*DISCLAIMER: As I have already reviewed the original version of this game, this review will focus entirely on the "Rehydrated" version. If you want to check out my original, 9/10 review of the original game, you can find it on my profile, but nevertheless, this review will mostly judge the remake as a game on its own, and I'll try not to make it a compare and contrast with the original game.*
I've gone on record to say that "SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom" was one of my favorite childhood games. I played it a lot as a kid, mostly just goofing off and playing random sections of the game for fun. When I finally fully beat the game back in 2017, I found that it aged really well, and that even if the game borrowed heavily from platformers like "Super Mario 64" and "Banjo-Kazooie," it was still an extremely fun game that felt very faithful to the "SpongeBob SquarePants" license. Not long after I beat the game, THQ Nordic made the announcement that they were partnering with Nickelodeon to bring back old games. That announcement alone got me excited, as THQ's old catalogue of Nickelodeon games were in heavy rotation in my childhood, and I was ready to see what would come of this. The possibilities were endless, and there were plenty of games I was hoping would get brought back, but I can't be the only one whose first thought was an HD re-release of "Battle for Bikini Bottom." And sure enough, a year later, that was announced. I was really excited when it was announced, and despite some mixed early reception, I was still interested in giving the game a shot. And honestly, even though I was looking forward to it already, I was honestly surprised; I don't think I anticipated enjoying this re-creation as much as I did.
"SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated" is a re-creation that doesn't exactly rebuild the original game: much of the gameplay feels similar to the original, as the changes I've noticed feel centered around the visuals. While most of the gameplay remains the same, I don’t think that's much of a bad thing, as the gameplay in the original has aged very nicely. The controls still feel fluid, and a lot of the most frustrating moments of the original game are actually fixed: I found the Mermalair's ball puzzle much less stressful this time, and I found that levels such as Rock Bottom and Kelp Forest were much easier and more fun to traverse here (could also help that the increased lighting made things better). The visual upgrade itself is also fantastic: I was a bit iffy on it at first, but the colors are extremely bold and just pop off of the screen here. The new animations are also a joy to look at, and they make the game feel more visually polished than before. Furthermore, I think that a lot of what made the original game so charming remains here: the fun storyline, the humorous characters, the energetic collection aspects of the game, and the clever callbacks and references to the show (complete with a few new ones to highlight the show's growth in meme status) make this a "SpongeBob SquarePants" game with a clear respect for its source material, and its original release as well.
Now, I won't say the game is perfect: a part of me wishes that some of the voice acting got updated a bit. For the most part, the voice clips consist of lines in the original game, and a few unused recordings that were left in the files of the original game back in the day. I am nitpicking a bit, and I understand some characters would be harder to re-record, but I did wish if nothing else that Clancy Brown came back to re-record Mr. Krabs' lines for the game, instead of keeping the imitator from the original game. Speaking of unused content, while I do appreciate that they wanted to implement some of the cut content from the original game by putting Robo-Squidward into the new Horde Mode, I think the new mode does feel a bit uninspired, and I do think it can dull out a bit quickly.
Other than those, though, I was very pleasantly surprised with "SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated," and I will say it definitely brought back those great memories that I've had playing the original game for much of my life. Even if it feels like the same game to some, I think there are some nice subtle improvements to the original that help this one to play better (and naturally, look better), and I must say this was an impressive, faithful "Rehydration" of one of my favorite childhood games. I'm very excited to see what THQ Nordic does next with their Nickelodeon partnership.
Final rating: 9 out of 10 "Awesome"