Play SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants! (Europe edition · English / French / German / Spanish / Italian / Dutch / Swedish) Online

Press START at the title screen, begin a new game and choose Easy or Normal. Easy is the friendlier first run; Normal leaves each character far less durable. After Gill explains that Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy have disappeared, enter Mermalair World 1-1 and choose SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy or Squidward. Your first objective is to cross the side-scrolling stage and find the missing heroes while learning to jump, attack and swap characters. Jellyfish and clams are the first enemies. Use L whenever another character better suits an obstacle: SpongeBob can float, Patrick can smash blocks with a ground pound, Sandy can cross spikes, and Squidward can double-jump. Gather Golden Stars when they are safely on your route; they can later buy extra lives and bonus mini-games at Gill's Trailer.

Control Pad: move in stages and navigate menus. A: jump or confirm. B: attack or cancel. L: switch among the four playable characters during a stage. R: use the current character's special action. START: pause and open the pause menu. SELECT: move between menu screens where available. Driving, cooking, chase and rhythm mini-games may assign different actions, so follow their on-screen prompts. During the first Man Ray rhythm battle, prompts can ask for Control Pad directions, L, R, A or B; press the displayed input in time rather than relying on the normal platform controls.