SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated – REVIEW (Nintendo Switch)

I still have fond memories of Spongebob Squarepants
when it first premiered on Nickelodeon.
It was a cartoon that I enjoyed with my dad,
and I was just starting high school at the
time.
But maybe that’s why I never bothered with
Battle for Bikini Bottom.
Licensed games were still hit or miss at the
time, and I figured Spongebob would be a miss.
And yet, all these years later, it’s considered
a platforming classic.
So with the release of a remastered version
in the form of Rehydrated, I was excited to
see what it was that made it so beloved.
Could this remake even maintain the same magic
of the original?
For those unaware, the story of Battle for
Bikini Bottom focuses on Plankton’s latest
scheme to steal the Krabby Patty formula,
a duplicator that can clone endless hordes
of robots.
Unfortunately, he forgot to set them to obey,
and they’ve now run amok all across Bikini
Bottom.
However, the night before, Spongebob and Patrick
wished for robots to play with and believe
that this is all their fault.
So they set out across 9 levels to defeat
the robots while collecting golden Spatulas
that are required to unlock the way forward.
This isn’t a deep plot, even

compared to
a normal Spongebob episode, but it does serve
as a way for familiar characters and locations
to pop up along with the series’ staple
humor.
And it still holds up.
While none of the jokes made me laugh out
loud, quite a few did make me chuckle.
It really does capture the spirit of the show.
But this is a 3D platformer through and through
and all the tropes you’d expect are here
and accounted for.
Spongebob has a double jump, a spin attack
with his bubble blower, a downward stomp,
and an upward thrust.
He’s also able to sneak and eventually unlocks
special abilities that use his bubble blowing
skills.
However, at certain points, it’s possible
to change characters to either Patrick or
Sandy who each have their unique set of skills.
Patrick’s able to throw objects and stunned
enemies while Sandy can use her lasso to cross
gaps.
Spongebob’s more versatile, but the other
two are a great way to change up the gameplay
for a little while whether it’s with Patrick’s
puzzle focus or Sandy’s advanced platforming.
These are ideas that work and switching between
them helps create more thoughtful puzzles
in the later levels.
But here’s the thing, Rehydrated doesn’t
make it fun, and it began as soon as I learned
what the jump button was on the Nintendo Switch,
A. Meanwhile, attacking is handled with Y
which is one of the stupidest button layouts
I’ve ever encountered in a game.
It’s only this way on the Switch.
We checked the PS4 version where it was X
to jump and Square to attack which is normal.
But for some reason, this was changed on Switch
with B serving as the aerial stomp and X as
the upwards attack.
It threw me off so many times and there’s
no option to switch it within the game.
The only thing I could do is change the buttons
at the system level on the Switch which shouldn’t
even be necessary.
And unfortunately, it just gets worse from
there.
The controls feel so loose and imprecise at
times making some of the more harrowing jumps
much worse.
There are a lot of small platforms, and it
became a nightmare once I reached the level,
Spongebob’s Dream.
I could barely get started as it was so easy
to slip off into the abyss.
And this was even worse when it came to the
sliding sections.
These diversions should be a lot of fun.
It’s a great callback to the show and changes
up the platforming in short bursts.
But as time went on, the tracks got thinner
and the loose controls made it so easy to
slip off.
There might not be any lives, but death sucks
as there’s always another 5 second loading
screen afterward, and it’s so easy to die.
I stuck with it, got past each platforming
challenge, but it wore me down.
I hate that I feel this way as there are a
lot of good ideas on display, especially early
on.
Each level has several challenges to complete
in order to earn Golden Spatulas.
These are used to unlock new levels making
for a classic collect-a-thon platformer.
In addition to the Spatulas, there are lost
Patrick socks to find and Shiny Things to
collect.
The socks are exchanged for more Spatulas
while the Shiny Things are spent to open up
new places in a level or exchange them to
Mr. Krabs for more Spatulas.
It creates a focused experience as everything
leads to the same reward.
I really did enjoy the first third of the
game.
But once I reached the more advanced challenges,
the cracks began to show.
The level design is infuriating at points
and feels like it’s actively fighting against
me.
Seesaw platforms hobbled my jumps, bounce
pads sometimes failed to work, there’s massive
knockback from any hit making falling into
a pit all the easier, and the game just doesn’t
feel enjoyable to control.
The one highlight I consistently had throughout
Rehydrated were the boss battles.
They’re not especially difficult, but they
used the abilities I had up until that point.
It made me think at points and the final boss
encapsulated that well.
And again, that’s what kills me.
I can see the good points peeking through.
But it’s not enough, especially when looking
at the game in a technical sense.
While the style of Rehydrated is bright, colorful,
and mostly captures the spirit of the show,
it also doesn’t run very well.
It’s apparent from the first moment in Jellyfish
Fields where, during a panover, the game is
just barely making the grass appear in time.
Draw distance is also an issue in some of
the bigger levels, and there’s a strange
fog to Sandy Mountain that makes the sliding
even more difficult.
There’s also frame stuttering at times making
the game as a whole feel low quality, not
helped by the fact that certain areas seem
to glitch on occasion.
Sometimes platforms don’t move when they
should or don’t spawn at all as I feel happened
to me in Squidward’s Dream.
At least most of the actors return for their
roles though it’s still the same audio from
the original game.
That means Mr. Krabs doesn’t sound right
at all, and it’s not a good replacement.
The audio quality hasn’t been cleaned up
either making it feel like a straight rip.
Be prepared for the same action lines over
and over again throughout your playtime.
They will get old.
And sometimes the sound effects are slightly
off from when they should have happened.
The music is fine and feels like it fits with
Spongebob, but I also can’t remember a single
tune.
It’s just kinda there and makes the entire
game feel utterly lifeless.
The only new content in Rehydrated is a multiplayer
mode.
Here, you and a friend team up against a series
of robots spawned by a Robo Squidward.
It is completely braindead as combat is more
of a means to an end rather than anything
that engaging.
Really, the best part of it are the new characters
including Gary, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and
Robo Plankton.
It works as a curiosity, but I don’t see
many people being engaged for that long unless
young siblings want to play together.
But I couldn’t even stand playing for more
than 10 minutes.
I wanted to like this.
I love platformers.
I love Spongebob.
And after all the stories of how good the
original was, I was legitimately excited to
see what I missed.
But so little of Battle for Bikini Bottom
Rehydrated lands for me.
It doesn’t look good.
It doesn’t play well in the more intensive
levels.
And I just found myself more frustrated than
anything else.
I can feel the good in this game when it fires
on all cylinders, but that’s a sad rarity.
I ended up disliking the game.
I have no idea how it compares to the original,
but maybe it’d be better to play that version
again.
I don’t think Rehydrated is worth your time.
Thanks for watching and be sure to subscribe
to GameXplain for more on platformers and
other things gaming.

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: