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SpongeBob: Say Bubble Buddy, why am I having to pay all of these golden spatulas to these toll booths?
Bubble Buddy: Because, SpongeBob.
SpongeBob: Well, can't argue with that.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom is a licensed game produced by Nick Games and THQ, and developed by Heavy Iron Studios, released in 2003 for the PS2, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox. The Microsoft Windows and Game Boy Advance Reformulated Games were developed by AWE Games and Vicarious Visions respectively.

The basic plot involves Plankton creating the Duplicatotron 3000; a device that generates a robot army to steal the Krabby Patty formula for him. Unfortunately, he forgets to set one of the device's switches to "Obey" and the robots begin running amok, spreading havoc across Bikini Bottom. At the same time, SpongeBob thinks the appearance of the robots was his fault after wishing for more toy robots to play with while using Patrick's magic wishing shell. It's up to SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy to defend the town against the robot menace and fight their way into the Chum Bucket to shut them down.

The gameplay is a staple 3D platformer in the vein of Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie—have SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy travel around several different levels spread throughout Bikini Bottom. They battle Plankton's robot cronies and solve obstacles and puzzles (e.g., Klotski) while collecting Golden Spatulas to help you get around.

The game received two gameplay sequels by the same developer, The SpongeBob Movie Game & SpongeBob's Truth or Square.

THQ Nordic released a HD remake called SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated on June 23, 2020 for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows.note  The remake was developed by Purple Lamp Studios, and boasts a massive graphical overhaul and a host of quality-of-life improvements, while also adding a new multiplayer mode with exclusive playable characters and assets based on content cut from the original version. A version for Stadia was released on December 8 of that year. A mobile port of the remake for iOS and Android, developed by Handy Games, was released on January 21, 2021.

On September 17, 2021, a Spiritual Successor, entitled SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, was announced. The developers behind Rehydrated, Purple Lamp, will be returning to make the new game.

Now has a character page.


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Battle for Bikini Bottom contains tropes examples of:

     Tropes that apply to both the Rehydrated remake and the Original home console release 
  • 100% Completion: Collecting all 100 Golden Spatulas (counting Patrick's socks and Mr. Krabs' trades) gives a bonus ending where everyone is in the Krusty Krab singing the show's theme song.
  • Abnormal Ammo:
    • SpongeBob attacks with bubble constructs and a bubble wand.
    • The Tar-Tar robot attacks you by shooting boiling hot tartar sauce, while the robots Chuck and Slick attack with water balloon missiles and oil respectively.
    • The cannons fire rather unorthodox projectiles like pufferfishes, kitchen sinks, sofas, beach balls, and safes.
    • Robo-Patrick sprays radioactive ice-cream sludge all over the place.
    • The final boss, SpongeBot SteelPants, attacks you by literally sending the words KAH-RAH-TAE flying at you.
  • Absurdly Short Level: The mission in Patrick's dream, titled "Here You Go", consists of walking up to him in a big empty room with no enemies or hazards of any kind, talking to him, and receiving the golden spatula. That's it. Yes, really. note 
  • Absurdly High Level Cap: The maximum number of Shiny Objects you can hold is 99,999, which is far more than needed to complete the game, even when taking the Concept Art Gallery's 40,000 fee into account.
  • Action Bomb: Bomb-Bots use self-destruction as their attack.
  • Adaptational Badass: Sandy's already an impressive fighter, but Patrick and SpongeBob take a few levels in badass, tearing through armies of deadly robots with herculean strength and bizarre-yet-inventive bubble constructs, respectively, while remaining off-beat and goofy lovable doofuses.
  • Adapted Out: Pearl and Karen are the only main characters from the show who don't have speaking roles in this game. The latter case is downplayed in that Karen was considered a secondary character until becoming an Ascended Extra after the movie.
  • Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: True to his nature, Mr. Krabs will charge higher Shiny Object prices with each subsequent trade for Golden Spatulas. In addition, the toll clams will become more expensive the farther into the game you get, so you better start grinding while you can.
  • All There in the Script: SpongeBot SteelPants is unnamed in the console versions of the game but is named in the GBA version.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: The robots seem to be destroying Bikini Bottom for no clear reason other than to cause havoc on their own whim, although they were created by Plankton.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Technically averted. Plankton's robots betray him because the lever is set to Don't Obey. Played straight at the final boss.
  • Airborne Mook: Chuck and Monsoon, especially the latter who flies out of your reach.
  • Ambiguous Gender: SpongeBot SteelPants is based off the very male SpongeBob, but Robot Plankton calls the former his bride.
  • Amusement Park: The carnival part of Goo Lagoon is a boardwalk with various carnival rides.
  • And I Must Scream: In the Mermalair, the boss of that level is "Prawn", an old archenemy of Mermaidman who was kept frozen in the lair's prison for years until he was accidentally thawed out. After defeating him, he returns to his chum prison.
  • And the Adventure Continues: The game ends with Sandy noting that in spite of the defeat of the main robot menace, there are still some leftover robots to deal with throughout Bikini Bottom, to which SpongeBob notes that he'll keep on fighting. If the bonus ending cutscene from collecting all 100 Golden Spatulas is to be believed, he likely succeeded.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: In order to prevent excessive backtracking for the player, the game's menu allows you to warp to certain locations in the game where you have a spatula to find or have already found.
  • Anvil on Head: The game cleverly uses this gag as the health tutorial. When explaining what underwear pickups do, it'll demonstrate by dropping a safe directly on SpongeBob, causing one hit point of damage and justifying the pickup next to the tutorial sign.
  • Apathetic Citizens:
    • Played relatively straight, with only one or two NPCs per level really caring about the chaos the robots are causing and none of them willing to take action themselves.
    • There are a few aversions later in the game, though, with the two final Mook Debut Cutscenes attacking generic NPCs that actually try to fight back, albeit with little success.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: After unlocking the second area of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob questions Plankton on why the robots are coming out from inside the Chum Bucket.
  • Arrow Cam: When you use the Cruise Bubble, the camera follows the bubble.
  • Artificial Brilliance: During the final boss's second phase, Robo-Plankton will actively begin dodging out of the way of Spongebob's cruise bubble, forcing you to adapt to his movements in order to hit him.
  • Artifical Stupidity: Some robots, such as Fodders and Ham-mers, will run straight at the player in an attempt to attack. They do this even if there's a hazard in between them and the player such as goo, thus destroying themselves in the process.
  • Ascended Extra: One-Shot Character Bubble Buddy has a much larger role in Battle for Bikini Bottom as the one who teaches SpongeBob bubble moves and a recurring quest giver.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: Robo-Sandy has a self-destruct button placed under her head that SpongeBob must hit using Bubble Bash. Robo-Patrick is normally invincible all over, but he has a weak point in his backside, covered by the conspicuously placed "Kick Me" sticky note. SpongeBot SteelPants takes this up to eleven, as he has numerous glowing generator bulbs around its body, which can only be destroyed by the Cruise Bubble or other types of moves depending on where you're positioned and if you're able to aim them.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: King Jellyfish, Robo-Sandy, Robo-Patrick, and Robo-SpongeBob are giant versions of a jellyfish, Sandy, Patrick, and SpongeBob, respectively.
  • Attract Mode: If you idle on the main menu long enough, it displays a video of the game being played with the word "DEMO" flashing at the top.
  • Awesome, yet Impractical: The Spongeball move. Sure, it helps you get around faster than usual, but you can't attack in it, it's rather hard to control, and the move gets immediately canceled if you take damage or press a button on your controller.
  • Band Land: Squidward's Dream has you jump on musical notes and various musical instruments, and avoiding sharp signs.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: SpongeBob thinks this is the reason for the game's premise.
  • Berserk Button: Sandy really has her berserk button pushed when Robo-Patrick freezes SpongeBob.
    Sandy: That does it! You pushed this squirrel too far! Get ready for a hot fudge twister...Texas style.
  • Beneath the Earth: While technically not underground, Rock Bottom is an entire civilization located in the depths of the ocean.
  • Big Bad: Plankton, although he spends most of the game as much a victim of his machines as anyone else. This spot is later taken by Robot Plankton.
  • Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: In one mission in Downtown Bikini Bottom inside the Sea Needle, SpongeBob questions why Mr. Krabs wants him to destroy the tikis through bungee jumping. Mr. Krabs claims they made fun of him by calling him funny names like "SpongeBob Buttpants", which didn't really convince SpongeBob all that much. All it took to convince him was claiming that they called his mom "ugly."
