Verdict
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated is a welcome return for a licensed platforming nice. It’s splendidly devoted to the unique launch whereas guaranteeing it has the visible constancy to face alongside fashionable adventures within the style. While I might have liked an enlargement of its ranges and a extra strong multiplayer providing, this can be a remake I consider is important for platforming followers.
Pros
A devoted remake of a traditional licensed platformer
The new visuals are vibrant, attractive and diverse
Multiple characters supply loads of gameplay selection
Sense of humour attracts from the best components of the present
Cons
Boss battles and some different parts have not aged too effectively
The new multiplayer mode looks like a missed oppurtunity
Key Specifications
Review Price: £24.99
Developer: Purple Lamp Studios
Genre: Platformer
Release Date: June 23, 2020
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch
They don’t make licensed platformers like they used to. Back within the days of PS2, Xbox and GameCube you have been spoiled for alternative when it got here to adventures based mostly in your favorite properties, a lot of which targeted on the largest cartoons and movies of the day.
SpongeBob: SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom was one of some licensed platformers that didn’t vanish into obscurity, lasting into the trendy day because of a devoted fanbase and surprisingly expansive speedrunning neighborhood. It’s a cult traditional, holding a popularity esteemed sufficient to warrant a full remake with Rehydrated.
Purple Lamp Studios has recreated this iconic platformer with the utmost accuracy, sustaining its beloved characters and stage design whereas guaranteeing its visuals look the half after virtually twenty years. The outcomes are oftentimes astonishing, even when some points really feel frighteningly archaic when up towards extra modern efforts.
A couple of small flaws apart, SpongeBob: SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom is a lovingly crafted remake which delivers ample nostalgia and hours of satisfying collectathon motion. It bottles up the glory days of this franchise and mixes it with a platformer that stands the take a look at of time remarkably.
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The premise of Rehydrated is easy. Plankton has constructed a machine which may produce robots to do his bidding, or extra particularly, steal the Krabby Patty components. Unfortunately for him, he switches the machine to “not obey” within the midst of an evil monologue. This ends in Bikini Bottom being flooded with an array of evil machines intent on making the lives of its inhabitants a distress.
SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy are the unlikely trio tasked with saving the day, additionally performing because the three playable characters you management all through Rehydrated. All of our heroes possess a spread of distinctive talents for fixing puzzles and preventing enemies. There are not any fancy upgrades or tiered unlock programs right here – that is old skool platforming to the best diploma.
Sandy can use a rope to swing by way of the air, reaching distant platforms and collectibles in any other case out of attain. Patrick can throw watermelons and different objects, an influence which proves invaluable all through some phases. SpongeBob is arguably essentially the most vanilla, but additionally who you’ll spend essentially the most time with all through the temporary marketing campaign. You swap between them often sufficient that issues all the time really feel contemporary, with ranges usually difficult you to suppose outdoors the field if you happen to’re hoping to search out the peskier secrets and techniques.
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Aside from stopping the evil robots, your core goal all through Rehydrated is to gather Golden Spatulas. These unlock entry to new ranges and decide your total progress by way of the marketing campaign. You’ll entry new phases corresponding to Rock Bottom and Goo Lagoon by way of a central hub world containing most of the present’s landmarks. Mr. Krabs could be discovered loitering outdoors the Krusty Krab, whereas Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are combating a damaged tv within the Old Shoals Retirement Home.
Rehydrated attracts from the most effective seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants, a time when the present was bitingly self-aware and referencial with its sense of humour. Much just like the golden age of The Simpsons, each single character is on prime type right here, making all of the dialogue a pleasure to witness. Unlocking new tiers of the hub world throughout plenty of hours means you’re all the time being handled with new secrets and techniques and funky character interactions to uncover, all of which really feel rewarding in their very own proper.
Much like different platforming greats, you’re inspired to revisit older ranges as soon as new characters and powers can be found, since some objects are not possible to acquire throughout your first rodeo. Normally this might be a trouble for completionists, however Rehydrated is intuitive sufficient that hopping between ranges is a breeze, with the menu permitting you to teleport on to chosen aims inside a matter of seconds. There’s no must replay enormous ranges for a single factor you missed, which is commonly a frustration within the style.
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Rehydrated additionally introduces some new options which weren’t current within the unique sport. The main addition is a multiplayer horde mode the place you and a pal can group as much as tackle countless waves of robots. It’s a enjoyable little distraction, and with the ability to play as new characters corresponding to Squidward, Gary and Robo Plankton is superb. Sadly, fight is so simplistic that it actually doesn’t add a lot depth to the general bundle.
I’ll admit it’s participating with an ally by your aspect in native multiplayer, however the lack of an choice to play it solo or alongside an AI-controlled bot is as a irritating omission. Even with the multiplayer being launched, I consider returning followers will likely be primarily targeted on diving into the solo marketing campaign, and pulling it aside in quest of new secrets and techniques and easter eggs earlier than evaluating it to the traditional unique. If one thing seems to be off, they’ll be sure you tell us about it.
Verdict
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated is a welcome return for a licensed platforming nice. It’s splendidly devoted to the unique launch whereas guaranteeing it has the visible constancy to face alongside fashionable adventures within the style. While I might have liked an enlargement of its ranges and a extra strong multiplayer providing, this can be a remake I consider is important for platforming followers.
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Jade is the devoted video games author at TechSwitch. She handles all issues gaming whether or not it’s information, critiques, occasions or foolish options. Seen at retailers corresponding to MTV UK, Kotaku and TechSwitch (…
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