SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated (PS4)

Around the time I got around to actually playing SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom on the PS2, THQ Nordic announced an HD remake of the game developed by Purple Lamp Studios, known as SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated, for modern systems in a similar fashion to Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. Since I was going to anyway, I played through the original game and thoroughly enjoyed it, anticipating what they would do to bring the game up to modern standards. Building the anticipation further was the announcement that they would reintroduce content that was cut from the original game, including an entire boss fight known as Robo-Squidward. After getting a chance to play the PS4 version of the remaster upon release, I had just as much, if not even more, fun as I did with the initial release even with some flaws.

The general gameplay is exactly the same as the original release, however a number of quality-of-life improvements have been made that enhance the experience greatly. For starters, Patrick and Sandy now possess the ability to attack while in midair, with Sandy being able to lasso enemies before she lands. Additionally, while SpongeBob retains the ability to sneak by gently pushing the analog stick, there is also now the much easier option of holding the left trigger. Other improvements that ease up the difficulty include projectiles now telegraphing where they will land to give you an actual chance to dodge them, as well as buttons now explicitly labeling which moves are required to activate them.

Another new addition is that, while obtaining a Golden Spatula still autosaves your progress, swapping characters at bus stops does so as well. Subtitles for in-game cinematics are also present and, perhaps most significantly, the camera is no longer inverted, making SpongeBob’s Cruise Bubble move significantly easier to use. This, combined with the fact that multistage bosses now have a checkpoint between phases, allowed me to finally beat the final boss without the need to resort to exploiting glitches.

On that note, there were still some issues I ran into while playing the remaster. For starters, when you fall out of bounds in the original release, Hans will instantly drop you off where you left off. However, in the remaster, you have to sit through a loading screen first, which can also reset enemies. I also encountered a handful of occasional glitches, such as one where I got glitched inside a rock in Sand Mountain, and I’ve had it at least twice where a robot can be glitched into hanging motionless in midair. At one point in the Mermalair, I fell off at the beginning of a section with a Golden Spatula at the end, only for me to respawn right at the Spatula; naturally, I found this bug more benevolent.

Somehow a robot was made to float motionless in the air, unable to be
interacted with.

Two of the bigger issues, however, somewhat alter how the game functions. Whereas Mr. Krabs was already greedy in the original release, with his asking prices on Golden Spatulas increasing by 500 Shiny Objects each time, here he becomes practically the embodiment of avarice, as his asking prices are now in multiples of 3000, necessitating a lot more grinding. Perhaps the most controversial change, which is more than likely a bug that has not yet been resolved, is that you can no longer replay boss fights, resulting in empty arenas when you warp to them from the pause screen. This also means you absolutely need to 100% the game before you approach the final boss, lest you be cheated out of the secret ending, and so I made a second save file just before said boss for just such an occasion.

On the visual side of things, the Rehydrated remaster presents a major visual upgrade over the original console release. The remaster takes the SpongeBob art style and runs with it, matching the visuals of the show even closer. Environments in each level are also livened up a bit, especially in details such as rocks and foliage or, in some cases such as Kelp Forest, brightening things up to make it easier to navigate. Similarly, character models and animations are bit more animated and energetic. One change I was particularly impressed by was SpongeBob’s Dream, in which the visuals were somewhat overhauled to appear more vibrant and truly sell it as a dream-like state by comparison to the original’s darker color palette for much of the level. Another interesting alteration is turning the pause menu into more of a map-like visual of Bikini Bottom and its neighboring areas, rather than a straight-up list of locations.

Everything is a lot more vibrant. (Pictured: Jellyfish Fields)

That said, there is a noticeable bit of texture loading for a second or two when entering an area, plus slides have a more visible fog seemingly designed to mask the draw distance. Likely in an attempt to modernize the game a little, some visuals were introduced to reference later episodes of the series, mainly relegated to background paintings and some new idle animations for each of the playable characters, most especially SpongeBob himself. That aside, the remaster largely preserves the original game’s nature as a love letter to the first three Seasons of the series, which I appreciated.

The sound design, much like the visuals, is also very faithful to the original release. It’s not exactly clear to me whether Purple Lamp recycled the music from or the original game or remade it, though either way it somehow sounds a lot fuller in the Rehydrated version. Through the game’s Steam listing, you can even purchase the soundtrack for $5 so you can listen to your favorite tracks at your leisure. The English voice track is also straight-up recycled from the original, which can be a little obvious at times even though it otherwise sounds seamless. This means that Joe Whyte is still the voice of Mr. Krabs and Mermaid Man, and all the issues with his performance along with it. However, this also means that the late Tim Conway can once again be heard voicing Barnacle Boy.

New to Rehydrated is a multiplayer mode, with both online and local options, in which two to four players battle robots on 26 islands in Waves of three each. Aside from SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy, characters Gary, Squidward, Mr. Krabs and Robo-Plankton are also playable, sharing a similar moveset with no unique abilities between them. However, the main draw of the multiplayer is the reinstatement of the scrapped Robo-Squidward boss from the original Battle for Bikini Bottom. After playing through the local option once with my brother, I will say that while I loved the concept, the execution of this content was a little lacking.

The gameplay itself is good on paper, however in practice it eventually becomes a bit repetitive, leading us to start counting down to when it would all be over. Not helping this is that the amount of robots and other obstacles to keep track of on-screen eventually creates so much visual chaos that it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of even your own character’s position in physical space. While losing all your hit points is more of a slap on the wrist, as downed players will respawn after a few seconds anyway, Waves will reset should all participants fall into the water or lose all their hit points, adding to the tedium even further. On top of this, there’s silence in places where you’d expect to hear sound effects and there is a complete lack of any sort of lore explanation for Robo-Squidward’s existence.

We finally get to see Robo-Squidward in action, however it didn't seem to
have been done proper justice.

In spite of some flaws in the remaster, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated is a faithful recreation of an overlooked classic that any SpongeBob SquarePants fan should play. The fun factor is still there while the levels are given a lot more visual splendor than ever before and the sound design is very on-point. The multiplayer mode is a little disappointing in the execution, however it’s worth playing once just to get a look at Robo-Squidward. If you loved the first game, chances are high you’ll enjoy this one as well, and if you haven’t played, or don’t have access to the original Battle for Bikini Bottom, the Rehydrated version serves as an effective/better alternative. However, if your interests lie in speedrunning, you may as well stick to the original version.