SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated

Genre: 3D Platformer

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local, Local Wireless, Online)

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Review:

(Note: Included in SpongeBob SquarePants: Bundle, along with SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake.)

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (from here on referred to as BBB) was originally released in 2003 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube, with different games bearing the same title released on PC and Game Boy Advance. This 3D Platformer became something of a cult hit, and a favorite among fans of the TV show it was based on, with this leading to the game getting a full remake with “Rehydrated” added to the title coming out in 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, with a port to mobile devices releasing in 2021.

In many ways, BBB – Rehydrated is a gorgeous game, even on the limited hardware of the Nintendo Switch. Not only does this game make use of most of the series’ voice actors, doing a fantastic job with the game’s solid comedic writing, but also the game’s 3D visuals are extremely colorful and imaginative while remaining true to the style of the TV series, with some nice animation, lots of grass and other details.

I’ve seen others complaining about performance issues on Nintendo Switch, but I didn’t notice any of these myself while playing. I did, however, see a fair amount of pop-in for details like the aforementioned grass. There is also one other performance-related issue that did bother me quite a lot, but I’ll get to that a bit later.

Perhaps in part due to the era in which it was created, BBB signifies much of the design choices that were popular in 3D Platformers in the PlayStation 2/Xbox/GameCube era, which is to say that this game is a collect-a-thon with multiple characters and a need to babysit the camera while playing. Players used to more modern 3D Platformers might find some of this a bit tedious, but overall this is a pretty solid entry in the genre, even by today’s standards, with good level design, and some pretty good variety. Also, players used to the way the original game controls may be upset that the physics have been changed slightly here, though overall the game still plays quite well.

However, I did mention one major problem here – constant, frequent, annoying load times. You’ll load every time you go to a new area. You’ll load when you go in and out of doors. And you’ll be loading a lot every time you die. This gets particularly frustrating when you’re trying to make difficult jumps above instant-death “goo”. And it all adds up to really hurt this game’s pacing.

For the most part, BBB – Rehydrated is a solid remake of a solid classic 3D Platformer with a really excellent presentation. Fans of the original should mostly be happy with this remake… mostly. Multiple smaller issues plus the major issue of the constant frustrating load times add up to make this a somewhat less joyous return to this classic than it should be. Still, if you’re a SpongeBob fan, I think this game will be a no-brainer for you.

tl;dr – SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Reloaded is a remake of a classic PlayStation 2/Xbox/GameCube-era 3D Platformer, and this is mostly a pretty good remake, with a great presentation and solid (if a bit dated) gameplay. However, the constant loading times really hurt the game’s pacing, making this far less enjoyable than it should be. Still, even with this problem, this is well worth picking up for any SpongeBob fan.

Grade: C+

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