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SpongeBob Game Review by Luke
Posted on July 02, 2020
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated (2020) Game Review for Nintendo Switch
By Luke.R
Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated is a remake of the 2003 cult-classic action-adventure, platformer title based on the long-running popular Nickelodeon series, “SpongeBob SquarePants”. Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated is developed by the small studio “Purple Lamp Studios” and is published by “THQ Nordic”. Battle For Bikini Bottom is rated PG and features Mild Animated Violence and Crude Humour.
Battle For Bikini Bottom is a one-to-one remake of the GameCube/PS2 Classic. It features the same non-stop fun collect-a-thon gameplay, the same hilarious and impeccable writing, and the same off-sounding Mr Krabs as the original, while also adding on a new multiplayer mode. But sadly it also keeps the same bugs and glitches as the original, as well as some new framerate and graphical issues on Nintendo Switch.
Story and voice acting
Once again, the evil mastermind Plankton has devised a plan to steal Mr.Krabs’ Krabby Patty formula, with the help of his new robot-making invention, the “Duplicatron 3000”. But unknowingly, Plankton hadn’t set the robots to obey him, and with no rules, the robots lock Plankton out of the Chum Bucket and begin to wreak havoc on Bikini Bottom. Now it’s up to SpongeBob and friends to stop the robot menaces and the invention behind it all.
While not too deep, Battle For Bottom’s story is fun and fits the tone of series well. With jokes galore and an abundant of fan favorite characters, I find it hard to fault Battle Bikini For Bottom’s story. Especially with the phenomenal voice acting of the series cast, Battle For Bikini Bottom’s story is enjoyable through and through.
Gameplay
Battle For Bikini Bottom is 3D platformer, with a heavy focus on exploration. Your time in Battle For Bikini Bottom will mainly be spent exploring some of the series’ most iconic locations from Jellyfish Fields, Rock Bottom, The Flying Dutchman’s Graveyard and so much more. In these areas you’ll usually be taking on tasks for various characters, and these tasks usually range from completing puzzles to finding lost items or winning a race. All of these challenges were made even more fun with the constantly changing environments and level-designs throughout the journey, and the large array of robot enemies you’ll have to face.
These tasks also differ from each other by the characters they require. SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy are all playable and feature a basic jump and attack as well as their own set of skills. SpongeBob can blow a large variety of bubbles, Patrick can pick up heavy objects and Sandy can use her lasso to cross large gaps. All of these characters can be changed easily through the many bus stops found in areas.
Your reward for accomplishing the tasks are “Golden Spatulas”, a currency use to unlock more areas to continue you journey. After collecting enough, you’ll be able to enter a boss battle with a robotic version of the games’ cast. These boss battles are a pleasant change of pace, and always had enough going on to keep me involved.
Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated also features a new multiplayer mode, giving center stage to a new robotic Squidward boss fight, previously cut from the original title. This mode can either be played with 2 players locally or online, with up 7 playable characters.
Visuals, sound, and performance
Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated Visuals are stunning, with tons more detail and charm than ever before, making it look much closer to the series. My playthrough was a visual treat going through the dense and beautifully recreated areas but it was made even better by the perfectly remastered soundtrack, bringing the world to life.
Sadly though Battle For Bikini Bottom on Switch suffers not only from the glitches from the original, but new issues that can bring the fun experience to a halt. From not being able to complete a certain side quest for Squidward or having SpongeBob’s body deform while undertaking a mini-game, I experienced a lot of issues. Especially with the games FPS count, Battle For Bikini BottomRehydrated runs at an unlocked 45FPS with constant dips into the 30s and 20s when in larger environments. While exploring “Sand Mountain”, an area nearing the end of the game, I had framerate issues so bad, it dropped into the 10s, making it look like a slideshow. I also experienced some graphical issues in this area that made the game stop loading in textures, forcing me to restart it several times. While I did not encounter these graphical issues in any other areas, framerate would commonly drop in all areas. While these issues are bad, they never really hurt my time with it, but they definitely could hurt some player’s experience.
Verdict
Rating: 6.8/10
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle Bikini Bottom Rehydrated on the Nintendo Switch is not perfect, but while featuring many performance issues, they didn’t truly hinder my experience. I had constant fun enjoying the funny writing, character cameos and exploring my favorite places from the classic series. I cannot recommend this to fans of the lovable yellow sponge enough, though the poor performance in certain areas should certainly be acknowledged when considering the title.