Next Drawn to Life to Star SpongeBob SquarePants

A new follow-up to 5th Cell's drawing-adventure hybrid Drawn to Life (NDS) will feature children's television network Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants license, MTV Multiplayer reports.

Entitled Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants, the follow-up adopts gameplay mechanics of the first Drawn to Life title and allows players to draw their own protagonist, erase enemies and illustrate power-ups and checkpoints. The game will be developed by Altron, a Japanese studio which has produced several licensed titles.

Though the pairing of the animated series license with Drawn to Life may make little sense to newly acquainted gamers, publisher THQ is quick to point out that the game's antagonist DoodleBob, an evil sketched clone of SpongeBob SquarePants, is lifted directly from the animated series. So, there's that.

Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants will hit the DS in North America this fall.