  • Bigger on the Inside: In the second phase of the final battle, SpongeBot SteelPants had already grown huge, but the inside of him is big enough to hold Cronos from God of War III and still have room to move around in!
  • Blackground: Patrick's dream is a completely black space with nothing in it but a door back to Spongebob's dream, Patrick himself, and a golden spatula.
  • Bleak Level: Compared to most of the levels, which are otherwise bright and fun, Rock Bottom retains its creepiness from the show, is set in a dark abyss, and has dark background music.
  • Bombardier Mook:
    • The Chuck robot, first encountered in Downtown Bikini Bottom, is a flying robot that lobs explosive warheads at you, and they tend to be located in areas where Bottomless Pits are common. Their aim is very accurate, requiring the player to trick their throwing arc in another direction to approach them.
    • The Monsoon robot, first encountered in Goo Lagoon, is an unusual example in that, instead of explosives and projectiles, they summon thunderclouds that hover towards you and zap you with lightning. They levitate just out of reach and can only be taken down with air-based attacks.
  • Border Patrol: Every level and hub world is surrounded by red dotted lines indicating the edge of the level/hub. If you try to go outside these lines, whoever you're playing as will shift into a unique running animation before Hans drags them off the screen and places them back at the last checkpoint.
  • Borrowed Without Permission: Upon meeting Squidward at Sand Mountain, SpongeBob asks to borrow his toothbrush again, causing Squidward to ask if he used it before, which SpongeBob states he figured Squidward wouldn't mind if he didn't know. After clearing the robots from all the slopes for Squidward, he expresses intent to grab his equipment to ski, only for SpongeBob to reveal he loaned Squidward's equipment to Patrick, again saying he figured Squidward wouldn't mind.
    Squidward: Wouldn't mind? Of course I mind! It is the most expensive ski equipment on the market! And what would Patrick want with that stuff anyway? He doesn't even know how to ski.
    Patrick: I want the warm now!
  • Boss-Only Level: The Poseidome, Industrial Park, and the Chum Bucket Lab are where you fight the 3 major bosses of the game, with nothing else to do besides that.
  • Brown Note: In the Squidward section of SpongeBob's Dream, Mr. Krabs warns SpongeBob to cover his ears due to the (allegedly) dreadful music.
  • Bubblegloop Swamp: The Kelp Swamp section of the Kelp Forest is a watery area with lots of vines and foliage-based platforms.
  • The Burlesque of Venus: Of all people, Spongebob is substituted for Venus in a parody of the original in Rock Bottom's museum. You got to wonder who in the world thought to make such a romantic portrait of the most annoying fast food worker in another neighborhood.
  • Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Throw Fruits and Freeze Fruits are quite obviously watermelons and ice cubes, respectively.
  • Call-Back: Many, many to the first three seasons of the cartoon. One very sly nod: SpongeBob's health is represented with pairs of underwear, and he starts off with three hit points. In other words, he's wearing three pairs of underwear right now.
  • Cap: The maximum amount of Shiny Objects you can hold is 99,999. It takes time and diligent effort of grinding to reach this cap.
  • Cash Gate: Battle for Bikini Bottom has the toll clams which block off additional areas and sidequests until you pay them a certain amount of Shiny Objects. Also, there are toll booths that obstruct new areas of the hub and require Golden Spatulas (though you have to fight a boss to unlock the area as well).
  • Cave Behind the Falls: Somewhat; the Jellyfish Caves in Jellyfish Fields are located near a waterfall, but not exactly behind it.
  • Checkpoint Starvation: Averted for the most part, as the game is fairly generous with its checkpoint placements throughout all of the levels, even during boss fights. However, this is played straight with the second phase of the Final Boss, SpongeBot SteelPants. There are no checkpoints, so dying anywhere in the phase will send you all the way back to the start. This puts your endurance and survival skills to the ultimate test.
  • Chokepoint Geography: The game uses the golden spatulas to allow you access to new levels, and there are red lines that, when crossed, result in the player being taken back to the regular hub.
  • Color Coded For Your Convinence:
    • Shiny Objects are valued based on their color, with red being the least and purple being the most. Red is worth 1, yellow is worth 2, green is worth 5, blue is worth 10, and purple is worth 50.
    • Sand Mountain and Kelp Forest have colored markings on the slides that indicate the type of jump that is coming up. Orange is for a single jump, and blue is for a double jump.
  • Colossus Climb: The second phase of the SpongeBot SteelPants battle has the machine grow to such an immense size that the last part of the final battle is fought inside it!
  • Collector of the Strange: Patrick has a large collection of smelly socks, which must be collected and delivered to him in exchange for Golden Spatulas.
  • Combat Commentator: The announcer fish from the show fulfills this role during Boss Battles.
  • Concept Art Gallery: The movie theater in the third part of the hub world, which costs 40,000 Shiny Objects to enter (the most of any toll). It contains a selection of concept art for the game, including cut concepts like alternate costumes (which were implemented in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Game) and Robo Squidward (who was implemented in Rehydrated after being relegated to the Game Boy Advance version and the Truth or Square game).
  • Console Cameo: In the console versions, a sand sculpture in Goo Lagoon resembles an Atari 2600 controller.
  • Continuity Cavalcade: The game is full of references to events and characters from the show.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Plankton just happened to unleash his robotic horde the morning after Patrick wished that his toy robot would become real. Naturally, SpongeBob believes that the events of the game are his and Patrick's fault due to said wish, and Plankton isn't exactly eager to correct him.
  • Cranial Processing Unit: Robo-Sandy's weak point is her head. SpongeBob damages her in the first phase by ground-pounding so that her head flies into the electrical scoreboard above, Patrick damages her in the second phase by throwing her head into the fallen electrified scoreboard, and SpongeBob damages her by using an uppercut on her head after a Ground Pound knocks it off and forces her to hold it around in the third phase.
  • Crate Expectations: Tikis, which contain Shiny Objects. There are five types of them in the game: Wooden Tikis, Floating Tikis, Thunder Tikis, Shh Tikisnote , and Stone Tikisnote .
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Most apparent if you are switching over from The SpongeBob Movie Game to this or vice versa, as both games play very similarly to each other. Because the aforementioned game is a later installment to this one, you'll find that some of SpongeBob's and Patrick's moves are assigned to different buttons than what you would be used to, which can sometimes lead to confusion on both ends.
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: You are returned to a checkpoint when you die, and that's pretty much it. This is averted for some challenges, however, as certain things reset upon death, such as the Sand Mountain challenge where you must destroy all 8 sandmen located at various places on the slide, which reset if you die. The second phase of the final boss also averts this, as it will send you all the way back to the beginning if you die, meaning you must do it all in one go.
  • Demoted to Extra: The Flying Dutchman, having served as the Big Bad of the previous tie-in game, is now confined entirely to his graveyard area and exists solely as another obstacle for SpongeBob and company.
  • Derelict Graveyard: The Flying Dutchman's Graveyard contains lots of broken ship pieces, with mild shades of Big Boo's Haunt.
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • During the Robot Sandy fight, the Fish Announcer will be in the audience, next to King Neptune. Like in all boss fights, he pops up on the side of the screen to make a comment. If you face the Announcer during the fight and trigger a comment (like taking a hit or dealing a hit), both the pop-in and the one in the audience will have exact lip-sync for their comment.
    • All the tutorial signs can be re-read as many times as you want, which includes the health tutorial where a safe will drop on SpongeBob and cause damage. Should a player attempt to kill SpongeBob this way, they'll soon find out that SpongeBob's health will no longer deplete once he's down to his last hit point, rendering any dropping safe damage null. The developers likely programmed this in order to prevent death via cutscene.
      • Averted in Rehydrated, where the safe will indeed kill SpongeBob if he's down to one hit point.
    • NPC characters in levels will have different dialogue if you talk to them with the wrong character for the task they give, some of which can only be heard if you switch characters and backtrack from later in the level. However, two completely unique (and voiced) conversations between SpongeBob and Plankton exist in both Jellyfish Fields and Sandy's Dream that can only be heard through the use of glitches or cheats, as Plankton is in areas that are impossible for SpongeBob to access by normal means.
