Gaming Forums => Nintendo Gaming => Reader Reviews => Topic started by: couchmonkey on April 07, 2005, 12:20:32 PM
Title: Uninformed Reviews: Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom
Post by: couchmonkey on April 07, 2005, 12:20:32 PM
Battle for Bikini Bottom!! Ha ha ha, it's...no wait, it's only funny because the cartoon already came up with the whole Bikini Bottom bit in the first place...Oh well. I played this game for a couple of hours and collected about 3/4 of the stuff in the first world, plus a bit in the hub world.
The Good:
Mostly great use of the Spongebob liscence. The story would never happen in the show, but it still "fits" for the most part.
The animation is pretty funny. Best player-on-NPC violence I've seen in a while - they all have funny animations when you hit them.
There are quite a few funny lines, and the voice acting as a whole is good, except they didn't get all of the official voice actors.
When the game is inspired, it's great. Like the mini-game where you bungee-jump from a fishing line.
The Bad:
It's not inspired 90% of the time. Then it's like playing a million other 3D platformers - with Spongebob!
Beyond the animation, the graphics are pretty blah. Cel-shading would have been very appropriate, I can't figure out why it isn't used in more 3D game adaptations of 2D cartoons.
The sound-alikes do a decent job of delivering their lines but it's obvious they're not the real voice actors. "I am a game developer imitating Mr. Krabs!" Less or even no voice acting be better than this mix of real actors and ringers.
The Funny:
"I don't get it." - one of a bunch of great quotes that Patrick, the dumb one, spouts randomly while you play as him.
The Battle for Bikini Bottom is not a bad 3D platformer, it's just a very generic one that relies heavily on the franchise. If you're a big Spongebob Squarepants fan, like I am, then you'll probably enjoy it enough to buy it on the cheap, but there's no reason for anyone else to pick this game over the other two-dozen generic platformers on the GameCube.
