I played the Spongebob Drawn to Life and it was a lot of fun. I'd say it was the best Spongebob game I ever played. I then preceeded to play Drawn to Life 2 on the Wii and I had no fun at all. It had a load of problems right from the start.
Well, I never played the Spongebob Drawn to Life, so I'm willing to bet it was a lot different than the original. The original had a lot of merit, but it was definitely problem ridden. The levels were a pain in the butt to navigate, and if you missed one necessary item, it resulted in a lot of painful searching. The weapons system was retarded also. I mean really, they gave you a gun first off, and scrapped that for a sword in the last world. Add to that the crude feeling of the physics engine, the huge annoying village you must constantly navigate, and you start to develop a problem. Oh, and that's not even to mention the lame setup of color choices. That all didn't make the game bad though. Packaged in the game was a decent platformer, with some
awesome music that I'll never forget. And then there's the story. Though ridiculously cutesy/kiddy styled, it had quite a dark story. I mean, really, a kid who decided he could be God, going mad and covering the world in snow and shadow? It's a bit of a thoughtful plot for what appears to be a young kids game. The whole beginning, with the last survivors' calling out to the Creator, and the introduction stage with my
favorite song from the game, served to set a distinct mood that I don't often see in games. My only complaint in that respect is that I wish they had developed the personalities of all the Raposa you rescued more. For the most part, they were stuck on very limited script the whole game through.
Almost all of the problems I mentioned were fixed in the second version, however.
They seem to have
completely rewrote the physics engine, and it now feels much more natural to move around in. If that's not good enough, they redid the level system, so that it is now more of a traditional "get to the end" goal. Thought, there is still stuff hidden around for you to find. Also, they redid the weapons system, replaced the annoying village with the much more polished Turtle Town, and countless other things. My only complaint would be that I didn't find many memorable songs in it, but I think I'm alone in it, as others seem to love the music. Even the art in th game, which was fine in the first, was better in the second. They put a lot of effort into the hand drawn environments of the
multiple hub worlds.
...And only now do I realize that neither of the games you mentioned were actually made by Fifth Cell. Did you even know about that? I didn't. Apparently, both the Wii titles were spin-off titles developed by teams other than Fifth Cell. And after watching a few reviews scathing the Wii version of The Next Chapter for being so inferior to the DS title, I think I get the idea. With a closer look, I realized we're talking about two different games. The only thing remotely similar is the story. The levels, abilities, gameplay, and music is drastically different in the DS one, and a lot of people who loved the DS version hate the Wii game. If I were you, I'd get a copy of the DS version of The Next Chapter. I think you'll find you like it a
lot more.