SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated (Switch) Review – It’s Already (Over) Halfway There

PhantomZ2 dives underwater with SpongeBob and friends to fight off in the Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated on Nintendo Switch! Thank you to THQNordic for sending us a review code!

Like many 90s kids, being born in 1999 does count, I grew up with Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants. I watched it about every day with my family, saw the first movie in theaters, and played some of the PC games. However, I can proudly say that I’ve never beaten any of them. What, is that not something to be proud of?

You know how when you have a game you really like playing, but you’re too young to actually comprehend what it is that you have to do? Well, that’s what happened to me several times, for many games. In regards to SpongeBob, I had this happen with Employee of the Month on PC – which I still have my copy of, 3D Obstacle Odyssey from Nickelodeon’s Nick Arcade, and the GBA version of Battle for Bikini Bottom. You might have an idea of where I’m going with this, but I’ll continue – I owned the GBA version of Battle for Bikini Bottom and didn’t own the PS2 version that most people talk about. However, that doesn’t mean I never played it. My uncles had a copy of Battle for Bikini Bottom for the PS2 at their house and when I would visit, I sometimes played it. Of course, I could’ve asked to borrow it so I can play it on my own – but I actually didn’t like the game back then! I thought it was really boring, looked ugly, and I found it a bit confusing to understand where to go in some stages. Instead, I asked to borrow The SpongeBob Movie game, and while I didn’t finish that either, I really enjoyed playing it. However, I’ve grown up and looked forward to the possibility of Battle for Bikini Bottom getting remade in hopes that it would also lead to The Movie game being remade.

Well, it looks like the calls for a remake were answered so now we have Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated! While I did say I played the original game, that was years ago and only for a short amount of time – so I’ll be looking at Rehydrated, mostly, through the eyes of a newcomer and judging it on its own merits. I’m PhantomZ2 and I’d like to thank THQNordic for sending us a Nintendo Switch review code of Battle For Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated!

STORY:

Just like many instances within the cartoon, Plankton is plotting to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula, this time by creating robots that would attack the Krusty Krab. However, in his instances of creating the robots, he had his Robomatic machine set to “Not Obey”, resulting in his robotic creations turning on him and throwing him out of the Chum Bucket.

At the same time, SpongeBob and Patrick are playing with toy robots and then get the idea to wish for real robots that they can play with. In cartoonish fashion, when they wake up, they get the robots they wanted – but with them being created by Plankton, they aren’t too friendly. With the robots terrorizing his house and being slightly unaware that Plankton was behind all of this, SpongeBob makes it his duty to stop the tyranny spread across by the robots across Bikini Bottom! In order to do so, he’ll have to collect these Golden Spatulas by completing tasks such as defeating robots, saving Robots, regathering museum art, and many more.

The story is really simple and I appreciate that as it carries the light-hearted and fun narratives from the cartoons that fit with the levels chosen. However, I do have a bit of an issue with the way dialogue and conversations are carried out. Now, based upon the fact that Mr. Krabs’ real voice actor wasn’t brought to record lines and with a lot of the audio sounding exactly the same as the original game, I think it is fair to state that most, if not all, of the voice lines where completely reused. This is unfortunate as I do think there are some conversations that would’ve worked better as cut-scenes instead of a “press A” conversation. With the character dialogue incorporating a lot of sarcasm and jokes, many lines don’t hit as hard or make me laugh when I’m able to see what they’re going to say before they get to finish their line or due to the pause that comes with taking in what they say or what the game is visually showing off before I have to press the A button again. In addition, some characters don’t interact with others due to a mission being preferred to be done by a different character. This doesn’t mean you can’t do that mission with a different character, in some instances you actually can, but while characters like Sandy and Barnacle Boy wouldn’t interact within the cartoon, the game could have given them that chance.

GAMEPLAY:

Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated is a collect-a-thon platformer where you’ll control SpongeBob and friends to travel across levels featuring the iconic locations of the cartoon, such as Goo Lagoon, Jellyfish Fields, and Rock Bottom to destroy robots and collect the Golden Spatulas! Upon entering the level, there will be a task asked to complete that is meant to encompass the entire journey through the level, with a Golden Spatula reward at the end. Some of these tasks include completing extremely fun sliding sections and challenges, clearing out the security system in a museum, or completing platforming challenges. Along the way, more tasks will be given, with some being optional, where more Golden Spatulas will be given to you by helping out characters when something goes wrong, like Larry the Lobster, Mrs. Puff, and Mermaid Man. In addition, you can also get Golden Spatulas by helping Patrick collect his dirty socks scattered out through levels and by collecting these Shiny Objects, who you can give to Mr. Krabs in exchange for a Golden Spatula.

