SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom "As long as these pants are square, and this sponge is Bob, I will not let you down!" — SpongeBob SquarePants Genre(s): Action-adventure Platform Platform(s): Original Game Boy Advance Microsoft Windows Nintendo GameCube PlayStation 2 Xbox Rehydrated Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch Playstation 4 Xbox One Stadia Android iOS Release: Original NA: October 31, 2003 EU: November 28, 2003 AU: 2003 (PS2) Rehydrated WW: June 23, 2020 WW: December 8, 2020 (Stadia) WW: January 21, 2021 (Android/iOS) Engine: RenderWare (original) Unreal Engine 4 (Rehydrated) Developer(s): Heavy Iron Studios (original) AWE Games (original; PC) Vicarious Visions (original; GBA) Purple Lamp Studios (Rehydrated) HandyGames (Rehydrated; Android/iOS) Publisher(s): THQ (original) THQ Nordic (Rehydrated) HandyGames (Rehydrated; Android/iOS) Country: United States Austria Germany Series: SpongeBob SquarePants Predecessor: SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman Successor: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

"Welcome my perfectly obedient robot army. Hang on. I want to get a photo for my scrapbook... Hey. Hello? What do you think you're doing?!"

— Sheldon J. Plankton

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom is a platform video game based on the television series developed by Heavy Iron Studios and published by THQ. It was released in October 2003 for the Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Game Boy Advance.

A remake of Heavy Iron Studios' version, titled SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated, was released on June 23, 2020 for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One. The remake was developed by Purple Lamp Studios and published by THQ Nordic. The Stadia version was released on December 8, 2020, while iOS and Android versions of Rehydrated were released on January 21, 2021, ported by HandyGames.

All versions of the game feature an original storyline, in which the player attempts to defend Bikini Bottom from an invasion of robots created by Plankton with a machine called the Duplicatotron 3000, playing as SpongeBob in all versions, as well as Patrick and Sandy in the console versions. The series' voice actors reprise their roles, with the exceptions of Clancy Brown as Mr. Krabs and Ernest Borgnine as Mermaid Man, with both roles instead being voiced by Joe Whyte.

