SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated Review
Played on Xbox Series X
Developed by Purple Lamp Studios
Released 23rd June 2020
Video games based on licensed properties like movies and TV shows have always been a given, especially early on in the era of home console gaming. So when the most popular and loveable animated show debuted in 1999, coinciding with the first 2 PlayStations' life cycle, it was a given that the fan-favourite SpongeBob would soon become player-controlled. Out of his long string of video games in the early 2000s, they often took the form of puzzle platformers. They were friendly and accessible enough for the young audience interested in playing the characters' games. One of these games was 'Battle for Bikini Bottom', which gained a cult following since its 2003 release. Many people have been speedrunning it and claim it is the best SpongeBob game. Amidst the reappraisal from critics, the growing fanbase and the relentless trend of remaking and remastering games, THQ Nordic took it upon themselves to greenlight a remake of the game, subtitled 'Rehydrated'.
Story
If you want an idea of what to expect out of this story, you're better off watching any SpongeBob episode revolving around Plankton's failing contraptions. There is so much of that Nickelodeon energy here that it felt like I was genuinely engaging with the same content that I grew up watching. The summary here is that Plankton once again makes some robots to take over Bikini Bottom, but after forgetting to set it so that they obey his orders, he's forced to "trick" SpongeBob and crew into helping him fix his mistakes. It's effective in its simplicity and expanding upon the most popular fictional character of all time with another wacky, straightforward adventure that cancels out any cause for concern there may be in other storytelling departments. It's SpongeBob, you wack some robots and jellyfish, helping the iconic side character citizens of Bikini Bottom and heading towards dealing with Plankton. Not much else is needed here to make it an entertaining 7-hour experience. Again, if there were any flaws with the narrative like pacing or plotholes, etc, it wouldn't matter because this is a story based on a children's cartoon and given how faithful its interpretation and adaptation of the SpongeBob world is, asking for more would be unnecessarily greedy for what already is a fun time.
Gameplay
The gameplay seemed promising to begin with, but it soon became quite lacklustre. The third-person puzzle platformer is quite a common formula for kid-friendly games to pursue as they're simple and don't offer too much difficulty regardless of age. In 'Battle for Bikini Bottom' this is no different as you get to play as SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy, each with their gimmick. SpongeBob learns new bubble-blowing techniques that let him throw bowling balls made of bubbles or hit a rising uppercut-esque move to hit airborne targets, while Patrick can lift and throw rocks, melons and ice cubes for a multitude of puzzle solutions and Sandy can grapple and swing between Texas-shaped marked anchor points. Beneath that, the game basics consist of simply jumping between platforms and attacking to defeat 1-hit enemies. Quite basic, bordering the line of incredibly easy. While this is supposed to be a kid's game, there was so little challenge here that the only thing that kept me going was the game's charm. Puzzles have super clear solutions that basically scream at you and the platforming doesn't evolve past jumping on moving platforms which isn't much.
However, what doesn't make it feel monotonous is the level design. This interconnected layout in each section of the Bikini Bottom felt incredibly refreshing. While the main objective remained repetitive from location to location, like collecting a specific item or interacting a set amount of times, the way they were shaped was semi-entertaining. Helping The Flying Dutchman take back his pirate ship by clearing out and blowing up the robots' ship, or assisting Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy in stopping their archnemesis' from escaping felt fresh in its own right. Despite the puzzles being essientally copied and pasted from area to area; the way the level loops back on to itself, naturally leads to other segments of itself and makes the platforming moments feel varied was honestly quite great and the main reason why the gameplay was solid for the most part. There are a couple of levels that break out of this formula like the Sand Mountain being a collection of time trials utilising the games' sliding gameplay (where you slide down a slope avoiding hazards) or the Dream Hub where you dive into each character's hallucinatory mind, each with their own set of challenges (which is where the game perfectly balanced difficulty within itself). While not vastly different, they felt unique enough during my playthrough and were genuinely enjoyable, if not a little uninspired with how much it duplicates the rest of the game's moments.
