Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

So I’m not dead. I’ve been playing a couple games lately on my PS2, and this is sort of a synopsis of some of those games I’ve been playing. Both of them rule. Today I’m gonna be highlighting one of them. Because, ya know, I want to.

Spongebob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom. Yes, I know, me sanctioning a Spongebob game is like Bush saying something smart. It doesn’t happen. That having been said, my sister loaned this game to me, and I beat it in a few days. And I have to admit, it was enjoyable.

Basically it’s another one of those Plankton-wants-to-take-over-Bikini-Bottom-yet-again-but-botches-up. It’s up to Spongebob to fix all of the problems. However, to get back into the Chum Bucket, Spongebob needs to find 75 golden spatulas. To do this, basically you run around performing odd-jobs for people in Bikini Bottom, like Mr. Crabs, Mrs. Puff, The Flying Dutchman, Squidward, etc. You do something dumb and they give you a golden spatula.

The real fun of the game comes when you’re fighting Plankton’s robots. You’re given several weapons from the outset of the game as Spongebob, such as whacking them with your jellyfish net, pushing off the ground straight up in the air to hit something airborne, or doing the opposite by being airborne and essentially body-slamming whatever’s on the ground. Later in the game, you get something called the “Bubble Bowl”, where you basically make a bubble and bowl it like a bowling ball. Another technique you get late in the game is my personal favorite, the Cruise Bubble. You make a bubble that’s a cruise missile, and you have 5 or 6 seconds to guide it to your target before it asplodes.

You can also play as Sandy and Patrick, which offer different gameplay styles. Personally, I’m not a big fan of Patrick’s role. You can pick up a lot of different things and throw them, such as fruits, other robots, etc. However, it just wasn’t very much fun playing as him, and I’d usually be Spongebob wherever possible during those levels. Sandy was fun, though. She has a lasso which she can use to round up various enemies and such. She also uses her lasso for swinging around levels on special flying medals that look, appropriately, like Texas.

All things considered, this is a kids game, and as such it is kind-of easy to beat. However, some of those bosses are HARD. Still, there aren’t any lives, and if you “die”, per se, you just get respawned at the last checkpoint. It’s an easy diversion and a fun way to kill time.

Rating: 4/5