SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom—Rehydrated marks the arrival of one of the most famous authorized characters to enter 3D platforming. At the height of its prominence in the early noughties, a game based on the show was released for PlayStation 2; it’s as yet cherished right up until today.
Tragically, this conspicuous redo feels increasingly like a shallow remaster, and by doing little to fix the issues that tormented the first experience. Some inventive enhancements join its graphical update. However, those couple of brilliant spots aren’t sufficient to bring Battle for Bikini Bottom’s tolerable yet oversimplified and no collectible-substantial ongoing interaction up to the standard you’d anticipate from a plat-former discharged in 2020, particularly with revamps.
In our October 2003 review of the first Battle for Bikini Bottom, analyst Mary Jane Irwin stated: “The affection for the SpongeBob establishment truly radiates through in Battle for Bikini Bottom and in the event that it wasn’t there this would be an exceptionally dismal title.”
As I replay it almost 17 years after the fact, that feels incredibly precise – and what’s dreariest about Rehydrated’s 10-ish hour crusade is all the botched chances to really modernize this experience for newbies and those of us who think back on it affectionately similar.” SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated resuscitates the 17-year-old activity platformer on PlayStation 4; however, is it a pretty patty or a container of pal?
The principal thing that hits you about the redo is the visual update. In an intentional choice to primate the more soaked look of the later seasons, Rehydrated is more vivid than a coral reef. It makes the first watch cleaned out by examination.
Keep in mind that it’s perhaps somewhat exaggerated, and the designs are appropriately childish. It’s not great—a few characters look somewhat off, and quality can be to some degree conflicting—but it’s an entirely sensational upgrade of the PS2 title.
Regarding the sound, things aren’t exactly so solid. All the music and voice work from 2003 returns, which means it may look altogether different, yet it sounds fundamentally indistinguishable.
Indeed, that implies Mr. Krabs still isn’t voiced by Clancy Brown. Abnormally, the sound blend has intermittent issues; we saw a considerable measure of the exchange sounds smothered, and there are additionally uncommon occasions of sound not playing.
Neither of these is a major issue, yet the sound appears to be somewhat messy. In any case, there’s a whole other world to a revamp than sights and sounds. Rehydrated is a really close match to the first regarding ongoing interaction, despite the fact that lifelong fans may see some little contrasts in how things feel.
Most remarkable is Sandy’s rope-swinging move, which has a totally different materialism. As a rule, however, we’d state the interactivity experience is smoother, to a great extent, on account of an unfathomably improved camera. Fans will rapidly get directly back to social affairs, gleaming articles, slamming baddies, and surfing down inclines.
In case you’re new to the first game, it stars SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy as playable characters in a non-direct 3D platformer, battling to free Bikini Bottom of Plankton’s rebellious robot armed force. As you clear your path through shifted situations, your fundamental undertaking is to gather brilliant spatulas and dispatch the metallic crowd.
In 2003, collection games like this were really ordinary. In 2020, 3D platformers are rare. Any reasonable person would agree that Rehydrated’s structure and second-to-second activity are essential to present-day norms. Each character has some extraordinary capacities, but the battle is one-note, and goals aren’t actually assorted.
Supervisors are exceptionally manageable undertakings, and fly-by cutscenes indicate that the levels are a steady token of the game’s PS2 legacy. That being stated, it’s decent reviving, even to play something so straightforward. There’s no punishment for passing on; there are loads of collectibles to discover, and it presents a fun submerged world to investigate.
Indeed, it feels dated in various ways; however, it offers such happy fun that is observed nowadays once in a while. Regardless of whether you’ve played Battle for Bikini Bottom previously, those searching for a clear 3D platformer will be all served here.
It’s not without its blemishes, obviously. While Rehydrated runs at a reliable 60 casings for each second, there are some harsh edges. Stacking screens appear more than you’d suspect, surface fly-in is observable after a territory stacks in, and we even had an especially dreadful bug where an early brilliant spatula got out of reach. We’re educated that the last will be fixed in a future update; however, up to that point, ensure you get Squidward’s brilliant spatula before you go out.
However, what about the fresh stuff at that point? Some portion of the bundle is a completely unique multiplayer viewpoint: an on-the-web or disconnected community crowd mode, including all-new playable characters and recently cut substance. Two players take on Robo-Squidward’s inexorably testing floods of robot adversaries.
It’s essential, and each character just has two moves (even the ones that ought to have progressively, as SpongeBob). Yet it gives even veteran players something new to look at, and it’s a decent method of repurposing things that were once left on the cutting room floor. However, it’s certainly auxiliary to the primary game.
SpongeBob Rehydrated is an energetic redo of a much cherished PS2 platformer. It’s somewhat harsh around the edges. However, it’s a strong exertion that brings back a sort of game that is very uncommon on present-day machines.
The basic fun of gathering, slamming foes, and investigating a cherished area is especially here, and fans, youthful and old, will get a kick out of this submerged trip. In any case, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated makes a contention that if you’re going to revamp something cherished, it’s not worth taking any half-measures.
Rehydrated’s return to the famous SpongeBob platformer regularly does only that as opposed to tending to any of the main problems with Battle for Bikini Bottom that could have been changed without demolishing the soul of the first.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated leaves history flawless at the expense of improving this game, and its issues have just become increasingly recognizable with age and expanded rivalry.
There are brilliant spots that stay fun very nearly two decades later, and there are flies of resourcefulness in its improvement. However, it does little to remain close by the best, or even entirely great, platformer revamps and remasters we’ve seen this age.