    • In the Mermalair, it's possible to reach the area with the computer as Patrick by doing a precise jump off of the slide in Barnacle Boy's area. Going through the teleport box will take him back to the entrance to the area, where he can not only speak to Squidward (with a uniquely voiced conversation), but can use a nearby teeter totter to get back to the main part of the level (since Patrick can't bubble bowl, meaning he'd be stuck there otherwise). Since this is the only way for Patrick to access that area and the teeter totter has no other purpose, it's clear it was specifically placed there for the exact reason that a player would manage to get over there.
  • Didn't Think This Through: The robots would've listened to Plankton if he hadn't had a "Don't Obey" setting in the first place.
  • Disney Owns This Trope: In-universe, Plankton says he registered the name of the Duplicatotron 3000 to be trademarked, "So don't even think about ripping me off."
  • Door to Before: Each level has cardboard boxes at the end that take you back to the beginning. They can also be found at various points throughout the level.
  • Down in the Dumps: The Industrial Park is located inside a junkyard.
  • Dream Land: SpongeBob's Dream, and by extension, the other character's dream worlds. The name tells you where it takes place.
  • Dual Boss: SpongeBot SteelPants is fought alongside Robo-Plankton in the first phase.
  • Easter Egg: Both on the original version only:
    • Tubelet's fire will change color if the game is played on a specific holiday (or if the system's date is set to said holiday), such as rainbow on January 1st, green on March 17th, and orange on October 31st.
    • If the oven in Spongebob's Pineapple is hit with the bubble bowl (long after the player would have any reason to visit that area), a special animation plays where it visibly emits flames (with a unique sound effect to boot) before turning itself off. Note that this occurs only with the bubble bowl; no other move will cause any effect.
  • Elaborate Underground Base: The Mermalair is a quite large underground lair created by Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy.
  • Elite Mook: The oil-throwing Slick robots from late in the game. They have a shield that can come back after a short period of time, and attacking the shield with the basic attack will only hurt you. They attack by flinging oil, which not only hurts you but also messes up movement. And they can take three hits, which is a lot compared to the other non-boss robots.
  • Enemy Mine: Because Plankton is locked out of the Chum Bucket by his own robots, he has no choice but to help out SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy on their quest.
  • Eternal Engine: The interior of SpongeBot SteelPants is a massive industrial area with lots of metallic floating platforms.
  • Everything is Big in Texas: In Sandy's dream, there are giant acorns, cows, and skeletons. Even the slide is one of the biggest in the game!
    Sandy: Everything's bigger in Texas, even dreams!
  • Evil Knockoff: The bosses include evil robot copies of the heroes and Plankton, which are Robo-Sandy, Robo-Patrick, SpongeBot SteelPants and Robo-Plankton.
  • Evil Laugh: SpongeBot SteelPants gives a particularly creepy, metallic version of SpongeBob's laugh whenever SpongeBob gets hit. Most (if not all) mooks will laugh or taunt you every time they score a successful hit against you (and the major bosses; who can't be left vulnerable while taunting regardless).
  • Felony Misdemeanor: The reason that Prawn is Mermaidman's arch-enemy: he put all of Mermaidman's white clothes in the washer... with a red sock.
    Mermaidman: Everything I owned turned pink! PINK!
  • Flunky Boss: King Jellyfish and Prawn start spawning jellyfish and Ham-mer robots, respectively, into the battle once they take one hit.
  • Free-Sample Plot Coupon: The very first of the socks you find for Patrick is right under Patrick's feet. Hilariously, Patrick still considers it "lost."
  • Game-Breaking Bug: This video shows that it's possible to crash the game if you hit a Monsoon with Patrick's Ground Pound attack. Even though the Monsoon is usually out of the reach of Patrick's slam attack (due to it being an Airborne Mook), there is a specific spot in the Kelp Caves where Patrick can get on the same elevation level as the Monsoon, which puts it in the range of his Ground Pound's stunning ability. This causes the game to crash because the Monsoon was never given a stun animation, so the game doesn't know what to do in this scenario.
  • Game Mod: Quite a few.
    • BFBB Beta Mod, which remakes the entire game in the style of the E3 2003 beta build.
    • BFBBMix, a which remixes the entire game with new music, objectives and level layouts.
    • Second Strike, which doesn't change the main level layouts but significantly increases the difficulty with extra enemies throughout the game, as well as new challenges and secret areas.
    • BFBB Deluxe, an in development mod that will expand the game by doubling the amount of available spatulas, with the option of new sock placements as well as new game areas.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: An optional conversation with Plankton in the third part of Bikini Bottom has Plankton accidentally revealing that he's the one responsible for the robots running amok through town, which Spongebob calls him out on. Later, Plankton's involvement is revealed in a news broadcast when Spongebob enters the Chum Bucket to confront the final boss. Yet, the cutscene preceeding the final boss will have Spongebob and everyone else surprised to learn that Plankton was the one behind everything, despite the fact that Spongebob should already know about it.
  • Gangplank Galleon: The Dutchman's ship and the robot ship, which are both pirate ship areas.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: The police station's description of the Ham-mer robot states that it "goes well with... a nice Chianti", which is a type of wine produced in Tuscany. Not too bad by itself, but the ESRB rating does leave out the "Alcohol Reference" label for some reason.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: While it's fun, the fight with Robo-Patrick makes absolutely no sense story-wise.
  • Gimmick Level:
    • The unlockable "Spongeball arena" mini-level focuses entirely on the Spongeball powerup.
    • Each level in Spongebob's Dream is based around one of the main gameplay mechanics: slides for Sandy's Dream, platforming for Squidward's Dream, combat for Mr. Krabs' Dream, and dialogue for Patrick's Dream.
  • Given Name Reveal: The realistic fish head's name is revealed to be Johnny.
  • The Goomba: Jellyfish are the first enemies you meet in the game. While they can hurt SpongeBob if he gets too near, they're not aggressive and easy to beat, though they don't drop any Shiny Objects. The second enemy you meet in the game, appropriately named "Fodder", is not only the most common mook early on but also the easiest robot to dispatch.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: From two perspectives — Plankton succeeded in getting his Duplicatotron to work and thus build up his robot army, but forgot to set the lever to "obey", resulting in them turning against him. SpongeBob believes that his and Patrick's wish to have more toy robots to play with was the cause of all the havoc the robots are wreaking.
  • Gotta Catch Them All:
    • Getting all 100 Golden Spatulas gets you a bonus clip featuring nearly every character in the game singing the series theme song.
    • The socks also fall under this, but they only serve to get the rest of the spatulas.
  • Graceful Loser: After a being beaten by SpongeBob, King Jellyfish willingly hands over the bottle of his jelly needed to treat Squidward's stings, and waves goodbye before packing a suitcase and going travelling.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Robo-Plankton, who turns out to be the real mastermind behind the machines.
  • Green Hill Zone: Jellyfish Fields, which is full of fields of grass and rolling hills.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: You can smack robots into other robots to damage them. Patrick can stun larger robots with a shockwave and pick them up to throw at other robots.
  • Ground Pound: The Bubble Stomp for SpongeBob, and a belly flop for Patrick. Patrick's is unique in that it sends a shockwave that can kill weaker foes and stun stronger enemies, allowing him to pick them up and throw them. Both of them can use this to hit buttons, which is Sandy's only weakness.
  • Guide Dang It!:
    • The "Goo Tanker Ahoy" and "A Path Through The Goo" missions have left many players baffled. Both of these missions are in the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard level and involve a tanker hatch that appears to be part of the scenery and gives players almost no indication on how to complete them without either thinking outside the box or looking up a guide.
    • Getting one of the socks in the Krusty Krab requires interacting with and destroying every single object, similar to the one in Squidward's house. While destroying all tikis, barrel seats, and supplies on top of the storage area is a no brainer, and most players would go and open the cash register anyway (seeing as it is an iconic part of the show's location), the only objects that players are likely to miss are the ketchup and mustard bottles on the condiment stand, which blend in with the environment and have no indication that you can destroy them. Without guides, most new players would not even think to go after the condiment bottles to get the sock.
    • One of the socks in Sandy' Dream is located on a ledge behind the tall building where the "Swingers Ahoy" task takes place. There is absolutely no indication that anything is back there, nor is there an indication that you can even get behind there in the first place. On top of this, the ledge is difficult to see and most players aren't going to be looking around for it since it just looks like part of the environment. Rehydrated adds a small side path that makes it more obvious something is behind the building.
