​SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated Review

By Kevin Mitchell  |  Posted: June 23, 2020

There's no denying the charm and popularity of the American animated comedy series starring a charismatic yellow sponge wearing pants (though technically they're shorts), who lives under the sea along with his friends. Originally airing in 1999 (and gaining popularity throughout the aughts) and still running today, I missed out on the series growing up; however, I've made up for lost time by watching dozens of episodes recently (from old and new seasons). Much like many other long-running cartoon series, the first few seasons are generally considered the show's prime. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated is a remake of the action-adventure collect-a-thon that was released almost seventeen years ago on Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2. Featuring an original story, the game stayed faithful to the show and became a cult classic in the speedrunning community. Rehydrated adds a brand new local and online multiplayer horde mode for up to two players, a remastered soundtrack, and previously cut or edited content from the initial release.

Plankton, along with his wife Karen, owns an establishment called the Chum Bucket, a competitor to the highly popular fast-food restaurant the Krusty Krab, where SpongeBob works as a fry cook. You can tell by the name alone that Plankton's spot isn't popular—who would think chum would be delicious, except for some ravenous sharks? His jealousy gets the best of him, and he continually comes up with evil plans to steal the secret formula for Krabby Patties. Battle For Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated follows a similar premise. Plankton builds the Duplicatotron 3000, producing an army of robots to steal the precious secret formula; however, he accidentally forgets to flip the "obey" switch. The robots quickly take over his restaurant and all of Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob and Patrick, who had been wishing for real robots to play with, believe their prayers have been answered; however, Plankton pleads with them to save Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy venture throughout to collect golden spatulas (for whatever reason) and rid the town of menacing robots.

At the start, you are limited to the areas you can visit, namely the space around SpongeBob's and Patrick's houses. Once you gather enough spatulas, you'll unlock new locations to explore, such as Jellyfish Fields, Flying Dutchman's Graveyard, Sand Mountain, and more. At its core, the game involves exploration, platforming, collecting, and light combat. You'll run through overly saturated and colorful environments collecting massive amounts of shiny objects, but your goal is always to obtain golden spatulas. These can be earned by trading other resources (such as shiny objects, Patrick's disgusting socks, etc.), completing the main objective in each location, defeating a boss (welcome back Robo Squidward), or completing tasks after interacting with returning characters from the show. For example, Mrs. Puff asks you to collect steering wheels throughout Downtown Bikini Bottom. While searching for them, you'll naturally come across puzzles that earn you additional spatulas. A fast travel system can take you to the exact location of any bus stop you've previously used.

There are three playable characters: SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy. The majority of the time, you'll control SpongeBob, but at bus stops, you can swap between characters. In each level, there are puzzles that only specific characters can solve, so if you're stuck, you may want to check for a nearby bus stop. Patrick can pick up and toss fruit to trigger switches or stack them to reach additional areas by jumping on top. His double jump ground pounce can stun enemies and toss them just like the fruit. Sandy uses her lasso to slowly float through the air or swing across gaps by attaching to specified hooks, reaching areas that SpongeBob can't. Modified since the original release, her lasso attack safely strikes foes from a distance, and she can now use it in mid-air. SpongeBob can attack things above him by equipping a bubble Viking helmet. He can also sneak near blue tikis that would otherwise hide when he approaches. He has two additional abilities that you'll unlock, mostly used for traversal through the levels and to activate switches. It's a simplified approach to combat, especially considering the target audience. Enemies come in many different varieties, but you'll use the same strategy to defeat them throughout the entire 12-15 hours it'll take to complete the game. Basic robots can be defeated by a single attack, while others may take multiple hits or require your ground pounce attack. For some reason, the robots that shoot globs of tartar sauce gave me the most trouble. Maybe secretly, I'm not fond of tartar sauce, just like SpongeBob and Patrick.

Newly added for the remake, Purple Lamp Studios incorporated a multiplayer horde mode for up to two players locally or online across 26 islands. Not only can you select from the three characters from the campaign, but the horde mode adds additional characters from the series, such as SpongeBob's pet snail Gary, the very cynical Squidward, and more. The multiplayer mode feels hollow, lacking the charming personalities from the characters that you'll find in the campaign and the show. You don't even have all of your abilities, as each character is limited to two moves. It's good to see the inclusion of content that didn't make the original release, but maybe there was a reason it was left out. I would have loved if Purple Lamp Studios had added an optional cooperative element to the game's campaign mode instead.

Simply Put

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated proves that a great game is timeless. The remaster of the campaign is phenomenal, with impressive improvements to the character models, textures, and environments. Some may be turned off by the overly saturated visuals, but they match the show's current look. Aside from Mr. Krabs and Mermaid Man, all of the original cast reprised their roles from the initial release. The optional multiplayer horde mode disappoints, but it can easily be ignored and left untouched.