Why This Battle Is Ready

Generally

1. Humorous dialogue and great voice-acting for most of the time (the exceptions would be Mr. Krabs and Mermaid Man's voice actor, Joe Whyte, since he don't sound like their original actors, Clancy Brown and Ernest Borgnine, respectively).
2. The imagination box in "The Secret Box" is also helpful when teleporting to places.
3. SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy are all playable characters in the game and none of them disappoint at all.
   • SpongeBob is a basic character at first but later on, he gets upgraded to the point where you can do more stuff with him. His abilities include:
     • Bubble Spin: Spins while waving his bubble wand. This can hit enemies and objects in any direction.
     • Bubble Bash: Launches upwards with a bubble Viking helmet towards mid-air robots or tikis.
     • Bubble Bounce: While airborne, grows bubble feet and slams on top of enemies or tikis underneath.
     • Bubble Bowl: SpongeBob blows a bubble and throws it forward in the fashion of a bowling ball. The longer the player holds the button, the faster it will be. Unlocked after beating Robo-Sandy.
     • Cruise Bubble: SpongeBob launches a controllable bubble torpedo that destroys any robot(s) or tiki(s) that come in contact with it, including stone tikis. Unlocked after beating Robo-Patrick.
     • SpongeBall: The only power-up based move, SpongeBob transforms into a ball and can do nothing but roll around, but is much faster. Press the jump button to return to normal SpongeBob.
     • Sneak: SpongeBob can sneak around by moving slowly, sneaking past the Sleepy-Time robot, Shhh Tikis, and crossing fragile platforms.
   • Patrick
     • Belly attack: Patrick throws out his belly, hitting robots and tikis directly in front of him with it.
     • Throw: Can pick up a Throw Fruit (watermelon), Freezy Fruit (actually a chunk of ice), tiki, or robot and throw it. In order to throw a robot, he needs to stun it with the body slam move.
     • Body slam: While in the air, Patrick can plummet directly downward to destroy things beneath him, sending out a small shock wave.
   • Sandy
     • Karate: Does a chop while on the ground and a kick while in the air.
     • Lasso: Can use it to tie up and destroy a far-away robot or tiki.
     • Glide: After doing a double jump, Sandy can use her lasso as a helicopter to reach farther distances.
     • Texas Trailer Hitches: Can swing on mid-air, Texas-shaped hooks with her lasso to go even farther distances than with the glide.
4. The Xbox version is the most notable for having lighter graphics, the screen freezes when you enter or exit an area, shiny objects and robots are shinier, etc.
5. The realistic fish Head announces all of the boss battles which can be funny while the players might end up stressed.
   • On a side note, he is referred to as Johnny in this game.
6. Introduces new characters such as Prawn and the robots.
7. Decent and high-quality graphics both the original game and afterward the rehydrated version of it, yes the graphics did improve in the rehydrated version of the game but they're still good in both the original game and the remake meaning they never disappoint at all.
8. Clean art-style which fits the tone of SpongeBob perfectly.
9. Each level gives the game a new enemy which makes the game fresher.
10. The dream level in the game is one of the best levels in the game, since unlike the other levels this is random for a number of reasons which includes the ball to get the golden spatula, Patrick giving you a free spatula, a dream based on Sandy herself with the sliding rink, a musical parkour in Squidward's dream and more parkour on the outside, and a part where you fight random robots in Mr. Krab's dream. Sure, some of them are in the other levels too but thanks to the variety this level has, it makes it a very special level in the game.
11. Speaking of SpongeBob's upgrade in WIR#3, they can end up being pretty helpful when destroying some enemies or tikis when coming to some of the newer levels.
12. Even Mr. Krabs himself (despite having the wrong voice in this game) is more likable in the game comparing to the show as he gives SpongeBob free spatulas whenever he sells some shiny objects.
13. Just like Super Mario Bros. you can actually skip worlds in the game and go to other worlds instead.
14. The music in the game is pretty nice and neat touch to the game as well.
15. Even smacking random characters in the game can be fun to have as well, sure you're not supposed to do that in the game but it's still a funny touch.
16. The robot SpongeBob boss in the finale level has a challenge to it and made it fair for both teams since it gets harder and harder and thanks to robot Plankton siding with him giving the boss more of a fun challenge.
17. Good soundtracks from the game which fits the game perfectly for being a SpongeBob game.
    • Some of them are also soundtracks from the show and edited a little bit.
18. A good number of screenshots from the original show like the picture of SpongeBob riding of mystery and Squidward's art being in the museum.
19. When you reach a certain place in the game, there are checkpoints which is helpful for those who died during the stage and they have to redo everything in the game.
20. A lot of quotes in the game also has a nice take on the original show such as "Great Barrier Reef".
21. Lots of funny moments in the cut-scenes like Plankton sticking the "obey" tape in "don't obey" and Sandy saying "Did he just said married"?
22. It's funny when collecting SpongeBob's underwear as hearts even because it spawned some funny quotes when either SpongeBob, Patrick or Sandy collects them (EX, "I feel like a new sponge." -SpongeBob, "Ew, can't believe I'm wearing SpongeBob's underwear." -Sandy, etc).
23. Back to WIR#10, aside from the dream level, there's still a lot of stages in this game that has their own charm to them. Sure, they might not have that much good qualities comparing to the one the dream level has but it's still worth talking.
    • The Bikini Bottom level started off to be a basic level with nothing to talk about that much but later on, once you get more golden spatulas to unlock the robot Sandy boss fight, it expands later on.
    • Jellyfish Field isn't really that much to talk about since it's sorta a basic level. However, the level has a lot of jellyfishes and tikis. In addition, this level actually helps you unlock playing as Patrick.
    • Downtown Bikini Bottom introduces Mrs. Puff into the game with her goal to find all the wheels the robots stolen.
    • Rock Bottom introduces the sleeping robot to the game with a nice task you can do as Sandy which is when you fly above and then destroy all the laser guns in that level.
    • The Goo Lagoon level, while not really that much to say about this, introduces the sand mountain slides with the time limit with Larry's slide being the hardest one out of all of them.
    • The Mermalair has a good number of parkours and challenges in it especially the boss fight at the end of that level.
    • The Kelp Forest level has the fire robots in the game and in that chapter, you have to find all the campers and all of Barnacle Boy's crystals as a task.
    • In the Chum Bucket lab, that's the finale of the series where you get to fight a SpongeBob robot (as mentioned in WIR#16) and once you finished the boss fight, you have to go inside of the robot, chase the robot Plankton, attack him and then destroy the robot to win.
24. After you get a golden spatula in certain places in levels, the place in the level where you get the olden spatula will turn from silver to gold.
25. While you can only play as SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy (as mentioned above), the other SpongeBob characters still made an appearance in the game and can help you get golden spatulas in your adventure such as Mr. Krabs (as mentioned in WIR#13), Squidward being a scaredy-cat in a funny way like when he's scared of a robot and Bubble Buddy giving SpongeBob more powerups along the way.
26. The signs during the walkthrough in the game are a nice touch, and in addition to that, they're helpful in case if you don't know the gameplay very well making the signs helpful for new players in the game.
27. Back to the robot SpongeBob boss fight, you can actually see what's inside it in the eyes during the boss fight and see the inside completely once you defeated it.
28. The fact SpongeBob slides with his tongue instead of a sled is clever.
29. The Flying Dutchman being a villain during the story is a good portrayal of a villain with a fun boss fight like his laser eyes and then redeemed right after SpongeBob and Sandy made a tiny version of his ghost ship.
30. The robot's eyes being green or red can also be helpful when it comes to thinking if they want to attack you or not in which, if the robot's eyes are green then they aren't attacking while if they have red eyes then that means they want to attack you.
31. Aside from the boss fights, the game isn't too easy as there are some other challenges existing in this game, most notably the rolling ball room challenge in the Mermalair part.
32. Tons of fun parkour sections of the game when you press buttons or any other way to unlock them.
33. Its sequel, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is just as good as this game as it follows the same steps as this game only it has a similar plot to the movie with the same name as well.
34. The ending of the game is a really funny ending where you defeated Robot SpongeBob revealing that Robot Plankton was supposed to marry Robot SpongeBob the week after you defeated him and then the cloning machine makes more Robot Planktons to the point where they all argued with each other and then the episode ended with you playing as the SpongeBob ball collecting shiny objects.

