Might not be the best game of 2020 but Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom -Rehydrated must be the longest game name of this year, and while it might not be the best it is fantastic to replay this cult classic again with shiny new visuals and new content! Coming from Purple Lamb Studios, who worked on bringing Sea of Thieves to Steam, this team from Vienna did a marvelous job recreating Spongebob, Patrick and Sandy. New players or gamers who played the original are in for a real treat, as good as a Krabby Patty!
What we liked!
- Good old platforming fun! Fact, we have far too few good platform games and I was absolutely stoked to play this Spongebob game. Just as the name suggest it rehydrated my thirst for a classic platform game. In this game you have that perfect mix between fun and challenge, finding every sock and spatula is just as addictive as finding all gems in Spyro or Crash Bandicoot.
- Same old craziness as the TV episodes: I have to admit that I’m not really into Spongebob, I have seen a few episodes and for my review research I watched a couple before writing this up. One thing I noticed is how much fan service this game has, from the funny cutscenes or easter eggs in the game worlds. Meaning if you love Spongebob you will adore this game!
- Great visuals: A lot of work has been done to make this game a looker, vibrant game worlds full of detail awaits. Especially the facial expressions are fantastic, an example is when Spongebob enters Sandy’s dome. It is simply hilarious!
Somewhere between
- Unlocking new worlds: I wasn’t always sure on where to find new worlds, you need spatulas to unlock new places but you need to find the taxi spot first. While this is just a minor annoyance it would have been much more user friendly if you could just select the world when you have enough spatula.
- Multiplayer Horde mode: This completely new mode is fun while it lasts, and that’s the issue it is really, really short. It takes around half an hour for you and your friend to finish this horde mode. Beating every enemy and the final boss isn’t really challenging as you respawn almost instantly. I guess it will be fun for kids but it lacks progression and rewards to be a real mode that you’ll play more than once. Fun but meaningless.
What we disliked
- Annoying bug with Sandy: The game has three different playable characters, each with specific skills. Sandy can jump and hover for a while and here is where it regularly goes wrong. Sandy can’t stop hovering anymore and you fly up high in the sky until you manually restart. In my total playtime it happened five times so it isn’t a rare thing. while checkpoints are plenty it is still annoying having to restart because the game fails to work properly.
Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated is a fun and great looking platformer. It is better than the original and I am sure that the nostalgic players will be happy about the result. If are craving for a platform game than this really is a great pick, especially if you love the characters from the TV series.
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