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SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated

Battle for Bikini Bottom is an adventure collect-a-thon that was released back in 2003 and is fondly remembered by those who played it. Including myself who has played this game back in 2003 on Christmas day. Now I am playing this game once again 16 years later.

Battle for Bikini Bottom is an adventure, platformer, collect-a-thon, with the story revolving around Plankton building his own robot army only for it to horrendously fail when the robots turn against him. When the robots are causing chaos in Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob steps in to stop the robot menace. Not out of heroism, but out of personal responsibility since he believes this was a result of Patrick’s “magic” wishing shell.

As this is a collect-a-thon, the main thing you collect is golden spatulas which are scattered all over Bikini Bottom. They are used to progress throughout the game, unlocking new levels and expanding the hub world, and those levels can be completed in any order. You also have Patrick’s socks which can be traded in for additional golden spatulas. There are also shiny objects which are essentially the game’s currency but mostly used to unlock paths in a level in order to progress, or traded to Mr.Krabs for a golden spatula. You mainly play as SpongeBob for most of the game but can switch to either Patrick or Sandy depending on the level. They all play similar to each other but have their own unique quirks. Patrick can stun robots with his ground slam attack and pick up fruit, robots, or tikis and throw them. Sandy can use her lasso to hover and swing over large gaps. And of course, Spongebob being the main character has a variety of bubble based attacks and can even earn new moves when progressing through the game.

For start the visuals are amazing, the original didn’t look too bad for the time, but the new graphics are bright and colorful, and the characters have a lot more expression. Visuals aside, the game is pretty much one to one with the original. There is some quality of life changes, such as being able to slow down in sliding sections and indicators showing up when enemies are shooting projectiles. Other than that, not a lot has changed. The levels are exactly how they are in the original… Including the Kelp Forest… and the voice acting is the exact same as the original. Most notably the voice for Mr. Krabs not being played by his original voice actor. The game also promoted that some lost content would be restored for the remaster, but that didn’t get fully realized. Most notably Patrick’s Dream which is a stage set within the Spongebob’s Dream level, and the Robo-Squidward boss fight. Patrick’s Dream is the same as it was in the older game, and the Robo-Squidward boss fight is simply not present. However, both of those are present in the game’s multiplayer mode. It’s neat that the game has a multiplayer mode, but it’s not that interesting, its really just a basic horde mode where you fight off Robo-Squidward. You don’t fight him directly, you just fight off the robot enemies, and stand on a switch to damage Robo-Squidward.

All that aside, the game itself is very enjoyable. A very solid platformer adventure for kids and twenty-somethings like myself that enjoyed the game years back, and would love to replay it with a fresh coat of paint. The updated visuals really bring emphasis to how bright and optimistic the world of Spongebob is. If your interested, then it is available on Steam for $30 USD.