#1 In The Bikini Bottom Scavenger Hunt, Let's Play SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle For Bikini Bottom! [Finished]

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The Game

SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle For Bikini Bottom is a 2003 3D platformer released for the Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox consoles. (There are PC and GBA versions of the game, but they are completely different games that just share the title.) Naturally, it is based on the SpongeBob SquarePants animated series, the cornerstone of Nickelodeon's animated programming that is still endlessly marathon'd on the channel to this day. This game was released between the end of the third season and the release of the movie, an era of the show that contains most of its iconic moments that obnoxious people born in the 90's such as myself quote and reference endlessly to this day. This is a platformer in the collect-a-thon genre that despite suffering the dual burden of being a licensed budget title, is well known for it's surprising level of polish, tight gameplay with well realized platforming mechanics, excellent level design and environments, wonderful soundtrack, and its faithfulness to the source material that does a great job of putting you into the world of SpongeBob. On top of that, it's a surprisingly forward thinking platformer, with more modern elements that contemporary platformers of its time did not have, such as a fast travel system and eschewing a system revolving around extra lives for a purely checkpoint based death system. While the game does have its share of scuff you'd expect, such as poor audio mixing and some extremely wonky physics at times (to say nothing of the absolutely wild bugs that can occur), this game is a joy to play if you have any love for the SpongeBob franchise and I'd go to bat for it as a great 3D platformer on its own merits divorced from its license.

The Let's Play

This let's play is using the Xbox release of the game, which is the most polished version of the game. In addition to having the best graphics and draw distance of the different ports of the game, it also corrects some of the way overload sound effects that plagued the GameCube and PS2 versions, as well as having better load times and less buggy physics. (Though it still retains all of the major glitches anyone who is familiar with the Speedrun scene for this game would know about) As is expected, we'll be getting 100%, collecting all Golden Spatulas and grinding out the money to unlock the movie theater. This isn't a terribly difficult game save for a handful of the gold spatulas, so it should be a nice chill ride all throughout.

The Videos

Part 1, Release the Robots
Part 2, Jellyfish Jam
Part 3, Downtown Rodeo
Part 4, SpongeGuard on Duty
Part 5, Rock'em Sock'em Robot
Part 6, Advanced Darkness
Part 7, Lonely Rolling Star
Part 8, Slide Away
Part 9, Big, Scary and Pink
Part 10, Survival of the Idiots
Part 11, The Dutchman's Treasure
Part 12, Sleepy Time
Part 13 (Finale), Karate Choppers

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Part 1 and the beginning of the game is the elementary kind of opening you'd expect for a game that was designed mostly with a playerbase of 7 year olds in mind. Still, the tutorial area does a good job of covering most major mechanics of the game, giving you a good chance to spread your water wings, and we get to begin making progress on every single major collectible in the game from the very first area. Each video will be dedicated to a specific level of the game, with the boss levels and the next portion of the Bikini Bottom central hub they unlock being treated as levels for this purpose.

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Part 2 is out! Jellyfish Field is the traditional tutorial level you'd expect from a collect-a-thon game, featuring a hodge-podge of obstacles meant more to show you the various aspects of the game rather than having the level revolve around a single gimmick. There are 2 socks that cannot be collected on your first play of the level, this being one of the only stages in the game where you can't collect everything on the first go. Fortunately, only this level and the next one, Downtown Bikini Bottom, require returning with future abilities to get everything. Otherwise all stages in the game can be cleared in one shot.

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Part 3 is out! This time we're heading to Downtown Bikini Bottom, where the game introduces slightly more intricate platforming challenges, as well as the Sponge Ball power up and Sandy as a playable character. We also get access to our first good Shiny Object farming method in the Tikis Go Boom task, which we can refresh endlessly for all those juicy stone tiki explosions and combos. This is the last level in the game that requires an ability we don't yet have to get all collectibles, with a Sock and Spatula being inaccessible without the Cruise Bubble power gotten in the third hub section of Bikini Bottom. A truly bizarre glitch happens to me at the end of the video where Patrick takes my socks but doesn't give me a Spatula, and then when I talk to him again, he takes the rest of the socks I have and then gives me a Spatula. I have no idea how this could affect the rest of the game, so I'm just going to redo the level on my own time and we'll pretend like this didn't happen. Like I said in the OP, this game has have the occasional bits of scuff you'd expect from a budget title.

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Part 4 is out! Goo Lagoon is an interesting level, slightly shorter than what we've seen thus far but extremely varied in its locales and objectives. I've always found the micro games in the Pier section to be a nice touch. We've hit the point in the game where everything in a level can be gotten on the first go, so no more need to file any unobtainable collectibles into the memory hole until you can actually get them. The Patrick glitch didn't happen this time, but we will be erring on the side of caution going forward. Hope you liked playing as Patrick, it's going to be a bit before he gets a substantial portion of a level to himself again.