  • Heart Container: Scattered throughout the Hub Level are 3 pairs of Golden Underpants that SpongeBob can collect, with each one increasing his hitpoint capacity by one.
  • Hidden Depths: The police database reveals several interesting tidbits about the robot mooks you face throughout the game: G-love does foot massages, lemon squeezing and "delightful" hand-puppet shows, Chuck has a tendency to throw explosive tantrums, Monsoon likes poetry and plants, Bzzt-bot borrows money but never returns it, and Sleepy-time likes finger-painting.
  • Holiday Mode: When your system's calendar is set to certain days of the year, the Tubelets' flames change color to match the holiday. Specifically, they change to Rainbow on New Year's Day, green on St. Patrick's Day, pink on April Fool's Day, red white & blue on the Fourth of July (the U.S. independence day), and orange on Halloween.
  • Hub Level: Bikini Bottom is the central area where you access the other levels. Sand Mountain and Spongebob's Dream also have central "hub" areas that lead to self-contained sub-areas.
  • Humongous Mecha: SpongeBot SteelPants, the final boss. You go inside of it! The other two robot bosses are also pretty big.
  • I Can See My House from Here: Patrick mentions this in a conversation with Barnacle Boy. It's lampshaded, naturally.
    Patrick: I can see Squidward's house from here! And he's not wearing any pants! Oh wait, he never wears pants.
  • Idiosyncratic Combo Levels: By destroying multiple tikis and defeating multiple robots in a short amount of time, you'll earn combos that reward you with bonus Shiny Objects. The more tikis and robots destroyed, the larger the combo, which increases to Super Combo, Ultra Combo, Mega Combo, and so on. The largest combo is the Super-Ultra-Mega-Monster Combo, which would give Killer Instinct a run for its money.
  • Idiot Ball: Played for Laughs. Every single time it's made obvious that Plankton was the one at fault for making the robots in the first place, the other characters write it off or ignore it. Plankton even effectively flat-out admits several times that he's the one at fault, only for everyone else to buy whatever Wild Card Excuse he comes up with to explain it away. It isn't until just before the final boss starts that they finally catch on.
  • Instant Flight: Just Add Spinning!: Sandy swings her rope in this fashion to glide over gaps. Most of the levels that include her have more of an emphasis on platforming because of this move.
  • Inventional Wisdom: The Duplicatotron 3000 can make an army of robots at will; the only reason they run amok instead of listening to their maker is that Plankton accidentally set the obeying lever to the "Don't Obey" setting.
  • Jump Scare: If you don't notice that you're in the Sleepytime robots' attack range, their loud and sudden attack can very much catch you off guard.
  • Kung Fu-Proof Mook:
    • G-Love cannot be directly attacked by the normal attack as its spins. You will have to stomp them, lasso them, or use projectiles to hit them (or just attack when it's not spinning).
    • Monsoon flies directly out of reach of your normal attack and Bubble Bowl, so you have to use a Bubble Bash, Cruise Bubble, thrown object, or a lasso to take it down.
    • Sleepytime will repel the Bubble Bowl at any range besides point-blank and will attack you with an instant-hit laser if you move too quickly around it. Sneak up on it or use the Cruise Missile or other projectiles to beat it.
    • Slick has an oil shield that has to be taken down with a projectile or else you will take damage if you hit it.
    • You need to kill the Tubelet's top section before the bottom ones, otherwise it will use an explosion attack that regenerates all three of them!
  • Lampshade Hanging: The health collectibles for this game are pairs of SpongeBob's underwear. Fine and dandy when playing as the yellow sponge himself, but this is also the case when playing as Patrick or Sandy. The latter points out the absurdity of collecting (and wearing) someone else's underpants:
    Sandy: Eww! Can't believe I'm wearing SpongeBob's underwear!
  • Laser Hallway: In the art museum in Rock Bottom, SpongeBob has to shut these down in order to get further.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: If you haven't seen the episode Bubble Buddy, this game spoils the fact that Bubble Buddy is actually sentient.
  • Level Ate: Mr. Krabs' Dream has a grill arena, and there are Krabby Patties floating around.
  • Level in Boss Clothing: A rather literal example. The second phase of SpongeBot Steelpants plays out more like a normal level, where you go inside his body to destroy his circuits. The only threats you'll be facing in this phase are the robots and Robo-Plankton.
  • Level in the Clouds: Sandy's Dream is a massive slide located in the clouds.
  • Lone Wolf Boss: The Flying Dutchman. He's not affiliated with any of Plankton's robots — in fact, he actually asks for SpongeBob and Sandy's help in fighting them off from his graveyard, and only turns on them when he's tempted by a Golden Spatula they come across and refuses to part with it.
  • The Lost Woods: Kelp Forest, due to its often confusing and hard-to-navigate nature. Overlaps with Jungle Japes.
  • Ludicrous Gibs: A not-gory example. One of SpongeBob's death animations has him break apart into numerous spongy gibs that scatter across the ground before fading away. It usually happens if SpongeBob is killed by Spikes of Doom or other sharp objects.
  • Make a Wish: The prologue has SpongeBob using Patrick's magic wishing shell to wish for more robots to play with, which leads to him believing he accidentally wished up a robot invasion throughout Bikini Bottom which becomes the main source of the game.
  • Malaproper: The police station description for Chuck states that it likes to throw "military-grade ordinance." The correct term should be "ordnance", which references mounted artillery (unless Chuck actually enjoys throwing down the law).
  • Meaningful Name: The robots.
    • Fodder is pretty much cannon fodder.
    • Ham-mer uses a hammer made of ham to whack you.
    • Tar-Tar fires hot tartar sauce at you.
    • G-Love has multiple hands, each with a glove.
    • Chuck chucks water bombs at you.
    • Monsoon summons a thunderstorm to attack you. It also holds an umbrella.
    • Chomp-bots resemble dogs, complete with dog breath.
    • Bomb-Bots are Action Bombs.
    • Sleepytime is a sleepwalking lobster robot that wakes up and attacks you if you move too quickly near it.
    • Slick attacks you with oil and leaves an oil slick.
    • Arf summons dog-robots to attack the player.
    • Tubelets are three little robots in rubber tubes.
    • Bzzt-Bots attack you with an electric beam of sorts.
  • Mecha-Mook: 14 of them to choose from in the game.
    • The first and most common is Fodder. Tiny, slightly fast-moving robots with electric rods that they swing at you.
    • Ham-mer, another fairly common enemy, uses a giant hammer made of a literal large ham to attack you.
    • Tar-Tar, a slow-moving but durable robot that attacks you by firing shots of boiling-hot Tartar sauce.
    • G-Love, a UFO-like robot that uses a Spin Attack with its multiple hands. You have to either Ground Pound it or use Sandy's lasso to kill it.
    • Monsoon, an irritating flying robot capable of summoning thunderclouds to attack you. The only way to defeat him is to use SpongeBob's Bubble Uppercut or Cruise Bubble, Patrick's Throw Fruit, or Sandy's Lasso.
    • Chuck, another flying robot that is capable of chucking long-range, surprisingly accurate water-balloon missiles at you. The missiles also have a shockwave that hurts you and sends you flying, and they're usually placed at platforms by bottomless pits.
    • Bomb-Bot: A small robot that slowly chases you around and makes a small explosion after several seconds. They're less harmful than the Fodder enemies because you can easily smack them away long before they can detonate.
    • Chomp-Bot: An Angry Guard Dog-like robot that attacks by belching toxic gas at you.
    • Sleepytime: A security robot that is normally asleep, but if you should step into his surrounding light without sneaking (only possible with SpongeBob), it will angrily awake and will quickly use a homing laser to chew off your health in a hurry. You can't use the Bubble Bowl (It will deflect it with the laser), but you can use the Cruise Bubble or throw a Tiki as Patrick in a couple of cases.
    • Slick: An enemy you meet late in the game, and is easily the toughest enemy in the game to beat. He starts off protected by an oil shield, and even after that is destroyed, he takes two more hits to take down, and it's possible for him to respawn the shield. His penchant for spitting oil at you, which can impede your movement if it lands on the ground, makes him only more irritating.
    • Arf & Arf-Dawg: Another irritatingly tough mook, Arf is a cowboy robot that attacks from a long distance, sending exploding dog-robots at you. The only completely safe way to attack him is with the Bubble Bowl, as his dawgs will mow your health down well before you can reach him and he will swing his doghouse at you if you get too close. While the Cruise Bubble can kill him in one hit, using it makes you an easy target for his dawgs.