However, you don’t need to play the game in a linear fashion. In order to unlock another level or to gain access to other parts of Bikini Bottom, you just need to collect the Golden Spatulas. While there may be some spatulas you won’t be able to obtain due to a lack of SpongeBob having the ability needed at the current time, this means that you can complete some tasks and then go tackle other tasks, if you want. While this open challenge selection is great, I feel a lot better getting as many tasks done within the same area as it keeps my mind focused on one thing. Although, this choice isn’t only due to my preference. At certain points, I find the level design very difficult to traverse through. Now when I was a kid, I chalked it up to me being a dumb kid. Now that I’m an adult, I feel like there are a few times where I’m not exactly sure where I’m meant to go due to some areas looking similar to one another, not having enough signature landmarks to differentiate from one another, or due to some tasks not being absolutely clear. This does make me wish there was some sort of hint system when it comes to looking at the task list on the pause menu, where it will guide you with hints on where you should go or if when talking to the NPC that gave you the task, the camera would perform a panning overhead shot of the level so that you can see where your goal is again.

I do remember that in one instance at Rock Bottom, Mrs. Puff asks you to collect a bunch of lost Museum Art and this mission will last throughout almost all of the Rock Bottom section. However, she still rewarded me with the Golden Spatula even before I collected every piece. This was most likely a glitch, but this game does have quite a few glitches and issues. Sometimes when spawning into an area with a certain character, the conversation with an NPC will start while I’m not near them at all. At the amusement park’s bungee jumping section in Goo Lagoon, if you land on the ground at an angle when collecting the Golden Spatula, you’ll actually stay at that angle when walking around until you restart the game. I remember that I got stuck in a gate as Sandy in Downtown Bikini Bottom when trying to test if I could lasso destroy an enemy through it.

Continuing with my problems, I feel like SpongeBob controls a bit weirdly. I thought he was pretty light or float-y in the original game, but in Rehydrated he feels a bit slow or almost at the same speed as Patrick, aside from air movement. In fact, all three characters, outside of their abilities, feel like they move at the same speed. I do love using Sandy as her extra air mobility with her lasso makes her very fun to control, but with some tasks and areas requiring SpongeBob or with some levels not having her available at all, it does make me wish that each character was as fun to control. In addition, having to travel to a bus stop to switch between characters can become very frustrating and tiring. This becomes even worse due to the fact that when fast traveling to a specific task so that I can have an easier time traveling to another area with the character I was already playing, Sandy, it’ll load me into the area with SpongeBob instead. Why would I want to have my character switched for me, I thought the whole point was that I had to go to a bus stop to switch a character? In addition, dying can make the game feel boring if you stack up all the load times that occur between you getting back into the game.

The last thing that needs to be touched upon, in regards to gameplay, is the new Multiplayer mode that comes with Rehydrated. It’s pretty terrible. Currently, you can’t invite friends to play on Switch and PS4 and that will be added in a later patch, NantenJex and I matched up by pure luck on our first try. Aside from that, it’s just a beat-em-up against waves of robots as you progress to beat Robo Squidward. It just gets really boring after a few minutes and I honestly would’ve preferred playing the main game’s levels through online co-op. However, I don’t think the game would be able to handle that.

PRESENTATION:

The art direction of Rehydrated is absolutely beautiful as it feels like it borrows many of the artistic decisions made within the last movie, Sponge Out of Water. However, that’s all I can positively say in regards to the presentation.

In addition to my earlier comment about how I’m not a fan of the way NPC conversations are handled as it diminishes the impact of lines, the cut-scenes are sometimes blemished in close-up shots due to the very jagged shadowing that comes from playing on the Switch version. However, something that isn’t limited to the Switch version is the amount of pop-in and lag that occurs. At the start of a cut-scene or at the beginning of an area being loaded, a noticeable amount of pop-in will occur. I believe this is worse on the Switch version just from the example of Jellyfish Fields, where the draw-distance is reasonably limited but the pop-in is extremely noticeable. I will say that I do prefer the way that the grass pop-ins, the way it sprouts up in a rolling fashion towards the horizon as you walk forward does look nice. Aside from pop-in, the Bikini Bottom hub stutters almost non-stop while the levels don’t until too many enemies and an explosion get on screen all at once. This definitely can ruin first impressions of the game as aside from the small-time you get with SpongeBob’s house at the start, Bikini Bottom is immediately the next area and it showcases all of these blemishes at once.

It also doesn’t help that aside from Jellyfish Fields and the sliding music, the soundtrack isn’t memorable in the slightest and doesn’t hold a candle to the memorable and iconic tracks from the cartoon.

FINAL VERDICT:

Aside from the glitches and graphical hiccups, this leaves me wondering – where all of these issues present in the original Battle for Bikini Bottom, and if so, does that mean my lack of interest in the original game had some sort of validity? Of course with my limited time with the original, I can’t answer that for sure, and given the number of instances where I’m having fun with the remake, I’m not sure what to think if I were to compare the two. However, with looking at Rehydrated on its own and where I’m currently at within the game, I’m finding it to be enjoyable half of the time and annoying or boring the other half.

With a mixed opinion of the main game, a very negative opinion of the new multiplayer mode, and with the many graphical issues and glitches that are currently within the game, I’d say wait for Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated to receive a price drop. Asking for $30 isn’t a steep blow to your wallet, depending on who you are, but I think $15 – $20 is a better asking price for what is the current state of the game.