Review: Spongebob Squarepants Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated (PlayStation 4)

by Jim Smale · June 25, 2020

Are you ready, kids? The cult classic is back, faithfully remade in spongetastic splendor! Play as SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy and show the evil Plankton that crime pays even less than Mr. Krabs.

Pros:

Cartoon HD graphics.
15.82gb download size.
Platinum trophy.
3 save slots.
Action-adventure gameplay.
Invert controls.
Smart camera-on/off.
Multiplayer–local/host public/join public.
Classic theme tune boot-up music.
Full 3D camera control.
Fully voiced characters.
The opening tutorial area then ongoing tutorial tips.
Collectibles-Patricks socks, Golden spatulas for level progression and shinies.
Health-represented by pants, you get X amount of hits before a restart but can get golden pants that give you more health.
Big open levels.
Checkpoints scattered around the world.
Use shiniest to build structures to aid progress.
Fun easy combat-either swing your net or jump and hit the floor.
Bus stop-use to swap characters.
Cardboard boxes-used to fast travel around the level.
Save when you want.
Can jump between areas/levels at will from the menu.
Levels are huge both horizontally and vertically.
Taxi-travel to different levels.
Unlock shortcuts and progression points with shinies.
Big boss battles.

Cons:

Does not have Mr. Krabb’s original voice.
Characters repeat lines constantly.
Music for each level just loops and does grate.
Levels go on for a long time.
Slow reloading when going out of bounds or dying.
A lot of places that are out of bounds but you can go to.
Hard to navigate the levels due to their size and lack of signposting.

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
7/10

Sound - 7/10
8/10

Accessibility - 8/10
7/10

Length - 7/10
8/10

Fun Factor - 8/10

7.6/10

Summary

Spongebob is back! He’s had a lick of pixel paint and the game looks really good, the theme tune on boot up gets the hype levels flowing. Now being that this is a remaster on the original, the core gameplay whilst perfectly fine, does show its age in places, it has a lot of platformer and action and that’s fine but overall progress is slow with big worlds to find spatulas and annoying enemy types, your stay is one of those ones where it feels you should have left hours ago. I loved coming back and any excuse to visit Bikini Bottom is a blessing but the levels themselves are quite plain and lifeless, they add civilians walking around but they just look out of place, it’s far too easy to go out of bounds and it all just takes too long to get going. Tutorials come at you in the form of signs and these are fine at first but then some of the time it feels like they forgot to put them in. Overall it’s a nostalgia trip that is perfectly playable but it does show its age, perfect for kids/newcomers and hell even returning players will enjoy it as they know what to expect it’s shinier! I like Spongebob Rehydrated but I wish it was a bit more condensed and had a lot more additions and refinements,