Rehydrated

1. While Rehydrated may not be 100% faithful to the source material of the original, it still retains the spirit of the original game.
2. The colorful graphics is a nice step-up to the original, as it looks like something out of Splatoon.
   • Even the designs of the characters like SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy look amazing too.
3. The game brings a lot of unused content that was never used, including:
   • The antagonistic robotic counterpart of Squidward Tentacles.
4. It has a red circle to tell you where an enemy projectile will land.
5. SpongeBob now has appropriate expressions for his dialogue when talking to an NPC.
6. Unlike the original, there are finally subtitles in the cutscenes and gameplay, which weren't in the original.
7. The new multiplayer mode is a nice touch to the game where you can play with other players and not by yourself. In other words, it's a nice touch to the game. Plus, you can even play as Squidward in multiplayer mode.
8. While it can be hard to see in the dark at the nighttime levels in the original game, the Rehydrated version doesn't suffer from that problem since it's bright enough to the point where you can see easier.
9. The mobile version of the game is cheap with the low price of just $11 for the iOS version, and $3 for the Android version.
10. It even comes with the language mode so you can make it sound like the characters sound like they're speaking Japanese.
11. Once you go further and further into the game, you get more health bubbles meaning you can use 3 pairs of underwear limit to a 5 underwear limit which is a nice touch.
12. Similar to Sonic Mania, this game is perfect for the modding community. A user named "junior" once made a mod where SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy are their robot counterparts.
13. You can do the glitch for an easier chance to get golden spatulas by disabling Hans the hand. All you have to do is to go to the Goo Lagoon and stand on the black rock. Right after you do that, attempt to jump to the sand, and then once Hans gets you and you respawned, you'll see that you're floating so use this as an attempt to keep doing that and keep on doing it again and again until Hans eventually gets disabled.
14. Once you finish the game, you can actually restart the entire thing by going to the main menu section of the game and then select "New game" in order to restart the game, and the original game you completed can still be saved for future purposes.
15. The video settings part of the game is also nice, you can change the game to lighter mode or darker mode which is a nice touch the rehydrated version offered us while in the original, you can't do that. Plus, you can even record the gameplay which is also a nice touch.

