Review code provided by the game's publisher (Thank you!)
"He lives in a pineapple under the sea!"
Introduction
"For kids...?"
SpongeBob Battle For Bikini Bottom can be enjoyed by anyone, not just kids. But in a way, it feels like this game is more aimed towards a younger audience. The puzzles are pretty simple and the game isn't very challenging.
A game doesn't need to be hard to appeal to older audiences, but more experienced gamers may find the game to be a little too easy.
Gameplay
"Very F.U.N at its best. Tedious at its worst..."
When the game is at its best, it is very fun to play. You will find yourself swinging from side to side with Sandy's lasso and rolling around Bikini Bottom as SpongeBob morphed into a ball. However, there are some tedious situations here and there. You may have to re-do stuff that you already did such as having to open up a path again or enemies respawning because you died. Destroying and avoiding them can become quite tedious.
The slide sections are also extremely fun and a highlight, in my opinion, it is also worth noting that the boss battles, while fun, are also pretty easy.
You can play as three different characters in this game. Each character plays differently. Patrick is slow, but he can carry heavy objects. Spongebob is light, but he can wall-jump and do many tricks with bubbles. Sandy can use her lasso to destroy enemies and swing from one place to another. She also attacks enemies with karate. Only SpongeBob and Patrick can body slam while only Sandy can reach some high places.
To switch between characters, you must get to a bus stop. Keeping track of where they are located or switching between characters can become rather tedious, as well.
Story
"Nautical nonsense..."
Plankton has conceived a new plan to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula. He has built a machine called the Duplicatotron 3000 to produce an army of robots that would help him on this ordeal... had he not forgotten to set the machine to the right settings. After creating the robots, he realizes that the switch on the Duplicatotron 3000 was set to "Don't Obey" instead of "Obey" and so the robots proceed to kick him out and cause havoc over Bikini Bottom.
Meanwhile, SpongeBob and Patrick are playing with toy robots. SpongeBob is bored and wishes he could play with real robots. The next day, SpongeBob wakes up to see that his wish came true, but not in the way he expected. Outside, SpongeBob finds none other than Plankton who lies to our gullible pal and claims that the robots appeared out of nowhere. Plankton convinces SpongeBob to help him regain control of the Chum Bucket. And this is where our journey begins...
A simple and fun plot that doesn't try to be something that it is not.
Graphics
"Ohhh, it shines..."
Battle For Bikini Bottom has received a complete graphical overhaul from its original release. Everything is much more colorful and detailed. Character animations have been tweaked and look a lot better now. The game also runs at a smooth 60FPS.
One thing I noticed is that the graphics settings are very minimal. All you get are four options: toggle V-sync, change between fullscreen or windowed mode, change the game's resolution, and adjust the game's gamma. The game also seems to be locked to 60FPS.
Weaker computers may have issues running the game due to the lack of graphics settings. In the end, the graphics are very nice and clean.
Music / SFX / Voice Acting
The music is not bad at all and it captures the general feeling of the show's music. The music can get repetitive over time, however.
The sound effects are great and sound straight out of the show. The voice actors did a good job, too. To my knowledge, no voice lines were re-recorded for this remake and thus we still don't hear Mr. Krabs' current voice actor. Instead, we get someone else.
As for the recordings themselves, they are of a good enough quality that I didn't notice they were old recordings.
Gameplay: 7/10
Story/Plot: 8/10
Graphics: 10/10
Music / SFX / Voice Acting: 8/10
Overall 8.2/10 (not an average)
Special thanks to ShOscar for helping me out with this review
