SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (PC)

You promised us SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, but all we saw out there was... a watered down port!

### Series

SpongeBob SquarePants

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom is a 2003 video game published by THQ, which is based on one of the longest-running animated television series, SpongeBob SquarePants.

This page will talk about the Microsoft Windows version, which was developed by AWE Games, being a completely different game than what was offered on home consoles and the Game Boy Advance.

## Gameplay

Unlike the console version, it is an action game with point and click elements, similarly like SpongeBob SquarePants: Operation Krabby Patty. These range from platforming stages to puzzle stages. It features 5 locations based on those from the show.

## Why This Version Doesn't Deserve a Golden Spatula

1. Instead of trying to port the original multi-platform version to PC, it is instead a bad collection of mini-games. This trend of lame PC ports would continue on for three more games.
2. The plot is a watered-down version of the console game's story, only really having the same premise.
3. Most of the mini-games are extremely easy and boring.
4. When they aren't boring, they are either broken or extremely confusing. For example, the mini-game "Hall of Arms" doesn't give you any clues about how to solve the puzzles, causing the solutions to seem completely random.
5. There are five trivia stages that are all trivial due to the fact that the wrong answers are obvious. One question asks what color Mr. Krabs is, who is actually on screen.
6. In these trivia stages, you have to wait for the 10 second timer to clock out even after choosing an answer.
7. A couple of the questions in the trivia stages are outright wrong. Examples include one that asks for the color of Gary's food bowl with the answer being purple, even though it's green, and another that asks what costume SpongeBob wore to the Halloween party at the Krusty Krab. The answer here was simply a ghost despite giving The Flying Dutchman as a possible answer, which is what his costume in the episode was supposed to be.
8. Character names are misspelled in the text multiple times. For example, Squog is misspelled as Squagg.
9. The platforming stages border on being broken due to bad collision detection.
10. The pre-rendered cutscenes have horrible animation.
11. Lame script.
12. There is a one-on-one fighting mini-game which only has one attack and no block button.
13. All of the mini-games loop until the player gets all of the collectibles. You can actually miss some of these and then have to restart to get them.
14. The last mini-game in every chapter, except Downtown Bikini Bottom, is endless until the player loses.
15. Like the console version, Mr. Krabs and Mermaid Man are voiced by Joe Whyte instead of Clancy Brown and Ernest Borgnine. His voice acting here is somehow worse than in the console version.
	* To add insult to injury, the dialogue clips that Mr. Krabs says during gameplay are actually done by Clancy Brown, though they are probably stock clips.
16. Several pieces of music were recycled from the previous games Operation Krabby Patty and Employee of the Month. Even though the music is recycled, it can be sorta catchy.
17. On newer computers, the in-game character models will have some glitches, such as missing eye textures, SpongeBob's teeth is missing, and Sandy's diving suit is notably messed up due to the missing textures and she won't have a torso.

## Redeeming Qualities

1. Most of the voice acting is solid.
2. Some of the character models are decent, even if they are the same ones used in Employee of the Month.
3. The game is mostly faithful to the show.
4. At least the trivia minigames (half the time) ask questions about things that happened in the show.

## Trivia

* THQ Nordic, the current owners of most of the original THQ game IPs and even getting back the Nickelodeon game license not long after Activision's license for Nickelodeon games expired, would later announce SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated for the PC along with PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch, but this time the PC port is based on the console version, unlike the original PC version. -->