Bad Qualities

Original

1. Mr. Krabs and Mermaid Man are both voiced by Joe Whyte instead of Clancy Brown (due to busy voicing in Jak 2) and Ernest Borgnine (presumably still voicing in the show) respectively, and his performance as both of them is very poor as he barely replicates their voices.
   • And even worse is that since Rehydrated uses archive audio from the actors, Joe Whyte's voice is now permanent.
   • None of the show's voice actors reprise their roles in the French and German dubs. Thankfully this was corrected with Rehydrated.
2. While good for its time, the graphics have not aged very well (low res textures and some clipping is very obvious). The GameCube version also suffers from slight framerate drops in some areas compared to the PS2 or Xbox versions.
   • The models for Spongebob and company, while fine, were sadly reused in later games.
3. The last level of the game, SpongeBot SteelPants, has no checkpoints, which can be grating when you have to start the battle over when you lose all your lives (indicated by pairs of SpongeBob's underwear).
   • This was fixed in Rehydrated where the checkpoints are added.
4. The PC version of the game is a minigame collection as opposed to an action-adventure platformer, and a pretty poor-quality one at that, fortunately, Rehydrated is as same as the console versions.
5. The only thing you get for beating the game 100% (collecting all 100 Golden Spatulas in the game) is the main characters singing the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song, and there isn't one where every voice actor sings the song themselves, it's just the one in the main menu.
   • This was fixed in Rehydrated where it adds the theme song from the show, even in the main menu.
6. Because some robots get harder and harder in every level, they can be frustrating to kill sometimes.
7. The Kelp Forest is the absolute worst part of the game. It's way too dark to navigate, requires precision point platforming in said darkness, and the missions are often long and tedious such as Patrick finding all of the Stone Tikis.
8. While the boss fights are fun, they can sometimes be too easy. (an exception would be the SpongeBob robot boss fight)
9. In the Game Boy Advance version, you can only play as SpongeBob.
10. The ending isn’t that good, as SpongeBob says that their work is not done, as there are still many robots running amok in the city.

Rehydrated

1. Grinding Shiny Objects is pretty harder now, as Hans that do not trigger loading screens don't respawn tikis or robots. (Thankfully the Goo Lagoon cruise bubble grind method works fine here)
2. Health does not recover when you go to a different area (triggering a loading screen), and there's a loading screen each time you die.
3. The Switch version is inconsistent with its frame rate because of the weaker hardware. This also makes no sense, because Burnout Paradise and Super Mario Odyssey both run on the same hardware, and they don't experience frame rate drops and keep a constant 60FPS.
4. The difficulty, while okay, is toned down significantly from the original (even though it is justified since it's a kids' game). The only exception is Squidward's Dream, in which the difficulty is increased by 12%.
5. The special editions are overpriced as the Shiny edition is $150 while the F.U.N edition is $300.
6. False Advertising: The remake was confirmed to have all the levels, items, and bosses that were cut from the original game, but those are just used as scenery for the multiplayer mode, instead of just re-creating the way they originally were before being scrapped from the original version, although the files are still hidden in the game, just very unfinished. This was because Nickelodeon rushed the development of the game to coincide with the summer season specifically with the movie The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, but failed due to COVID-19. And that film was delayed to Paramount+ on March 4, 2021.
   • Due to the game's development being rushed, most of the game was included in a 5.2 GB day one patch for the Switch version, and a 7 GB day one patch for the PS4 and Xbox One versions. Also, the characters have a lot of voice lines missing and there are many glitches including the infamous two-controller map glitch that could be used to skip to any boss battle or even beat the game with only one spatula, a feat not possible in the original game.
     • Speaking of cut content, before 1.0.3, the concept art theater only had placeholders which were stock picture of the game, though this could be excusable, as it's most likely that the developers lost their concept arts before they could find it.

Reception

Original

The home console versions of Battle for Bikini Bottom received "mixed or average reviews" from critics, according to Metacritic. The game holds a 4.5 out of 5 from the Official PlayStation Magazine. The game has won numerous awards, including favorite video game at the 2004 Kids' Choice Awards, and entered the Player's Choice, Platinum Hits, and Greatest Hits for GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 respectively.

The Game Boy Advance version sold an estimated 710,000 copies, while the PlayStation 2 version sold an estimated 880,000. In 2006, Edge magazine ranked the Game Boy Advance version at number 34 on its list of "The Century's Top 50 Handheld Games", while placing the PlayStation 2 version at number 67 on its list of "The Top 100 Games of the 21st Century", both lists arranged by the number of copies sold.

Rehydrated

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated received "mixed or average reviews" according to Metacritic.

Sales

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated placed at 19 on NPD's list of top 20 sales in the month of June. In the UK, Rehydrated was the 3rd bestselling video game software in the week of June 27, 2020.

As of August 13, 2020, Rehydrated has sold over 1 million copies. As of May 19, 2021, it has sold over 2 million copies.