    • Tube-Let, a trio of innertube donning robots. The bottom one uses a flamethrower to attack you, but if you don't kill the top robot, it explosively revives the rest of them.
    • Bzzt-Bot, a group of small, one-eyed robots that float around and use pseudo-psychic beam attacks to hurt you. Unlike Fodder and Bomb-Bot, though they die in one hit, they stay away from the character and use the beam. A group of them can get in a hit or two.
  • Metropolis Level: The game has Downtown Bikini Bottom, which has open-ended streets infested with Plankton's robots, the rooftops where you glide across them as Sandy, and the towering Sea Needle where you can bungee down from the windows. Mrs. Puff tasks SpongeBob with a Fetch Quest to collect all steering wheels around the city in order to get the citizens to evacuate from the ensuing chaos.
  • Monster Compendium: The police station in Bikini Bottom houses a database machine that lists all major robot enemies you've encountered so far, with each having unique and comedic comments about their behavior. The database updates automatically as you progress through the game, but since the police station is located in the part of the Hub Level that's unlocked when you beat the first boss, by the time you get to access the police station, about half of the database will already be filled by that point. Even Plankton gets his own section after you defeat the Final Boss.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • If playing the levels in the intended order, the dark and creepy Rock Bottom comes right after the bright and energetic Goo Lagoon and humorous Posiedome. After Rock Bottom and the underground Mermalair is the bright and (mostly) peaceful Sand Mountain... which is then immediately followed by the Robo-Patrick fight.
    • The same applies for the last set of levels: The atmospheric Kelp Forest is followed by the dark and foreboding Flying Dutchman's Graveyard, then to the surreal and colorful SpongeBob's Dream.
  • Mook Debut Cutscene: Almost all the Mooks have one, usually showing them using their abilities on a hapless victim.
  • Mook Maker: The Duplicatotron will endlessly create robots until it's destroyed. There's also the Arf robot, who will spawn Arf-Dawgs to attack you.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The G-Love mooks, who attack by spinning with their many hands.
  • Multi-Platform: Both the original and the remake were released on multiple platforms.
  • Mundane Utility: Those crystals you collected for Barnacle Boy in the Kelp Forest? They help him clip his nose hairs at super speed!
  • Musical Pastiche: As the original show's background songs are mostly copyrighted production music, the game's soundtrack is comprised of original tunes that mimic the vibe of the show's music. This is rather obvious with "Downtown Bikini Bottom", which is composed in the same key and tempo as "Heat", a recurring background theme from the show — even the ukulele riff is the same!
  • Never Say "Die": Averted; when SpongeBob talks with Squidward at the start of Jellyfish Fields, Squidward makes a snide remark about SpongeBob going up to the top of Spork Mountain and dying a horrible death at the tentacles of the King Jellyfish.
  • Newbie Immunity: The tutorial in Spongebob's Pineapple showing how health works will automatically drop a safe on our hero for one point of damage. This tutorial can be revisited at any point in the game, and won't kill you even if you're down to your last point.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the Carnival section of Goo Lagoon, Mr. Krabs asks Patrick to take out the robot controlling the ticket booth. Unfortunately, Patrick does his job too well, as his destruction of the ticket booth results in parts of the Carnival falling apart (which allows him to progress further and get rid of all the other robots). If you go back to Mr. Krabs after destroying the ticket booth, he'll say this.
    Mr. Krabs: "Well, that's not exactly what I had in mind. Hope me insurance covers all this."
  • No Ontological Inertia: Plankton, when he finally gets back to the Chum Bucket, assumes putting an "Obey" sign over "Don't Obey" will cause the robots to obey him. Subverted in that the robots are obeying — just not the real Plankton.
  • Noob Cave: SpongeBob's House acts as the tutorial level for the game.
  • Off with His Head!: Played with during the Robo-Sandy boss fight. The first part has SpongeBob slam its body so that its head launches into the scoreboard, thus electrocuting it. The second phase involves Patrick knocking the head off, and then picking it up and throwing it into the fallen scoreboard. By the third phase, the robot wises up and grabs the head when it gets knocked off, but this allows SpongeBob to use his bubble-uppercut to strike it from below while it's still trying to collect itself.
  • One-Man Army: SpongeBob. While Patrick and Sandy specialize in strength and maneuverability, respectively, SpongeBob amasses an impressive moveset throughout the game — he starts with a melee strike, a double jump, an uppercut, and a Ground Pound attack. Later on, he gets a bowling attack and even a guided cruise missile.
  • One-Winged Angel: After the first phase of the final boss, it sprouts muscular anchor arms and expands to a ludicrously large size. This is subverted, though, as the second phase has you destroy it from the inside.
  • Opening the Sandbox: True to its collect-a-thon gameplay, the more Golden Spatulas you collect means the more levels you can unlock and play.
  • Orchestral Bombing: The final boss theme uses orchestrated instruments such as strings and drums.
  • Palmtree Panic: Goo Lagoon's first location is a seaside area with lots of sand and beach-themed items.
  • Parental Bonus: Watching TV at Shady Shoals Retirement Home gives a glimpse into Mermaid Man's programming of choice: Retirement Home Girls Gone Wild.
  • Pickup Hierarchy:
    • Primary: Golden Spatulas, new moves note 
    • Secondary: Patrick's Lost Socks note , Golden Underwear note , Level-specific collectables like King Jellyfish's jelly, the steering wheels, and the stolen artwork note .
    • Tertiary: Underwear, Shiny Objects note 
  • Pinball Zone: The SpongeBall Arena, the unlockable Bonus Stage, features pinball bumpers and flippers that will push SpongeBob in his SpongeBall form around when he comes into contact with them.
  • Player-Guided Missile: The Cruise Bubble lets Spongebob fire a powerful bubble missile that can be controlled via Arrow Cam. The tradeoff is that he has to remain stationary while it's in flight.
  • Plot Coupon: The Golden Spatulas. The game doesn't even try to explain why you need them to travel across Bikini Bottom, other than a lampshade hanging late in the game.
  • Potty Failure: An angler fish trying to get into the public bathroom in Rock Bottom tries to wake up the Sleepy-Time robot blocking the door. Upon the robot waking up and turning around with a very hostile expression, a yellow puddle quickly forms beneath the fish before it gets blasted away.
  • Promoted to Playable: Patrick and Sandy are playable characters after being NPCs in SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman.
  • Pun:
    • When SpongeBob is fighting G-Love:
      SpongeBob: Somehow, I don't think he needs a hand!
    • There's also the Ham-mer enemy. SpongeBob states: "Ham-mer...*laughs* I get it!"
  • Punny Name: One of the first mooks you meet in the game is "Ham-mer", a robot that uses a giant ham to whack you with. Lampshaded by one of SpongeBob's lines:
    "Ham-mer (laughs) I get it!"
  • Recycled Soundtrack: The theme song in the original version was the recoreded theme from Sponge Bob Square Pants Employee Of The Month.
  • Rise to the Challenge: In the Goo Lagoon level, when you enter the giant sandcastle, it starts getting flooded with goo, which you have to outrun. The quote below is even the trope's quote!
    SpongeBob: "Water, rising, must-get-to-higher-GROUND!"
  • Robot Me: Along the way, SpongeBob runs into gigantic robotic versions of his friends Sandy and Patrick, eventually leading to a final battle against robotic versions of himself and Plankton.
  • Sequence Breaking: The game has many glitches that allow you to pull off tricks like this:
    • Doing a Cruise Bubble and a Bubble Bowl at the same time against completely flat surfaces (like Teleport Boxes) makes SpongeBob slide indefinitely, allowing you to jump farther or get higher by using the Bubble Bash, a jump-type move that usually prevents movement.
    • Hailing a Taxi in the hub after going out of bounds and being pulled away by Hans disables bottomless pits, letting the player explore unreachable areas and cheat on slides.
    • Double jumping after getting knocked back by an explosion or falling in water/goo sends you flying far away, which is useful if there's a normally inaccessible spatula right on the other side.
    • The first phase of the final boss fight has is karate-chop platforms, causing them to flip. If you time your jump right, you will be launched incredibly high. Doing it on the platform you start the fight on will cause SpongeBob to hit the boss's debug trigger, immediately ending the first stage.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Singing in the Shower: SpongeBob catches King Jellyfish in his shower on top of Spork Mountain, where he's singing along to the Jellyfish Fields theme. The boss battle with the king begins when he catches SpongeBob spying on him.
