Back in 2003 the SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom game released on a variety of platforms. The game became something of a cult hit among those who played it. Now 17 years later the game has been remastered for both the nostalgia gamers and a new generation of kids to experience the best SpongeBob Squarepants game there is. We’ve dived into the Nintendo Switch version of the remake for this review. So far beaten the first boss King Jellyfish.
Visuals
The Last Of Us 2 this is not, but SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated offers up a visually pleasing animation experience. The game world has not changed much from the original but everything is tightened up and much more detailed. The game is colourful and everything is much smoother than in the original game. On the switch, there are issues with the game’s visuals as the framerate is liable to drop pretty quickly if there’s too much activity on screen which isn’t exactly ideal. While the graphics aren’t anything astounding the game does a good job of presenting a colourful and well-animated game world.
Controls
For any platforming game, it is essential that a game handles well especially when there’s combat involved. This is one of the weaknesses we’ve run into with the game. Everything feels incredibly rigid with SpongeBob occasionally moving like he’s in quicksand. This can lead to often simple bits of platforming becoming more difficult than necessary with death often following. This leads to some long loading times as the game re-loads. The combat itself is fairly basic and poses no real problem although ranged enemies can be a pain to deal with. While this doesn’t pose a huge problem early in the game it could become infuriating later in the game when precision becomes much more necessary. Hopefully, this can be patched and the controls get loosened up.
Gameplay
The actual core gameplay is the same 3D platforming collection as the original game and serves as a nostalgic throwback to a type of game we don’t see often anymore. Between Golden Spatulas, shiny objects, and socks (yes socks) you’ll always have something to collect and the game does well to throw in enough that you get some instant gratification but still feel hungry for more. The characters get a chance to shine whenever there is dialogue. A lot of chuckles are had during the interactions with characters like Plankton and Squidward. This keeps the game ticking, the voice acting deserves a mention here as most of the regular cast appear in this game and give it the same gusto as they do any normal episode.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
– Lives up to the nostalgia
– Animations are slick
– Is still a solid collection for fans of that genre
Cons:
– Rigid movement makes even simple platforming difficult
– Doesn’t add much to the original game, for better or worse
– Framerate drops when the screen gets full
– Long loading times make dying a tedious experience
#Spongebob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated, came out yesterday!
Are you ready, kids? The cult classic is back, faithfully remade in spongetastic splendor! Play as SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy and show evil Plankton that crime pays even less than Mr. Krabs. pic.twitter.com/PL0I53JmqA
— GAME Eastleigh (@GAMEEastleigh) June 24, 2020
Rating
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated is an entertaining 3D platformer with nice animation that holds up to the nostalgia. The long loading times and poor character movements let down the Switch version. It takes away some of the fun of the game. It will be very interesting to see how this title does in the GFK Software charts in the coming week. Still though for thirty euro this game is a solid addition to anyone’s catalogue and is a 7 out of 10.
