Retro Revival: SpongeBob SquarePants Battle For Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated

Rhiannon Bevan from gameluster.com reviews the latest SpongeBob remaster...

When you do a remake, there's many ways you can take it. You can use the original as a template to tell a bigger and better story than ever before. We've completely different gameplay or you can stick to the original like scripture and simply up the graphics and modernize it for a new generation, While not alienating their originals fans. SpongeBob is very much the latter. This remake of a PS2 era classic is absolutely faithful to its roots, meaning it takes all of the good and all of the bad, but first we need to go through some background on the game about for Bikini Bottom which was released back in 2003. The reason that this unassuming platformer even had demand for a remake was likely because this sort of game is very rare, a licensed game that was actually good... and not to mention, retains the same humor and charm of the show.

Each character has their own advantages such as Sandy being able to make bigger jumps and Patrick being able to throw items and enemies. These skills are used to access different parts of the world. And the game is at its best when you're left to figure out how to use the characters abilities, to explore all corners of the map, the gameplay is incredibly well done. And for all characters, you always feel like you're in complete control. There's enough difference in how they will fight to keep combat interesting.

Despite the repetitive enemies, boss battles are surprisingly solid too. Every boss makes creative use of the character's abilities and even have phases in battle. Considering this is an area where most platforms fail and just make their boss battles pretty boring. This is impressive. One of the few changes to the game is the inclusion of a new boss, Robo Squidward, which is a very welcome addition, when the bosses were already a highlight. Another change is the art style, which is much brighter to match the cartoon.