Remaking or remastering games have seen a massive push this generation due to publishers wanting to capitalize on nostalgia, or using these re-releases to gauge interest on an older and usually dormant property. Capcom, for example, took a franchise like Resident Evil, and remade them from the ground up, offering us up some truly stunning releases that rebuilt nearly everything we remember about them. Activision; however, with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, simply remade the visuals with keeping to pretty much the exact same gameplay, with very few changes. Then you get remasters, which change a few things visually, but more or less just up the resolution and tinker with the original code, often releasing it with the same glitches and bugs the game originally shipped with, as was the case with Mafia II: Definitive Edition. SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated is pretty much on par with the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro remakes as while the visuals have seen a vast improvement, the gameplay is still pretty much exactly how it was some 17 years ago; for better or worse.
First off, Rehydrated, which I’ll simply use as the title going forward as the full one is a bit of a mouthful, is a decent enough game for what Purple Lamp Studios has done to remake the original. Given how long it’s been since that original was released, many of those gamers have grown up significantly, and view the title as a part of their childhood, flooding their desire to play it due to some intoxicating nostalgia. When you compare the two, it’s night and day with what modern visuals have offered this remake, but the gameplay itself just hasn’t seen much of an improvement. There are some small fixes here and there, some cleaned up UI and targeting icons, but Rehydrated still feels overwhelmingly dated with some spotty controls, some hard to gauge platforming and a camera that at times can be a minor nuisance. I’ve always been a firm believer that remakes or remasters should do more than just make the visuals look modernized, and Rehydrated could have used some polish to make every aspect of the game feel new and yet honor the feel of the original. These complaints aren’t to say the game isn’t fun, because it very much is, but it at times can feel like a budget remake instead of something built of passion.
Rehydrated features the original dialogue from the base game in a way that locks it firmly to what came before, as Nickelodeon apparently refused to re-record new story dialogue, meaning that you won’t see Clancy Brown back as Mr. Krabs. While I am only a modest fan of the series, even I was somewhat taken aback at how this replaced voice feels so drastically different than what we’re used to via the cartoon. While some new dialogue was recorded for the multiplayer portion, it uses the same actors who were part of the story, with very limited new additions. While the voice acting in the original game, apart from Mr. Krabs is still engaging to hear, it’s a shame the repeated catchphrases weren’t toned down as you can often have each character spamming the same few one-liners almost three to four times in a row, depending on the actions you’re performing. It’s mindlessly annoying, especially having to hear Sandy’s spring jump over and over again.
As SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy, you’ll be tasked with stopping Plankton’s endless supply of robots from taking over Bikini Bottom. While Plankton was thrown out of his own base due to an error on his part, he’ll protest that he had nothing to do with said robotic invasion, all while cackling and sharing his plan under his breath, with SpongeBob being as oblivious as ever. The story is pretty wafer-thin, but it’s unlikely you’re coming to a SpongeBob Squarepants game for its hard-hitting and deep narrative. You’ll meet up with several staple characters, performing tasks for them as you earn Golden Spatua’s that are required to unlock more levels as you attempt to collect enough to unlock the Chum Bucket and put an end to the robot menace once and for all. You’ll also look to collect Patrick’s lost socks, as another way to prolong your time in each level and collecting Shiny Objects as a way to unlock certain pathways locked behind a paywall. While the Shiny Objects are crucial to the progression of the game, the same can’t be said about the lost socks as while you use them to earn a few Golden Spatua’s in the end, you’ll have more than enough of them to push through the game without worrying about them too much.
While each level in the game has seen a vast improvement to their visuals, the way you swap back and forth between characters can become incredibly tiring and lead to some backtracking nightmares. Each level will allow you to play as either SpongeBob and Patrick or SpongeBob and Sandy. If Patrick is your partner, the levels will only feature level design around him and SpongeBob and the same goes for Sandy, as her levels will be more about far gaps that she can fly across. Patrick is largely about picking up fruit or statues and using them to trigger switches. SpongeBob has his bubble powers and every level features mechanics that only he can interact with. Where the character switching becomes a problem is the amount of backtracking it takes to push through some puzzles as you’ll need to track down the bus stop where this switching occurs. While some levels have it easy with very minimal traversal to swap characters, there is a level towards the end where you’ll need to swap back and forth between SpongeBob and Patrick after each continuous switch is pulled. This goes on for the entire level with switching back and forth nearly a dozen times after a switch is triggered and requires the other character to take advantage of the opening, only to run back through the level and switch back and trigger the next puzzle. It’s only this bad in this single level, but it does then highlight how poor this system is overall.
Given that not much if any of the overall gameplay has changed or been updated alongside its visuals, Rehydrated doesn’t offer much of a challenge other than wrestling with some parts of its controls and the inconsistency of SpongeBob’s bubble throws. The game is fundamentally easy to the point where it’s unlikely you’ll die to any given enemy or boss and rather that of misjudging a jump or missing a turn during one of its sliding race levels. While SpongeBob Squarepants is largely a product for kids, the game has a huge following of being one of the top tier platformers of its time, a game many hold as a huge part of their childhood, so it’s extremely likely that most of the sales of this game will be because of those gamers who look back fondly on it. Hell, even the launch trailer is built around the nostalgia of the game, and introducing it to a new generation. As for the inconsistency to SpongeBob’s bubble powers, I found that the bubble won’t hit the desired switch consistently, often having you repeat the exact same move over and over again. It’s not that annoying to have to do it an additional time, but when you’re on the clock during the puzzle to guide the boulder around its rails, it can be very frustrating when you keep missing the switch with your bubble that is clearly hitting it.
Added to this release is a horde-based multiplayer mode that sees you choose from a series of characters as you team-up online or via couch co-op to take down waves of incoming robots. It’s fun enough but feels like something they added to have “co-op multiplayer” on the back of the box. You can choose from SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Gary, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and Robo Plankton and do battle across 26 islands. As I received my code just before the game launched, I couldn’t find a single online game going, and this remained true even a few days after. Again, the mode is decent enough and can provide a few hours of enjoyment, but after playing a few rounds locally with a friend, I had no real desire to really ever go back to it.
Purple Lamp Studios has done a decent enough job at breathing new life into this almost two-decade-old game, with bringing some very impressive visuals to its environments, and its iconic characters. There is still the same charm to this game that was present back in 2003, but it’s a shame that more wasn’t done to make the game ‘feel’ as modern as its visual upgrades. Again, I’m a firm believer than remakes need to do more than making the title look good and this lack of gameplay polish and modernization is really the only drawback to this game. Fans of the original will get a kick out of revisiting this classic with a new coat of paint and there is certainly a lot of fun to be had here for sure. It’s certainly not the best remake to see a release this generation, but it is far and away not the worst. I’m looking at you, Mafia II.
A review code of SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review and played on an Xbox One X.
All screenshots were taken on an Xbox One X.