SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom- Rehydrated

Game'scover

About the Game

One of the most known beloved figures/Mascots of the recent era is SpongeBob SquarePants. In 1999 a Marine educator and animator named Stephen Hillenburg designed Sponge Bob. The series was premiered in Nickelodeon and it was meet with massive success. SpongeBob depicts a sponge named Bob who with his friend Patrick Star are having the time of their lives living in the Bikini Bottom, a fictional city under water. SpongeBob is all about having fun with his friends and working at Krusty Krab as a cook. The Krusty Krab is home to Krabby Patty, a delicious burger that everybody seems to love. The recepy of the burger is something the villain of the series Plankton wish to steal in order for his restaurant to work. He usually comes with different acts and machines that he can come up with in order to steal them. Sponge Bob is not alone in the Bikini bottom as he usually finds himself and Patrick annoying their neighbor Squidward or going in adventures with Sandy Cheeks, a Texas Squirell living in the ocean inside a bubble like Dome and wears a diving suit everytime she walks outside. SpongeBob's success lead to him becomming a multimedia mascot that broke into other media than just cartoons. The series consist of 300 episodes, multiple comic books, video games, movies and others.

In 2020 a newly developed studio named Purple Lamp made their first game Sponge Bob Square Pants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated which was published by THQ Nordic. The game is a remaster of an old claasic game SpongeBob: Battle of the Bikini Bottom which was released in 2003 and was developed by Heavy iron. Rehydrated depicts that idea as this is the game comming back. The game is an adventure 3D platformer that finds the heroes following a certain mission. The game was highly anticipated for two main reasons. The first being that this was SpongeBob's first game in 5 years(more for home console release) and it was a remaster of a beloved game that 17 years since its release was still being speedruned in different streamming platforms. The game's animations looked cleanned and the whole game looked like a chef's kiss. Upon its release the game was met with mix reviews. As a new game, the game felt outdated as there were many platformers that did things better and simply put, this fell like a good looking Ps2 game. Furthermore, the speedrun community did not like the game as much since glitches and different skips were no longer available in the new HD version of the game.

In January 2020 the game came out in the following versions:

Standard
Included the game alone
Shiny Edition
Included the game, a pair of socks, Art Cards, Stickers and a Sponge Bob statue(Different hero from each provider) .
F.U.N Edition
Included the game, a pair of socks, Art Cards, Stickers, set of Keyrings and a statue of the three heroes Sandy, SpongeBob and Patrick .

Game's character

Story of the Game

It was a good day in the Bikini Bottom but something was being cooked in the Chum Bucket and no it wasn't food. Plankton made his recent project, the Duplicatoron 3000 which he would use to produce robots as his new plan to take the secret formula of the krabby Patty. Before realizing, Plankton had a huge mechanical amry infront of him but failed to realize that his machine was on the Don't obey mode which meant none of the clones would obey his order. The robots then proceed to kick Plankton out of his bucket and continued to produce robots in order to wreak havoc all over Bikini Bottom. Ironically, back in SpongeBob's house he and Patrick got bored of playing with their fake robots. Patrick cast his "magic Spell" in order to make their play time more interesting by having their Robots come to live. Next morning, SpongeBob awaken by the invasion of robots in his house. To his suprise he gets rid off the robots and collect shiny things which his Boss Mr.Krabs wants him to collect for him. Near his house a devestated Plankton was there who denied having any involment with the robot incident and cries for help as the robots kicked him out of his house. He used these excuses to pursue Bob into helping him get back into the bucket. The secret in doing so would be for SpongeBob to collect an item called the golden spatula.
Thus our Sponge friend ventures around Bikini bottom in order to collect the golden Spatula and help everyone who needs his friends.

Thoughts on the story

I personally enjoy how goofy and how in character the story of the game is. Platformers dont require the most complicated story telling in order to work. All they need is a decent scenario and a good gameplay. In this scenario the game delivers a story that is literraly out of the usual scenarios found in the spongeBob movies, cartoons and comic books. For anyone playing the game the story is so easy that they can literally begin the game, go on a small hiatus come back and still remember most things as if it was yesterday. It doesn't have any character development as lets be honest, 95% of the people who will play, played or will be playing the game are aware of SpongeBob and the Bikini Bottom lore. On the other hand for those who re unaware of these characters the game does a good job of showing the strengths and personalities of each hero.