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Part 5 is out! A shorter and more to the point video, we have our first major boss fight against a robo-replica of the main cast. Sadly, boss fights are a bit of a drag in this game, being fairly slow and repetitive. The only one I think is actually reasonably engaging is the final fight. Oh well, not every aspect of a game is going to be a hit. Afterwards, we gain access to the second section of the Bikini Bottom hub area, with 3 new levels awaiting us and a handful of goodies scattered throughout. The newly gained Bubble Bowl ability will also be seeing plenty of use going forward.

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Part 6 is out! This is the stage of the game where the socks become a bit more deviously hidden and not every Spatula is on the beaten path. Rock Bottom itself is probably one of my favorite levels in the game, having a little bit of everything the game has to offer to keep things moving at a good pace. Coming up in the next videos, we'll be seeing a couple of the game's more infamous challenges that are usually skipped by first time players, so get excited for that.

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Part 7 is out! The Mermalair is a fairly fast paced and easy level and I can see why they made this one free to get into. That said, it does also contain one of the most infamous Spatulas in the game with its rolling ball puzzle room. Once you get the hang of the tilting board portion of it, it's not too bad, but it takes awhile to get the ball there and it's a pretty lengthy process to redo the puzzle every time it falls. I can't imagine too many people were able to do this on the first try, since this game doesn't exactly have stellar physics, as we've seen in a number of parts.

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Part 8 is out! Sand Mountain is a bit of a breather in terms of Spatula objectives, with none of the time trials really being all that difficult save for the extremely tight Flounder Hill time limit. Getting socks is a bit trickier in this level, as its easy to blow past most of them on the slides, and then of course there's the notorious Flounder Hill Sand Men sock, which is the toughest challenge in the level for 1/10th a golden Spatula. It's not too bad once you know where each of the Sand Men actually are, but it is time consuming especially if you fall of the slope and they reset.

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Part 9 is out! After a slight setback due to a recording failure, we are ready to take on the next major boss of the game and access the final portion of the hub area. Robo-Patrick is a trickier boss than Robo-Sandy, though still a pretty slow and boring one. Once he's out of the way, we're able to close out the remaining collectibles of Bikini Bottom and use our new Cruise Bubble move to collect the items from Jellyfish Fields and Downtown Bikini Bottom that we couldn't get earlier. The Cruise Bubble is a famed game breaker in speedruns of this game, I'd highly recommend checking out videos about it. Next time we'll be taking on what most people consider to be the worst level in the game, and it's certainly the only one that I dislike.

[Cullen]

Part 10 is out! Kelp Forest is widely considered to be the worst level in the game, and I am not about to contest that assessment. Aside from really ugly and muddy visuals (That my HDMI converter definitely does not like), a lot of the objectives are just slow and boring to complete, especially the Kelp Caves character switching puzzle. Funnily enough, the most notorious mission which is the Kelp Vine Slide Time Trial was of no real issue to me. I flubbed the shortcut for it once and then completed it on the second try with no issues. I actually had more problems getting the Sock because suddenly I just forgot how to stay on the slide and started falling a bunch of times. My commentary is exceptionally scatter brained in this video, I think my dread for this level bled into my usual enthusiasm. A wack level gets a wack video I suppose, so it all works out in the end. The next two levels are among my favorites in the game, so I'll definitely be more eager to show those off when I get to them.

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Part 11 is out! After the irritating and mildly nauseating Kelp Forest, the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard is a nice change of pace. This is a fairly short and sweet level with some fun platforming objectives and the world's most rudimentary puzzle elements. It also has our last bungee hook, so pour one out for that mechanic. This level is certainly a much more fun and rewarding experience than the conceptually related SpongeBob video game Revenge of the Flying Dutchman. If you want an example of how this game could've been done wrong, check out that game. Fitting that it was the direct predecessor to Battle for Bikini Bottom in terms of SpongeBob's game releases (though it is important to note it was developed by completely different people), and this game as a whole feels like a massive apology for the quality of that game.

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Part 12 is out! We enter the world within the mind this time, for one of the coolest and most varied levels in the game. Doing this level back to back with the Dutchman's Graveyard really highlights what a slog Kelp Forest was. The raw video for that level was over 47 minutes, while Graveyard and Dream didn't even go over 30. The raw video for this was around 27 minutes, and I was kind of impressed how quickly I cleared this since it's definitely one of the tougher levels in the game. (As you'd expect from the end of the game) Next time around will be the final boss and the small amount of bonus content this game has.

[Cullen]

The final video is out! The final boss and the handful of extras this game has lie herein. I did remarkably well considering the final boss of this game is relatively difficult. I only had a couple goofs on Phase 1, and for the second playthrough in a row I got a deathless damageless clear of the second phase, which is always really nice. Beyond that, I actually really like the concept art gallery in this game. A lot of interesting ideas were left on the cutting room floor, and one has to wonder if this game was given an extra few months and they could work in 120 Spatulas, Mario style. Regardless, this is where the LP ends. Thanks so much to all who watched! I think this game is a real treasure, and I was super stoked to share it with anyone who was interested. I said this in the video, but I hope you enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed making it, and I hope to see you in whatever I do next! Or you could watch my Fear & Hunger videos, which are tonally much different from this game but I am no less enthusiastic for. Have a great one y'all!