Absorbing fun

Playing “SpongeBob SquarePants -- Battle for Bikini Bottom” makes for a wonderful romp, no matter if you’re a fan of the popular TV show.

The latest installment of the series, “Bikini Bottom” gives kids the opportunity to control everyone’s favorite sea-floor dweller, SpongeBob -- as well as his goofy pal Patrick the starfish and Sandy Cheeks, the wet-suited squirrel. SpongeBob’s nemesis, the evil Plankton, has created the Duplicatotron 3000 to create an army of robots to do his evil bidding in an effort to take over SpongeBob’s home: Bikini Bottom. Problem is, the robots run amok. It’s up to SpongeBob and crew to save the day and bail Plankton out.

The gameplay is simple to understand and the challenges not too tough for older gamers -- but seem as if they’d be perfect for tots. There are plenty of bright, colorful 3D worlds to explore as you attempt to acquire the golden spatulas that unlock new levels of play.

One shining example of the originality -- as well as the attitude -- of this creation is “underwear bungee jumping.” In this endeavor, SpongeBob hooks himself to a giant rubber band and gamers control how he dives and where he ends up.

Some levels call for SpongeBob to do more than just the standard running and jumping. One maneuver is called “tongue boarding,” where the little yellow guy sails down a long water slide using -- you guessed it -- his tongue. Really phun stufph here.

Making it even more stress free for the youngsters, if SpongeBob runs out of underpants -- his health meter -- he spawns from the last checkpoint.

Sequel made for meddlers

The back of the box says it all: “Double your fun!”

“Mario Kart Double Dash!!” -- sequel to the classic “Mario Kart” -- adds the element of a co-pilot to jack-up the racing, Mario style.

Gamers select a driver, then a passenger, then choose a cart based on which characters they’ve chosen. Some characters, such as the big ape Donkey Kong, won’t fit into a light little car like the baby carriage cart, the “Goo-Goo Buggy.”

When the race begins, the driver steers while the passenger meddles with the other racers. (In single-player mode, you control both. In cooperative mode, one player drives, the other controls said meddler.) When the driver navigates through glowing cubes scattered around the track, he arms the meddler with various ammo used to hinder other racers. Who would have thought guided-missile turtle shells and banana peels could wreak such havoc?

The tracks are all quirky and imaginative -- keeping the high standards of Mario character games -- and the racing is buckets of fun.

As many as four people can also compete against each other in a race, or play in three friend-maiming battle modes.

Twice as nice.

No thrill ride

“The Haunted Mansion” is not quite a tie-in to the Eddie Murphy Disney movie, and it’s not quite true to one of the best rides at the Magic Kingdom.

It’s also not quite a great game. Sure, there are some spooky, ornate areas to explore -- like the hallway where the statues turn to watch as you walk past. But the repetitiveness of the gameplay -- solve a mysterious puzzle, then collect enough “shriveled souls” to move on to the next room -- had us howling for it to end.

Worse still, some of the items containing the “shriveled souls” you seek change from decoration to useful after you examine them.

Boo.

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Games

“SpongeBob SquarePants -- Battle for Bikini Bottom”

Good: Perfect for young fans of the show.

Bad: The camera tends to get annoying.

Details: All platforms; $39.99. Rating: E (comic mischief, mild cartoon violence).

“Mario Kart Double Dash!!”

Good: Still the best go-cart

racer around.

Bad: Only 12 tracks to race on; small battle tracks.

Details: Game Cube; $49.99. Rating: E (mild violence).

“The Haunted Mansion”

Good: The loading screens have the same creepy, changing paintings as the ride.

Bad: Solve a puzzle, collect the “souls.” Repeat.

Details: All platforms; $39.99. Rating: T (mild violence).