  • Sistine Steal: One of the many art parodies in Rock Bottom's museum features a naked Spongebob reaching out to King Neptune like Adam does to God.
  • Sizable Snowflakes: The Villain Containment System containing Prawn in the Mermalair, which freezes the villains solid to trap them, constantly sheds big starry snowflakes. Even when Prawn is de-iced, snowflakes continue to fall.
  • Skippable Boss: An unintentional example. Three of the six bosses (Prawn, the Flying Dutchman, and the first phase of the Final Boss) have invisible debug triggers above the player's spawn point where touching them will end the battle instantly. The final boss's debug trigger is the only one that can be reached without the use of speedrun tricks, as can be reached with a simple jump when they flip the platform. The Flying Dutchman's debug trigger can be reached by scaling the wooden structure with Cruise Boosting, and Prawn's debug trigger is located inside a wall, requiring clever uses of wall clipping to reach it. These triggers are primarily used in speedruns, as they can save up a lot of time if you know how to access them. It turns out that this is because the boss battles were developed by two separate teams, and the team that did the Prawn, Flying Dutchman and SpongeBot fights had forgotten to take the triggers out for the final release.
  • Sleepy Enemy: The aptly-named Sleepytime robots first encountered in Rock Bottom are always sleeping but they have security lights above them that can detect you when you're within range. When the lights turn red, the Sleepytimes wake up and zap you with a continuous laser beam that can quickly drain your health if you don't step out of it. SpongeBob is the only character capable of sneaking up on them by tip-toeing without waking them up.
  • Slide Level: There are slides within each of the areas that are required to reach certain Golden Spatulas and other required items. Sand Mountain is an entire area dedicated to it, where you must defeat the robots at the end of each slope to earn a Golden Spatula and can beat the record time to earn another one.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Sand Mountain contains a sand-based equivalent of snow, which makes up the slides, and there are actual patches of ice in certain parts. It also overlaps with Death Mountain due to being, well, a mountain.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Threatening Geography: The first set of levels feature rather mundane and brightly-lit locales that are well populated by other fish and are familiar to anyone who watches the show. The second set of levels are darker and more secluded (excluding Sand Mountain, which is brightly lit like the first three levels) and feature more dangerous hazards and difficult platforming. By the third and final set of levels, the areas are actively hostile and filled to the brim with hazards, bottomless pits, and dangerous enemies.
  • Spoiled by the Manual: The instructions booklet for the game spoils all of the levels by deliberately listing them on the last few pages, as well as providing screenshots and summaries of the main objectives for each level. Somewhat subverted for the Chum Bucket Lab though, as the image that's shown is just a question mark to hide the Final Boss' identity.
  • Stealth-Based Mission: While not a mission, per se, Sleepytime is a Stealth-Based enemy that you need to sneak past (only with SpongeBob), or else he'll wake up and use his homing laser at the player. If you're careful enough as Sandy, you can lasso them, and as SpongeBob, you can use a well-aimed Bubble Bowl or Cruise Bubble to get rid of them.
  • Step One: Escape: The game starts off inside SpongeBob's pineapple house where the very first task is to collect enough Shiny Objects to gain access to his closet and collect a Golden Spatula to unlock his front door, thus going outside.
  • Suddenly Shouting: In SpongeBob's house when SpongeBob approaches the fridge in his kitchen:
    SpongeBob: I'd make myself a snack... BUT THERE'S NO TIME!!!
  • Super Drowning Skills: Zig-Zagged. SpongeBob and Patrick can't swim, like in the show, so touching or landing in goo (the game's answer to "water") will either send them flying back to land if they're close to the ground or drown them on the spot. However, since Sandy can swim and is in a special suit, all goo she deals with is conveniently toxic. Patrick can freeze the goo in some levels with the 'Freezy Fruits' and cross it, however.
  • Super-Strength: Patrick displays this more than the other characters, as he is the only character who can lift up "Throw Fruit", tikis, stunned robots, and Freezy Fruits. His throwing arm is quite impressive, too.
  • Timed Mission: Some tasks require getting to the Golden Spatula in a set amount of time. The most prominent examples are the slide challenges with Larry, Bubble Buddy, and Mrs. Puff in Sand Mountain, and Mermaid Man's Kelp Vine challenge in the Kelp Forest.
  • Toilet Humor: After her rescue in the Robo-Patrick fight, Sandy tells Spongebob and Squidward that they made her blush, prompting SpongeBob to say this:
    Spongebob: I think I have fudge in my pants.
  • Turned Against Their Masters: Plankton's robots, due to him not setting the lever on the Mook Maker to "Obey".
  • Under the Sea: The entire game, of course; due to the setting of the franchise being underwater, all of the levels are there, too.
  • Unique Enemy: The game has a few of them which are exclusive to their levels:
    • Jellyfish Fields has the blue Jellyfish, which are more aggressive variants of the regular pink Jellyfish that take two hits to kill, and are only encountered in the later parts of the level. They can also be spawned by the King Jellyfish during his boss fight.
    • Goo Lagoon has green dragon enemies that float on the goo and spew flames to obstruct the player's path. They appear to be mechanical in origin since machine sounds are heard when they breathe fire.
    • At the beginning of the Kelp Forest, there's an odd-looking leaf enemy that will slap you if you approach it. There are theories floating around that the leaf is a leftover asset from early development that was originally planned to occupy all of Kelp Forest but was scrapped, and the developers forgot to take that specific enemy out for the full release. However, these theories have yet to be confirmed, so the leaf's existence remains a mystery.
    • Sandy's Dream has floating cows that are suspended by balloons and attack Sandy on the slide by throwing pies at her.
  • The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The Chum Bucket Lab, which consists of a showdown with the massive Final Boss.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: The game allows you to harmlessly hit or irritate NPC characters you meet. One instance of this is a goal in order to get a spatula — the goal in question is "Annoy Squidward". You annoy him by simply heeding his word: "go jump around like an idiot." Jumping up and down repeatedly will earn you that spatula. Destroying everything in his house gets you a sock, which you need to get all the spatulas. In case you hadn't figured it out, Squidward's still a Butt-Monkey in the licensed games.
  • Video Game Flight: Sandy can use her lasso as a helicopter, allowing her to glide a fairly long distance.
  • Vocal Dissonance: Sometimes, SpongeBob speaks in a deep and manly heroic voice during specific moments, such as when promising to get the King Jellyfish jelly for Squidward, when responding to the Mermalair Computer, and prior to fighting Prawn.
  • Warm-Up Boss: King Jellyfish gets you prepared for the later bosses in the game. He has only 3 hit points, and his attacks aren't too difficult to avoid.
  • Weapons-Grade Vocabulary: The final boss, SpongeBot SteelPants, literally sends the words "KAH-RAH-TAE" at SpongeBob after three of its lights are destroyed.
  • Weaponized Headgear: In the Mook Debut Cutscene for the Tubelets, a fish wearing a cowboy hat manages to take down the bottom robot of the trio by tossing his hat. Unfortunately, he was unaware that they can explosively revive one another if you don't take down the top one.
  • Wham Line:
    Plankton: *after putting Obey over Don't Obey on the Obey Plankton switch* What's wrong now? It should be working.
    Robo-Plankton: It is working. They're obeying me!
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The fate of Robo-Plankton remains unknown after the defeat of SpongeBot SteelPants since despite taking a couple of hits from SpongeBob's Cruise Bubble during the final battle, he emerges from the fight no worse for wear. However, since he had to contend with many Robo-Plankton duplicates in the ending cutscene, it's implied that he along with the duplicates all killed each other in some MASSIVE off-screen battle.
  • White Void Room: Or Black Void Room, in the case of the Patrick section of SpongeBob's Dream. The landscape is entirely black.
  • Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Patrick's Dream is the last area you have access to in the dream level, and immediately upon entering it Patrick challenges you to a test: He has a Golden Spatula, but you have to find it before he can give it to you. He's holding it, which SpongeBob immediately points out, meaning all you have to do is cycle through dialogue to receive it upon entering the level. The name of the spatula, which normally provides a hint on how to find or receive the spatula, is titled "Here You Go."
  • Word Salad Title: The name of the film playing at the Bikini Bottom Cinema: Revenge of the Bride of Plankton's Other Brain. In the remake, this was changed to simply "BOATS!"