Trivia

• In the original Battle for Bikini Bottom, there's a trigger that makes SpongeBob runs faster, this is a possible reference to the cut power-up that's based on the smelly sundae from Something Smells.
• Spawned a lot of meme references such as the "Shocked SpongeBob" and "Mocking SpongeBob" memes.
• During the idle animations in Rehydrated, SpongeBob, and Patrick do their surprised animations while SpongeBob has the Mocking SpongeBob idle animation.
• The remake was the first SpongeBob related game to be released following the death of series creator Stephen Hillenburg.
• According to an interview with Internet personality RidersDX, A THQ Nordic producer of the game said that Battle for Bikini Bottom will get a sequel if the remake is successful.
• This game is so far, the most well-received SpongeBob game in existence, with the score of "10/10" in Steam, 8.4 on IMDb and is 97% liked by Google users for the original. As for the Rehydrated version of the game, it's shown to be less liked than the original although Google didn't have a "Liked by Google users" list for that. The Rehydrated version also has 7.5 on IMDb.
• The bubble ball part has been a problem for a lot of users at first but then, a game reviewer named "Nathaniel Bandy" said that he recommend standing back a little bit to finish the bubble ball in his video called "How SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated is Mind Blowing!".
• The reason why Mermaid Man is voiced by Joe Whyte in the remake could make a little sense, since his voice-actor passed away in 2012 while the game came out in 2020. However, it's still a problem in the original and for Mr. Krabs' voice acting.
• In Sandy's Dream, all the platforms the player can stand on, except the giant acorn, are shaped like Texas.
• The Console Version was originally sold for the MSRP price of $39.99 on GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2 upon release.
• If the player goes into the Rock Bottom Museum for the first time as Sandy instead of SpongeBob, and completes the "Plundering Robots in the Museum" mission as that character, Barnacle Boy will not mention his son.
• In the Kelp Forest level cutscene, the player see a fish fighting the Tubelet with his hat, this could refer to Kung Lao from the Mortal Kombat game series.
• The robots from this game make a cameo in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie video game as garbage, meaning that SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy succeeded in defeating them all. This further drives the theory that The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie video game is a sequel to Battle for Bikini Bottom.
• Sometimes, during a fight SpongeBob makes a reference to the Terminator film series.
• Squidward's house features several paintings. The painting on the easel is a cartoon-looking bowl of fruit, which is a reference to the painting from 1599 called Basket of Fruit. There is also a painting to the right of it that is a reference to the "Unsure Squidward" meme image.
• On June 5, 2005, this video game and Breakin' Da Rules were released in a bundle called the Double Pack Volume 2.
• There was a demo movie for this game on the Mario game Mario Kart: Double Dash!! bonus disc.
• When SpongeBob rolls the bubble bowling ball he says "Ahhh, There's nothing like the smell of bubbles in the morning, smells like... victory." this line is a reference to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now.
• One of Patrick's randomly said phrases while playing as him is "You broke my heart, now I'm going to break something of yours!" This is a reference to "Valentine's Day."
  • When SpongeBob and Sandy get hit by Robo-Patrick, he bangs his stomach like a gorilla when Patrick beings his rampage.
• In the poster of the remake of the game, Patrick and Sandy are actually in it and SpongeBob isn't wearing his helmet in the original poster of the game even though he also doesn't wear a helmet of the PAL version of it either.
• The NA version of the game was released on Halloween of 2003.
• In a few points in the game, some pictures with Handsome Squidward from "The Two Faces of Squidward" are shown.
• When the player returns 10 socks to Patrick, he says "Here's your golden backscratcher," to which SpongeBob replies "Spatula," and Patrick retorts "I don't speak Italian." This line was used in "Wormy." The only difference is that it's said by SpongeBob instead of Patrick.
• The robot stealing suntan in the Goo Lagoon level be a nod to the episode "Ripped Pants" where Incidental 22 forgets to puts on suntan.
• If the player falls into a pit or goes to a restricted area long enough, Hans will come out and will take the player out of the danger. Similarly, in the episode "Suds", when SpongeBob (and Patrick) are about to get their treatments, Hans comes out and takes them to their treatments.
• On that topic, Hans would later appear in Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix as a power up, where he blocks the screen of all opponents higher than the one who activated him. The only way to disable him from blocking the screen is to disable all of the power ups (free races only, because Grand Prix and several challenges have the power ups maintained and no way to disable them).

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