SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

"Decent Platformer"

SpongeBob's Our Only Hope

Nick Games has launched yet another game of SpongeBob Squarepants, it's the second game for the Cube, the first being ''Flying Dutchman's Revenge''. So I decided to try this game because I bought it for my cousin and she let me play sometimes.

The game is better described as a Super Mario Sunshine clone, why you ask? Ok, you got to collect ''Golden Spatulas'' in order to progress through the game (Shine Sprites, anyone?) and you can also get Golden Spatulas by giving Patrick Star 10 ''Socks'' (See the similarities???).

Something that I liked about this game was the ''Shiny Objects'', they are like the currency of the game, and if you wish to proceed and open up more areas, you must pay a certain quantity of Shiny Objects to advance, this feature makes the game longer. You gain Shiny objects by fighting robots -who are the main enemies of the game-,
or they are just laying there, waiting to be picked.

In this game, you can play as SpongeBob (obviously), Patrick Star and Sandy Cheeks.

Controls 8/10

Good, but sometimes they are a little glitchy, especially when jumping.

You gain new abilities by talking to the Bubble Man (I think that was his name) so that makes the game more interesting and fun.

SpongeBob uses bubbles to attack, bubble helmet, bubble bowling, you get the idea...

Patrick Star uses his brute force to stop enemies, he can throw them, pick up throw-fruits and the such.

Sandy Cheeks uses her lasso ala cowboy style, her movements are hilarious, she can cross gaps using her lasso like a copter.

Story 6/10

Kind of dumb, really. Ok, Mr Plankton made a machine that clones robots, lots of robots, and the big machine had two switches, one was to ''obey'' Plankton and the other was to ''disobey'' Plankton. And guess what? Plankton forgot to put it in the ''obey'' switch so the robots now disobey and are causing chaos all over Bikini Bottom, it's up to SpongeBob and friends to help his ''non-friend'' (as Plankton calls himself) get rid of the robots so he can enter Chum Bucket!

Difficulty 6/10

At first the game is easy at its best, and I thought that it was going to be the same for the rest of the game, but no, the game became harder and harder and I found myself dying at some points.

Speaking of dying, you start with 3 life containers, UNDERWEAR! 3 pairs of underwear are your life, if you get hit by a robot, you lose one underwear. You can also increase your life containers by getting Golden Underwear.

Graphics 9/10

Colorful sprites make the game seem like the show sometimes, they are VERY well made! I liked them. No complains here, good job Nick Games!

Sound 7/10

They use Voice-actors from the show so it sounds exactly as in the show, but sometimes I think they are a little bad in terms of sound quality. They did a good job in the Voice-acting tough.

The music though is another thing, it IS bad in some parts, kind of repetitive, but some songs, like Mermalair's, are very good and catchy.

Gameplay 7/10

Finally, gameplay. Sad, this is where SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom loses a lot of quality.

It's a platformer so you have your ''lobby'' which is Bikini Bottom and you can choose between a lot of destinations, Rock Bottom, Mermalair, Jellyfish Plains, Chum Bucket and lots more!

But the bad point is that sometimes the places are just boring, same old background, same colors, same enemies and the same old songs, they should have had more interesting things, mini-games for example.

Overall 7.0/10 -- 7/10

Rent or Buy?
Fan of SpongeBob Squarepants? Buy it NOW!!
Fan of Platformer games? Rent it first.
Hate either SpongeBob or platformers? Stay away from it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/24/03