  • You Do Not Want To Know: In the Rock Bottom level when Mrs. Puff tasks SpongeBob with collecting the missing artwork, he asks her why she wants it. Her response?
    Mrs. Puff: DON'T ASK QUESTIONS YOU AREN'T PREPARED TO HANDLE THE ANSWER TO.

     Tropes specific to the Rehydrated remake: 
  • Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: This was taken up to eleven at launch, thanks to Mr. Krabs charging far more for the Spatulas. Instead of increasing the price by 500 Shiny Objects per Spatula, he instead increased them by 3,000. You needed to collect 108,000 total shiny objects to get all of them. This was thankfully toned down significantly in the 1.03 patch, which reverted the increasing price back to the original's 500 Shiny Objects per Spatula, meaning it's only 39,500 to buy them all.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • You no longer have to enter a cheat code to invert the camera controls (although the inversions only apply to SpongeBob for some reason).
    • Patrick can now perform his belly attack while in the air, which made up for his lack of air combat in the original game and caused him to become more versatile in combat.
    • The hitbox for Patrick's belly attack has been increased substantially, make it much more practical to use in combat.
    • Sandy's lasso has been sped up considerably, making her able to lasso multiple enemies and Shh Tikis without dropping even a few inches. While she could lasso enemies in mid-air in the original game, the sheer time this took made it unsuitable against anything except G-Loves.
    • Sandy's Swing-Hooks now move much faster. While this does mean you have to hold the button down rather than tap once to latch on and tap again to get off, once you get used to it you can travel down a line of them far quicker than in the original game.
    • Enemy long-range projectiles now have red targeting circles to let players know where they'll land, including attacks from Robo-Patrick and Monsoons.
    • Buttons now have additional symbols to notify players about which attacks are needed to push them, instead of just a hand symbol for all buttons like in the original game. Buttons that require Throw Fruits to be thrown at them have a target symbol, buttons that require the Bubble Bowl have a bowling pin symbol, and buttons that require a Cruise Bubble have a crosshair symbol. Hands, of course, are kept for buttons you can just hit with a melee attack.
    • Sneaking as SpongeBob can now be done by holding the left trigger while moving. While you still can use the old "push the left stick slightly" method in the remake, the new one is far less finicky.
    • During slide time challenges, checkpoints will not activate so you'll instantly warp back to the start to redo the challenge if you fall off, saving you from having to either finish the rest of the slide or manually warp to the start via the pause menu. You will still have to talk to the character to start the time challenge over again, though.
    • Robo-Patrick now becomes vulnerable only at the center of his arena, preventing him from being too far off to hit with the Bubble Bowl.
    • In the final phase of Robo-Patrick's boss fight, the Bubble Bowl now rolls along the goo's surface rather than disappearing when it touches it, making it much easier to strike Robo-Patrick's weak spot.
    • The buttons in the Mermalair, as well as Robo-Patrick's weak point, have been made much easier to hit with the bubble bowl, making them much less finnicky than in the original.
    • The second phase of the Final Boss no longer requires you to beat it with one try or start all over if you die midway though, as it merely respawns you where you last died.
    • Falling into goo/acid bounces your character back to land without taking health off of them. However, you'll still drown regardless if you're too far from dry land or you fail to make it back on your first bounce.
    • The Golden Spatula menus now give you a thumbnail of where that Taxi warp will take you, making it more useful as a fast travel menu. The levels are also laid out in a 5x3 grid, meaning much fewer button presses to get from Bikini Bottom to the Chum Bucket Lab.
    • The Slide handling is much more snappy with no drift, making it easier to go down Sand Mountain and Sandy's Dream.
    • For the Kelp Vines, it had undergone a complete revamp that has compressed the whole track in order to retain the challenge without being nearly as unfair as the original. The area is now filled with rocky cliffs around the vines, making it more obvious where you can take the expected shortcuts as well as removing a few unexpected ones.
    • The sandmen in Flounder Hill and the power crystals in Kelp Caves now have their own GUI counts to easily keep track of them, which they never had in the original.
    • Sandy and Patrick can now use the taxi stops at the beginning of levels. You'll still be forced to play as SpongeBob when you get back to Bikini Bottom, but you no longer have to go back to switch to him in order to leave.
    • The trampoline that crosses from Goo Lagoon Island back to the main beach is now a two-way shortcut, allowing easier access to the Pier once unlocked.
    • In regards to the "A Path Through the Goo" and "Goo Tanker Ahoy" challenges in the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard being infamous examples of Guide Dang It! in the original game, the remake makes it clear what you need to do to finish them. The tanker hatch now has a crosshair symbol to indicate that you need to hit it with a Cruise Bubble, and if you activate the treasure chest button pre-goo drain, the following cutscene points you towards the tanker.
    • Wall-jumping no longer has a second-long delay, making the jumping section in the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard much less frustrating.
    • The game now auto-saves whenever you collect a sock instead of requiring you to reach a checkpoint, so you no longer have to worry about re-collecting one if you die shortly after picking one up.
    • One of the bigger issues with the Kelp Forest was the very dark lighting making it tricky to navigate an already long, difficult level. The brightened up visuals in the stage are a welcome change due to making it easier to navigate.
    • The lasers in Rock Bottom Museum are no longer instant kill, making it so you no longer have to redo the button sequences from the beginning if you make a mistake.
  • Art Evolution: The upgrade from RenderWare to Unreal Engine 4 caused a massive update to the visuals.
    • Since the remake was made over a decade after the original, there are some tweaks to the character designs to match later seasons' depictions of them. For example, SpongeBob himself is a much brighter yellow, has a smaller face compared to his body, more defined pores, and shorter pants and shirt. The overall art style seems to take some cues from The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, so the characters look closer to the CG from that movie rather than replicating the show's animation.
    • That said, the remake sometimes looks closer to the show than the original game, thanks to more saturated colors, shadows being less harsh, and widespread use of paint brushstrokes that are iconic to the show's backgrounds.
    • The robot designs have been updated to give them extra flair. In general, they all sport a darker gray color scheme with some shades of blue, and they have much more expressive faces which give them personality. Their individual changes can vary, ranging from minor touch-ups to complete overhauls.
  • Balance Buff: Quite a few robots have been strengthened this time around.
    • Tar-Tars do not telegraph their attacks as clearly in Rehydrated, and they are smarter at choosing where to aim as well. They also Counter-Attack immediately after the first hit.
    • G-Loves are immune to most ground-level melee attacks, necessitating a ground pound or lasso to destroy. Knocking other robots into them will not work this time around.
    • Bomb-Bots don't try to go near SpongeBob as much before detonating, staying outside of melee range a little more often.
    • Sleepy-Times can fire their lasers instantly upon waking up and produce large knockback, preventing you from just plowing through the lasers and finishing them off at the expense of some health like in the original game.
    • Slicks can now predict your movement and fire oil projectiles at where you're going to be instead of your current location.
    • The Robo-Sandy boss is much faster, though the clothesline move has been made a bit slower.
  • Bonus Feature Failure: In the original, paying the hefty price of 40,000 Shiny Objects to access the theatre was worth it since it unlocked a Concept Art Gallery and gave some interesting insight into the development process. When the remake was initially released, the theatre replaced all of the original concept art with only five or so poorly-compressed level thumbnails from the pause menu. It still cost 40,000 Shiny Objects. Thankfully, a patch replaced the disappointing gallery with actual concept art from Rehydrated's development.
  • Call-Forward: The remake throws in references to episodes that were released after the original game:
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Mr. Krabs' weapon in multiplayer mode is a swordfish skull that he used to defeat a horde of undead fish in "One Krab's Trash".
    • Gary's Ground Pound attack in multiplayer mode shows him pulling a pair of shoes to stomp enemies, the same pair he wore in "Your Shoe's Untied".
    • A cave drawing of "Primitive Spongebob" from SB-129 appears in the caves of Goo Lagoon (in the original game, it was SpongeGar from Season 3's "Ugh"). Various other places in the game include incidental artwork from the show, such as portraits of Mystery and Drifter inside SpongeBob's house.
    • Squidward's Bold and Brash painting from "Artist Unknown" is on display at Rock Bottom's Museum.
    • The theater is now modeled after The Reef, which first appeared in "F.U.N." (interior) and "Something Smells" (exterior). The specific design is a Call-Forward to the season 6 episode "Gone".
