Right off the bat, it’s impossible not to think that Fortnite’s newest SpongeBob-themed Creative map is nothing but delightful and chaotic underwater fun. The official Fortnite Twitter account shared a post announcing ‘SpongeBob Party’ along with a new adventure created by Devhouse Agency where you get to be the hostess or host to different partygoers from Bikini Bottom. The target to aim for is to become the best host by filling the friend meters. Anyone who wants to join the fun can use island code 1793-1571-3656. The tweet announcing the new feature, like always, gathered hordes of players making different requests—skin, fixes, and others besides just a party.
Undoubtedly, the first impression is that the map is going to offer great fun. The tweet says “party like SpongeBob,” and the image it comes with is a vivid and cheerful party scene that does not fail to bring to mind the world of SpongeBob SquarePants. Since it is a Creative 2.0 island, the Devhouse Agency has the new tools to build something detailed at its disposal. The main action seems to be about entertaining guests and controlling a social meter which provides a fun different vibe as against the usual battling chaos in the royal combat. A player named ‘Bianqui’ summed up the whole situation in the simplest terms “Omg, I love SpongeBob.” So, the concept is great for the fans of the spongy yellow character.
The confusion starts here as the responses to the tweet are a classic mixture of excitement, misunderstanding, and requests. Right at the beginning, people started to ask for skins. Username ‘That1GhostGuy’ simply wrote, “Skins please.” Another user, ‘KevinTheLatex,’ was even more direct: “Fortnite, we BETTER get skins or at least backblings or buddies.” This is a recurring scenario in every situation Fortnite finds itself in when it collaborates and does not release cosmetics immediately. Players detect the IP and want to quickly display it. A user by the name of ‘GHZ33_BEAT’ even exploited the situation to ask for Dragon Ball sidekicks, indicating how these announcements turn out to be a wish list bulletin board.
Then we have the drama. A couple of users reported that Fortnite seemed to have gotten rid of an original tweet. User ‘tgraybird’ said, “I just realized you guys deleted the original tweet LOL.” This led to a little thread of confusion where ‘portal_wake’ was asking “What happened?” and ‘nikitacrave’ was exclaiming, “No one is showing the ss of what they said im so confused.” Classic Twitter mystery, adding an extra layer of “what did we miss?” to the whole matter. Who knows what was in that first tweet but it is no longer there.
And of course complaints about the game itself, which are completely unconnected to SpongeBob, always sneak in a Fortnite thread. User ‘VH1996VH’ resurrected the old favorite debate about vs. traversable emote wheel: “Bring back the favorite and traversable wheels already. Why did you purposefully make it worse? We want the old system ffs.” Another person, ‘7_HileX_6,’ suggested fixing the XP problems before showcasing the islands: “First of all, make sure that the XP drops normally!! Before you advertise any islands.” It is a reminder that, for many of the community, the functionality of the core game is less important than the new island.
References to the culture were also very rapid. The words “Ain’t no party like a SpongeBob party” were quoted by a few, such as ‘m_ysteryman,’ which is certainly a reference. But it was deeper. User ‘LePhox_’ contributed, “They did a diddy reference, but I can’t prove it,” which triggered a whole side talk about whether the phrase came from Diddy, Coolio, or S Club 7. User ‘TreeRex29’ added, “Don’t think it actually started with Diddy but that’s what it’s associated with now.” Thus, a musical history lesson is taught, even in a SpongeBob thread. Wait, what was I saying?
Oh, right, it was SpongeBob. Some responses were only pure and very straightforward demand for different crossovers. ‘CheezyHeezy’ wanted to have Attack on Titan season 4 skins and even told Epic not to “fumble.” ‘GhostmanMY’ very simply asked, “Where’s Harry Potter.” Whereas ‘Wolfy5505_’ begged for the WWE stars Rhea Ripley and Jay Uso. It seems that the original tweet just set off everyone’s most wanted co-op requests. Even ‘PolyBotic_Thief’ took the chance to ask for a Build mode to be made available for other LTMs. The attention is scattered all over.