Game's character

Gameplay

To it's core the game is a 3D platformer. The player gets control of SpongeBob who walks out of his iconic Pinapple house with the goal of collecting Golden Spatulas that re scattered across Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob's neighborhood acts like the hub world where the player can move around and collect various items or interact with the rest of the cast positioned in the hub-world. The player can then walk to nearby busstops and open his path to new areas. Once an area is unlocked the player will then teleport to the first level of the selected location.

Each level is divided by many smaller levels that re interconnected. These levels dont follow an open world formula but instead are big sandboxes. The aim of the player is to begin venturing from the starting point all the way to the end of the last level. All areas consist of multiple enemy mobs who will try to kill the player, various platforming areas and ofcourse their collectables. These collectables are the Golden Spatulas and Patrick's socks. Some levels also consist of certain items that the hero will have to collect for his friends. For example, SpongeBob will might have to find lost campers in the kelp area, break the snowmans(made of sands), collect lost pictures or collect power for the generators. All of these side missions/collectables are things that the NPCs will ask in order to give SpongeBob a golden spatula as a reward.
Game's character

The game has 3 playable heroes. The player can swap between them by stopping at a bus stop. These heroes are:
The first one is none other that SpongeBob SquarePants. Most of the time he is the character the players will spent most of the time with. SpongeBob is capable of walking and double jumping. When it comes down to compact or other platforming tasks the hero will have to use his soap bubbles. The main method of attacking is using spongeBob's bubble wand. A close range melee attack which makes the hero spin and attack most of the enemies. However, some enemies require a different approach from the sponge. With a tap of a button, the sponge can ground smash/stomp the ground by creating bubble feet. Anything located underneath him will get destroyed. SpongeBob also has a rocket jump ability that allows the hero to jump vertically with a bubble helmet which will attack anything located on top of him. The rocket jump jumps higher than double jump however the player cannot move whilst jumping. Furthermore, the hero is capable of throwing a remote control Bubble bomb. This is a missle that once launch gives the player seven seconds to aim towards a direction. Another longe range attack is the bowling bubble. Once again the hero is launching a bubble which represents a bowling ball. The longer the player holds the button the furthest the bubble goes. Last but not least, SpongeBob has four unique manuvering techniques. The first one is Shpere mode where Bob turns into a small ball. This allows him to move faster and squize through small areas. Some areas are designed with that power up in mind. Tapping a button will turn the hero back to normal. The second manuver ability is wall bounce. The hero gets attached to a wall and jumps to the other side. The third ability of the hero is Bungee jumping. The hero can jump down an area to collect/press items and pull himself back up. The final ability is sneak. By holding a button down the hero tip toes around hiding in plain side. Using that he can sneak peak on enemies and smash them

The Second playable hero is Patrick Star. Patrick is also able of moving around in a 3D space, double jump and also ground pound. Unlike SpongeBob he doesnt use bubble feet but instead he smashes the ground with his body and instead of spinning and attacking with a bubble wand he uses his belly to hit enemies infront of him. Unlike the main hero, Patrick's gameplay is simple as the only thing he does extra is having the ability to pick up items. Patrick can pick the stones found around in areas and throw them on top of enemies or on pressure plates. Another thing he can pick up is watermellons that have a time limit before exploding. The difference amongs the two is that the watermellon will be smashed if it hits an enemy. Last but not least ice cubes are located in certain areas that allow Patrick to temporarily freeze the water's surface in order to walk ontop. Once the timer runs out the water unfreezes and kills Patrick if he is caught hovering above.

The last playable hero is Sandy. It goes without saying that double jumb and basic mobility is also part of Sandy's arsenal and just like the previous two, Sandy deals with robots using her signarute Karate attacks. What makes her unique is the fact that this squirell has a lasso. Sandy can use her lasso to reach Robots that re flying or are overall near her. With a tap of a button she will launch her lasso towards her target and squize her target to death. The lasso can also be used outside of combat for manuvering purposes. First of all by holding a button she can spin her lasso forming a helicopter propeler which helps her hover on air and cover a certain distance before completely falling down. Also certain levels have a texas flag poll to which she can launch her lasso and swing across. Some areas have multiple consecutive ones which will have the hero swing from pole to pole.
Game's character