Within these levels, you'll be doing a whole lot of collecting. Mrs Puff's missing students, Barnacle Boy's power crystals, and plenty more are all for collecting one of the 100 Golden Spatulas. Golden Spatulas are the driving force of the game and act as the keys to new levels how you need 25, 30, 35, etc to unlock the subsequent level, which also means you need them if you want to access the final area at 75 Spatulas required. You don't constantly spend time doing collection missions, for example, in Goo Lagoon, you need to redirect the sunlight within the watchtowers to access the island with the Golden Spatula of the area. On other levels, simply achieving a task like beating the top time at the Sand Mountain or wandering around will grant you these spatulas. Collecting Patrick's socks, and amassing cash for Mr Krabs, are other ways to get these spatulas. The game was greatly generous, with how easy it is to unlock them and how plentiful they are, making a 100% collection as easily possible.
Stopping you from gathering all of these Golden Spatulas would be the enemies. The variety here was quite surprising as I didn't expect so many well-thought-out enemy designs that didn't feel like carbon copies. There are the standard ones that smack you, ones you have to defeat by stomping on, and ones that shoot out missiles. In any other game, this would be the standard expected amount of diversity but with how undercooked the platforming and puzzling were at times, I didn't expect nearly every other level to introduce a new encounter, especially ones that complement and function in tandem with the gameplay so well, and that was quite refreshing to see.
Compared to the original, the game falters. According to fans of the 2003 title, this remake doesn't do anything to modernise what is an outdated blueprint and that much I can agree with as even puzzle platformers from the early-2010s provided more creativity and energy than this did, showing that the oversimplification here isn't for the kids, but rather a mistake of the past that has been refused to been fixed. There is a multiplayer mode; however, I didn't touch it during my time with the game.
Bossfights
While boss encounters were present, they didn't do much to shock or astonish. Mostly, they are exactly what you would expect of a boss fight in a puzzle platformer, irrespective of age and demographic. Wait for their attacks to finish where they're in a dazed state, use the newly learned moves to damage the boss and repeat. The best way to put it is that these bosses have as little depth to them as the main gameplay, but just not as much charm to rescind those flaws. They're still delightful moments as fighting Robot Sandy in King Neptune's arena felt like something ripped directly out of the show, but other fights like Robot Patrick or The Flying Dutchman simply didn't have that same effect. It was either because of the lack of intrigue their attacks and arena formed, the uninspired attack pattern and formula, or both. They serve their purpose in pushing forward a puzzle platformer "challenge" and they're paced out effectively without feeling overused or underappreciated, but they don't make any defining moments themselves.
Characters
I've mentioned it in the Story section, but these cartoon characters should be silly to work. The only time the characters in the game would've sucked would be if their charm was lost or ruined from the cross-media translation but this game works incredibly well with those caricatures from the animated show. SpongeBob has that child's innocence, Squidward is a pessimist above all and Mr Krabs likes money. It's not entirely consistent as Sandy's whole "yeehaw" personality seemed to be amplified too much from what my memory serves of her but on the other side, you get Patrick who is much more of a loveable idiot than what I remember, to the point his dumbass nature genuinely got a good laugh out of me. Simply put, the cast, for the most part, here is authentically replicated from their TV origins.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is nothing to run home about. The art style is very much in tune with its cartoon origins, albeit in a more 3D and polished background. One of the key reasons why people recommended playing 'Rehydrated' over the original was due to just how much better the game is graphically, with better quality special effects, clearer character and enemy design, though I might be a cynic for this, but I would've hoped this to be the case given that we're talking about a PS2 game and a modern-release here. Either way, the colour vibrancy and animated exaggeration of proportions here are good and make even the original designs feel perfectly in synch with the rest of the game's visual components. Audibly; every smack, wallop, pop and other hyperbolic sound effects were done justice, retaining that buoyant feel that the show had, with the OST borrowing primarily from such. On the technical side, I didn't encounter any bugs or faults. Aesthetically, the game simply delivers what it promises and it holds that old-school animation charm very dearly to its heart, but it doesn't make any outstanding remarks either, only ever meeting the expected standard.
Story - 7/10
Gameplay - 5.5/10
Bossfights - 5/10
Characters - 7/10
Atmosphere - 6.5/10
SUBPAR
As charming as SpongeBob's presence is, the collectathon gameplay has overstayed its welcome by 20 years.
