4/5 ★ – Itsgrimsby's review of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated.

It’s always nostalgic when a game I played as a child is remastered and brought to modern gaming systems. This experience was no different. It reminded me a lot of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy; the games looked just as I remembered them (but were in fact looking much much better) and were also a lot shorter and a lot easier than I remembered. That’s not a bad thing though, not in a world where games seek to consume your life for 100+ hours. Battle for Bikini Bottom is a 3D platformer that does a lot right. It’s worlds are for the most part distinct and have fun challenges, having multiple characters that can access different areas is a fun way to change it up, and the boss fights are varied enough. I also enjoyed the Super Mario 64 approach with the Golden Spatulas replacing the stars. It does suffer, however, on the platforming itself. Anything that requires a tiny bit of precision can be a dice roll and a little frustrating. Fortunately there isn’t too much of this in the game though. Overall I really enjoyed my time with this game, the first hour had me worried that I would like it, but the next ten or so flew by. It’s got me interested to try the recent follow up, The Cosmic Shake, to see if it retains some of the same energy. I’m still working through a bit of collectible cleanup (though it was easy enough to get most of it as I went through) to get the platinum trophy but other than that it’s a very smooth platinum journey.