the world’s collective hearts while winning hundreds of GotY awards (citation needed). Arriving day one on Game Pass we covered the title back at launch and were awash with praise about this soaking good time. A Spongebob Squarepants DLC map pack has just been launched for $8 US, to the delight of billions worldwide (citation needed). Let’s head under the sea, don our hoses, and spray the day away to see if you should pay.

Are Ya Ready Kids?

This won’t be a long review, but it will be a glowing one. If you’re like any of the 14 billion fans worldwide (citation needed) then you know and love Spongebob. The long-running cartoon is a brilliant mix of sheer stupidy for dumb kids and slightly less dumb witticisms for us stupid adults. This DLC pack brings multiple locations from the TV directly into your video gaming device, through magic! (citation needed). From Spongebob’s Pineapple to Squidward’s Statue and even the Krusty Krab, you’ll visit various locations around Bikini Bottom to clean ‘em up.

Everything is covered in a thick, viscous, smelly, deadly goo (citation needed), and you’ll be tasked with using a power washer to shoot it all off. If you’ve never played the title before PowerWash Simulator is a relaxed, low-pressure single-player campaign that can be replayed in free-play mode with many friends. Using various spray nozzles, soaps, and grit you’ll slowly but surely clean off bits of crud from various objects. As each is cleaned you’ll get money, with you can buy stupid outfits, better equipment, and more soap. It’s a relaxed, chill vibe and one of the better podcast games out there. The base title is still available on game pass for console and pc and it is my go-to title when I need to wind down after a long day.

VALUE!

Priced at $8 I ended up spending a solid 5+ hours going through all the various maps in the game the first time. Once a map is fully cleaned up that unlocks it for free play mode, which supports cooperative play. Each section of Bikini Bottom looks straight out of the show, and you’ll be dressed up in a truly ridiculous-looking spongebobified version of the normal PowerWash Simulator outfit.

The texture work is solid, featuring custom art for all of your height-enhancing ladders. There are even a few custom sound effects for when you place things down and it all works well within the ridiculous framework that is Spongebob. As per usual there is no music, with the only non-power washing ambiance provided through text on the right side of the screen. At various points of your washing adventures characters from the show will send you silly messages that I always forgot to read. The few times I did they were fine. Not really funny, but they fit the vibe of the show.

Without spoiling all the locations I have to say that one of the last ones was my favorite. It pulled from one of the weirder parts of the show’s long history and offered up a massive variety of objects to clean. With the focus being on a kid’s show I did notice that there were fewer problematic cleaning requirements. A large table, for instance, was just that table and wasn’t broken into every individual piece of it. Once you reach a threshold near 100% the game will ding and make the entire object clean. The more numerous the smaller pieces you have the harder the level is. These levels were made up of mostly large objects, which was greatly appreciated. I did have one major repeatable bug. If I tried to move the scaffolding while standing on it I was sent into an unrecoverable fall through the environment every single time. Thankfully loading times are quick, but it was frustrating when it happened nonetheless.