A splash of nostalgia from a game I had never even played. Spongebob Squarepants: Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated is a title that I had fun with but has definitely aged in some aspects. Although I didn't play this game when I was a kid, I consistantly watched the show (and still do from time to time). The characters and the world itself are instantly iconic and recognizable. Although the show did the heavy lifting in that department, the game did a fairly solid job keeping its spirit. Though the absence of Mr. Krabs' and Mermaid Man's real voice actors did distract me a bit, I found it more comical than annoying. Although none of the jokes reached a Stephen Hillenburg level of quality, most of them gave me a chuckle. The story was simple (even for spongebob) but had a nice charm to it, and keeping it that basic could help center the focus on the gameplay. I think the core mechanics are decent and probably much smoother than the original, however, there were certain parts that I would change. I believe that this game at it's core is Spongebob's take on mario 64. It is mostly non-linear levels that you can take in any order to collect golden spatulas (Stars) and shinny objects (coins). Once you get enough, you can then open new areas of the hub world in order to travel to different areas. I think Spongebob does enough differently to justify its existance but I wish it would just go a bit further. Obviously this is a remaster so the game is not going to change much, but I'm just looking at it from a critical perspective. Having three characters is enough, but I was really hoping I could buy upgrades for them with the shiny objects. Instead the shinny objects are only used to access new areas and buy golden spatulas. Also, the only character who recieved any additional moves was Spongebob, and he kind of just randomly was given them. I appreciated the Spongebob, Patrick, and Sandy all had their own unqiue moves, but I wish I could have swapped to any of them on the fly. The system of going to a bus stop to change was fine but felt a bit unnatural. Maybe it was good to force me to play all three characters because I found Sandy to be the most fun to use and would have only picked her. Her glidding alone made it so much easier to platform around the map. It did help when spongebob got his missle ability. However, I found that Patrick was the most boring character to play. His item throwing and ground pound were not as interesting as the other two characters. The boss fights were the big gameplay standouts for me. Each of them stood on their own and felt suprisingly climactic. I think the fish commentating the fight tremendously helped in creating the tone, and the final boss fight felt like the right way to end the game. Overall, I think this game is a quirky fun platforme that clearly originates from 2003.