  • Developer's Foresight:
    • The Duplicatotrons in Mr. Krabs' Dream have shields around them that regenerate in a second, preventing you from cheesing them with a Cruise Bubble like in the original game.
    • In the original game, Rock Bottom had an infamous Sequence Breaking exploit that allowed players to glide over to the beginning of the slide as Sandy and get the Trench of Advanced Darkness spatula in reverse. To counter this, Purple Lamp raised the elevation of that area higher up so even if you did glide to the slide, you won't be able to reach the area that way.
    • Bungee hook spatulas can now only be obtained with the intended bungee method. If you try to collect the spatulas by falling down the pits without the hooks (as was the case of Cowa-Bungee), you'll simply phase through them without picking them up.
    • The Nintendo Switch version shares the exact same control scheme as the GameCube port of the original game. And since you can use GameCube controllers on the Switch through either adapters or third-party peripherals, using a GameCube controller feels exactly like it did in the original game.
    • The "Tiki Roundup" task in Kelp Forest in the original game had an exploit where you could stack two of the stone tikis on top of each other and jump up to the ledge where the spatula is. The remake changes this so Patrick (or Spongebob) will no longer grab the ledge after jumping off the tiki stack, making it so you must gather all three as intended.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: The first section of Bikini Bottom has Thunder Tikis, Shhh Tikis, and Stone Tikis placed near Bubble Buddy the moment you walk out of SpongeBob's house before you properly encounter them in Jellyfish Fields and learn what they do. They were never present there in the original game.
  • Easter Egg: In one of the toppled over buildings in Downtown Bikini Bottom, a few sea anemones are clustered together to say "Hi".
  • Game-Breaking Bug:
  • Grandfather Clause: Though Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy were both retired from the series due to the death of their respective voice actors, they reappear here for accuracy to the original game.
  • Jaw Drop: SpongeBob and Patrick have their iconic jaw drop poses from The Spongebob Squarepants Movie as some of their idle animations, and SpongeBob does it when he goes, "OH MY GOSH, YOU'RE BALD!" in response to Squidward's jellyfish stings.
  • Level in the Clouds: The entirety of SpongeBob's Dream is now given this backdrop, rather than just Sandy's Dream in the original game.
  • Long-Range Fighter: Both Squidward and Robo-Plankton fulfill this role in multiplayer mode, with Squidward firing music notes from his clarinet and Robo-Plankton using his hovercraft laser weapon.
  • Musical Assassin: Squidward in multiplayer mode attacks enemies with music notes fired from his clarinet.
  • Nerf:
    • Ham-mers move much slower, the range of their mallet attack is shortened, and they'll only attack when they're right next to you.
    • Chuck's missile is much slower mid-air, and the knockback was reduced.
    • Monsoon's lightning is more visible.
    • Combined with Anti-Frustration Features, as long as you're SpongeBob and you're either standing still or sneaking, you can do any attack to Sleepy-times without waking them up (although they will still divert the Bubble Bowl attack away from them). They seem to also have a longer reaction time, giving time for you to quickly jump out of their radius if they notice.
    • The range of Bzzt-Bot's lasers is shortened and they take a while to turn in your direction.
    • In regards to the Idiosyncratic Combo Levels that give you bonus Shiny Objects, the original game had robots give out three times the combos tikis give. In the remake, they now increase the combo the same amount as the tikis.
    • Sandy's aerial kick no longer suspends her in the air during its animation, giving her less aerial mobility.
    • SpongeBob's Cruise Bubble is nerfed to prevent it from becoming overpowered. While its air time is increased to 7 seconds, the bubble missile now has drifting inertia while turning and its explosive radius is much smaller, requiring pin-point accuracy with your aim.
  • New Work, Recycled Graphics:
    • Downplayed. While all of the models were rebuilt from scratch, the developers actually worked off of the original game's assets, some of which are still left over in the files.
    • Interestingly, the main character models are a cross-medium example: they're lower-polygon versions of the 3D models from The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
  • One-Time Dungeon: As a side effect for not being able to fight the robot bosses again in the remake, the SpongeBall Arena (the Bonus Stage that is unlocked after defeating the Final Boss) can only be played through once. If you leave the level, you'll find that you cannot enter it again via the warp pad that usually spawns in the second part of Bikini Bottom because the warp pad is no longer there. Fortunately, thanks to the 1.03 patch allowing boss rematches, it is possible to enter it, though you have to beat the final level all over again to do so.
  • Optional Boss: Robo-Squidward, who was initially just concept art in the original console releases (outside of the Game Boy Advance version), makes an appearance in multiplayer mode as its main boss. He'll spawn waves of robots at players, and after several waves, will interfere directly with electrical discharges that cover parts of the islands.
  • Promoted to Playable: New playable characters are added in the game's multiplayer modes, including Squidward, Mr. Krabs, Robo-Plankton, and even Gary.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: The robots' eyes turn red when they chase after you and turn back to default green when you're away from their vicinity.
  • Spoiler Cover: The game's box art blatantly spoils the existence of SpongeBot SteelPants, the final boss.
  • Squashed Flat: The robots have a new death animation where they'll be flattened like a pancake if SpongeBob and Patrick attack them with their Ground Pound attacks.
  • Unintentionally Unwinnable: Unlike the original game, you can't fight the robot bosses again after you have defeated them (at least at launch). If you go and face the Final Boss without bringing your Golden Spatula count to 98 (since you'll get the last two from the fight), then you'll lock yourself out from the 100% Completion ending on that save file. Thankfully, this was fixed with the 1.03 update. There are also a handful of buggy Golden Spatulas that are permanently missable due to glitches, although the issue can seemingly be worked around as long as you have a copy of your save from before you collect them.
  • Version-Exclusive Content: The PC version has the option to purchase the remastered soundtrack separately from the game. This was free to anyone who pre-ordered.

     Tropes that apply to the original PC or GBA games 
  • Abnormal Ammo: The Pink Menace stage in the PC version has Patrick throw tin cans at robots and obstacles downtown.
  • Ascended Extra: Mystery, the one-shot seahorse from "My Pretty Seahorse", has a major role in the GBA version, serving as a Yoshi-type character for SpongeBob in certain levels.
  • Double Entendre: A few of them occur during Sandy's section of the game. For example:
    Spongebob: It's just too big, it's too much!
    Sandy: Don't worry, Spongebob. Size doesn't matter. [hysterical laughing]
    • And later...
      Sandy: Great job, little square dude! You see, it's not the size of the fish that counts. [laughs] It's the mooootion in the oooooocean. [hysterical laughing]
  • Fisticuffs Boss: While not exactly bosses per se, the "Hide Me Money" minigame on the PC version requires Mr. Krabs to engage in Punch-Out!!-esque combat with some pirate robots in order to obtain some key items. The difficulty increases with each robot you defeat.
  • Memory Match Mini-Game: The original PC version has the minigame "Manhole Memory" where the objective is to click on two manhole covers to find matching pairs of either SpongeBob SquarePants characters or robots. The minigame comes in three rounds and you receive an important item for the Magic Shop by clearing each of them. Storywise, this is justified because SpongeBob gets short-term amnesia from the crazy robot drivers in the previous minigame "Traffic Jam" and needs something to jog his memory of finding Patrick.
  • Minigame Game: The PC version.
  • No, You: When Spongebob finds Patrick in a cage, the latter assumes Spongebob was the one in the cage, and they back-and-forth on this trope when the sponge tries to correct him.
  • Password Save: The GBA version uses this in the form of a four-character code of letters and numbers. It's actually fairly easy to guess the passwords blindly and skip a substantial chunk of the game.
  • A Rare Sentence: The Realistic Fish Head corpses at the idea of items from a magic shop ‘disappearing’.
  • Reformulated Game: The GBA and PC versions have the same plot as the console versions, but that's where the similarities end. The GBA game is a 2D Platformer whose only playable character is SpongeBob, and the PC game is a Minigame Game.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: Most of the tracks in the PC port are from Sponge Bob Square Pants Employee Of The Month.
  • Rube Goldberg Machine: The penultimate stage of the Chum Bucket area has you using the mechanical bits and bobs you collect to make one of these to open Plankton's door.
  • Synthetic Voice Actor: The robots in the PC version speak this way.

Alternative Title(s): Battle For Bikini Bottom, Sponge Bob Square Pants Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated

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