Generally speakning the gameplay focusses on the players moving form place to place, taking down enemies and collecting their targets. The enemy variety is decent for a ps2 remaster game and some of them do require their own ways to die, such as stomping, attacking from below, taking out the shield before the enemy, deflecting the upcomming attack and launching range attacks. It also consist of boss fights which have their own standard unique gimmicks. The boss fight also have characters commenting over the fight. The levels do have their own unique platforming tasks based on the location. They also consist of boxes that re scattered to the beggining and end of a level as a way to fast travel back and forth. Moreover, they consist of slide portions where the characters are tasks to slide down a map(ssx style) and try to reach the finish line on time in order to get a golden spatula or to simply collect the hidden items. Furthermore, there are seashells that require the player to spent shiny objects in order to open and reveal a puzzle or simply open and reveal a new path.

Last but not least the game does have multiplayer of two players. However, the coop here is not for the main campaign but instead is a seperate Hoard mode. The players get control of SpongeBob and Patrick as they fight through waves of enemy bots. The camera swaps to side top down view of a map as the heroes work together to defeat the enemies and proceed through a level. There's not much things to say aside from it being fan in the beginning and then being repeatetive and boring. The mode doesnt offer any new abilities or any difficulty to make you wanna play or even compete with your friends and the game was easy enough in the first place. Ofcourse i do understand that the directed audience is more towards the younger age but still, looking at games like Mario, Sackboy and ohters you can tell they could ve done better. Ofcourse this is the first game in the recent era so who knows, this might lead to someting bigger and better.

Game's character

Sound and Graphics

The overall presentation of the game left me with mix feelings. From one side it is filled with personality and animations and on the other hand it looks cheap and uncared. For example, the game is a remaster so all of the areas where made to look exactly like the older version but it was 2020 so the developers decided to have fun with the project by inserting various images referencing the hero's legacy. For example memes like handswom squidward, caveman spongeBob and others can be found everywhere in the game. It can be seen in pictures around various rooms or even in paintings on the walls. The game has a few idle animations for the hero the players are currently using and also for heroes found around the area. For example, if you find Patrick in the hub world and sit close to him his pants might drop and he will be embarassed. If you go inside Sandys zero water dome, Spongebob will be dry and skinny and Patrick can be seen trying to spy on the two. Then on the other hand you see some death animation that were literally so stiff they might as well had the hero model T posing.

On the sound department the game is simply alright. The game brings back the original voice actors to reprise their iconic roles. The background songs are nothing to lose your head over are the majority are standard "SpongeBob songs" that you can find whilst watching the show or the films. What is worth noting is that there are many times where the Audio will glitch and you will hear the audio file on repeat and on higher than the rest volume. The solution is to leave the level and come back. You know that the Purple Lamp wont fix it as I played the game 4 years after it's release. This noice glitch is something that can occur at any level and not somewhere specific.

Game's character

Final Thoughts

In conclusion SpongeBob The battle of Bikini Bottom Rehydrated is an okay game for gamers and pretty good for younger players. It was meant to be a remaster of the 2003 with better graphicks but in that essence it failed as what made the old one stand the test of time was the glitches, the skips and all of these things that speedrunners got to appreciate. Rehydrated has many of this patched out as the game was polished with the 2020 standards. Again given the player is of young age, this is an okay platformer that will test their skills with basic platforming one o one. If you re just like me and played alot of games you wont find anything unique about the game. Yes, it is a platformer that has three heroes who differ from each other but it is not difficult and it is not a game you will come back to play again and again. The levels are nicely design and have unique looks but then again if the core gameplay isnt there you wont find yourself invested for more than necessary. Most of the collectables are easily found and most of the boss fights are simple and kind of generic. Again i know this is meant to represent the originals era(2003) but still other games of that era proved that a remaster can still be good and replayable (crash, Spyro, Mario, Sonic, Sly etc). The coop is a nice addition that will allow the players to share a fun time together whilst they clear enemy waves but it will eventually feel repeatitive as there are not many maps to add variaty, there isnt a variety of enemies and ofcourse the difficulty is not that challenging. The animations of the game are mostly good with well made cutscenes and alot of easter eggs and references. On the audio department the original cast is back which is a nice additions, the audio is the typical spongeBob quality but it does have some annoying audio glitches. The game can be completed in approximately 9 hours. Ofcourse this is the first game in the recent era so who knows, this might lead to someting bigger and better.

Gameplay of the Game

This is a video showcasing some of my time with the the Game

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