SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox)

This page details pre-release information and/or media for SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox).

To do: More, cover screenshots too.

Early Development#

Bikini Bottom Cinema#

Unlockable with 40,000 Shiny Objects is a cinema that includes various bits of concept art.

www.heavy-iron.com#

Heavy Iron Studios' Flash website in 2007 used to host early screenshots and high resolution concept art of their games, including Battle for Bikini Bottom. When revamping their website in 2013 to use HTML5, they removed all priors images from the site. The following were luckily saved before said removal, but unfortunately the rest are gone, even via Wayback Machine.

Concept Art#

Many of these are in the concept art reel seen in the Bikini Bottom Cinema (in a much higher and much clearer resolution), but more existed exclusively on the website.

Screenshots#

Unsorted Prerelease#

May#

IGN Gameplay#

Watch on YouTubeIGN's YouTube channel has clips of a really early build of the game, dated May 15th 2003. All of them connect into one long roll of footage. Each detail will be told in order the video shows.

• The HUD is different with different graphics (such as shiny objects being a purple box, 2D underwear, 2D golden spatulas, and an unknown anchor).
• There are very few sound effects.
• SpongeBob's running animation is faster.
• The only two music tracks are the songs "You're Nice" and "War Blowers", which the game seems to cycle between and are placeholders. The volume of the music is also very inconsistent.
• The layout of the furniture in SpongeBob's house is different.
• SpongeBob's front door seems to have a weird wooden texture.
• There is a Smelly Sundae on SpongeBob's chair.
• SpongeBob's closet is missing its door.
• The hint sign has a picture of Gary instead of an orange question mark.
• There is a Ham-Mer in SpongeBob's kitchen, which respawns immediately after destroying it.
• SpongeBob's Bubble Wand is smaller, makes a different sound, and the bubbles are different.
• The sound for collecting Shiny Objects is a loud ding instead of a small twinkle.
• The typewriter on the kitchen table hasn't been added yet, neither have the trophy shelves. A hint sign can be seen in the typewriter's place.
• There are additional shelves in SpongeBob's kitchen that ended up being misplaced outside the map in the final game.
• Squidward is wearing his Krusty Krab employee's hat and is holding his clarinet, the clarinet model is still in the final game, albeit unused.
• Bikini Bottom has a lot more sand.
• There are no NPCs in Bikini Bottom.
• The "Robot Headquarters" sign on the Chum Bucket is not present yet.
• The Krusty Krab is larger, has no flags, and is textured differently.
• A row of Golden Spatulas can be seen in front of the Krusty Krab, likely due to the hub world being in an unfinished state.
• The toll gate has a shell that says "stop" on it, which has an opened and closed model placed in the same position.
• The prompt to enter the Krusty Krab is small, white, and isn't in a box. The unused Patrick's Dream level has text like this when it says to enter Patrick's Mind.
• Sandy's lasso makes a swish sound.
• Sandy says "Take that!" every time she uses the lasso. This is the only bit of voice acting present in the video.
• SpongeBob uses a portion of Squidward’s walking sound effect whenever he lands from a jump.
• Instead of a glove, there is a green arrow that points to objects you can lasso.
• Sandy is shown to be destroying a Duplicatotron with her lasso, something that she cannot do in the final game.
• The windows on the lodge at Sand Mountain used a different texture, and the doors were a darker shade of blue.
• The Tikis aren't animated.
• The Wooden Tiki drops one purple Shiny Object instead of two red Shiny Objects.
• The Shiny Objects look more like crystals instead of flowers.
• The Shiny Objects float up instead of being attracted to the character when collected.
• Sandy slides on her tail instead of a shellboard.
• SpongeBob's bubble moves look different. The Bubble Bounce has shoes instead of feet, and the Bubble Bash has a generic sports helmet instead of a viking helmet. The sound they make is also different.
• The Flying Dutchman has a glitched shadow that only appears briefly when SpongeBob is performing his bubble moves.
• The layout of the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard is slightly different.
• There is no death animation. The screen just fades in and out when the player dies.
• The Robo-Sandy boss moves faster than the final.
• Industrial Park lacks Robo-Patrick, with various unfinished Chucks appearing instead.
• The floor lights in the Mermalair seem to change when the player jumps.
• Kelp Forest is set during the day instead of at night.
• The Tubelet's attacks are unfinished at this point in development. The top Tubelet also does a laser attack not seen in the final game.
• Hans comes from the top of the screen instead of the right. SpongeBob also does his scared running animation as he is being dragged back onto the level.
• SpongeBob is seen clipping through the floor in Goo Lagoon, only to respawn back in bounds.
• The Stone Tikis look slightly different.
• The Thunder Tikis are blue and look different.
• The Throw Fruit were originally soccer balls.
• The Cruise Bubble has no radar screen, and it cuts straight to the missile's point of view.
• The Cruise Bubble has a distortion effect (it is only present in the Xbox version)
• The Monsoon enemy was originally going to walk instead of fly.
• There are no Taxi Gates.
• There are white urchins on the rocks in Jellyfish Fields.
• The layout of Jellyfish Fields is slightly different.
• SpongeBob's single jump sound was the sound used for when he changes back from the SpongeBall in the final game, and his double jump sound was his final single jump sound.
• The Bubble Bowl is just a normal ball.
• The Bubble Bowl only destroys one Tiki at a time.
• The Clam Gates haven't been implemented yet, so it's just a box that says "Shiny Object Gate", looking similar to the temp texture.
• Patrick is seen opening the Clam Gate, which in the final game is opened by SpongeBob.
• The orange fish that gets hit by the Ham-Mer is behind the gate instead of up the mountain.
• Patrick seems to be sparkling for some reason. He is also shown trying to pick something up despite nothing being in front of him.
• Patrick has a different walk cycle.
• Patrick headbutts instead of using his belly to attack.
• The Floating Tiki is pink and has lips.
• Larry is at the top of the slide instead of Mermaid Man.
• The right path in the Jellyfish Fields slide originally does not require the player to jump.
• The lighting is gray and very simple.

The Future Of Videogames 2K4 Ultimate Xbox 2003#

Watch on YouTubeSome E3 footage of the game was shown off on the Future of Videogames 2k4 2003 DVD (timestamp = 2:02:46). Despite being used at an Xbox press conference, it is actually the PS2 version of the game. This build is near final, but with various differences:

• An early, radically different logo is shown at the title screen. This logo design can be found in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in the level “Sundae Driving” for the gallery artwork in the Goofy Goober party boat.
• Tikis are still using their old designs. There are also extra tikis in the Hub.
• The Plankton conversation doesn't start right away after the flythrough of Bikini Bottom.
• The early Shiny Object sound was still being used at this point.
• Instead of 3D button prompts, there are wind-up teeth above the talkable NPCs.
• There is no narration during the Jellyfish Fields flythrough.
• The unused anchor icon can be seen, where the level specific pick-ups usually are in the bottom left corner of the screen.
• The Gary signs were still being used at this point.
• The Fodder cutscene has a few differences: it uses the Bikini Bottom/Sand Mountain theme instead of the Jellyfish Fields theme, Squidward is holding his clarinet, which is left unused in the final game, and it cuts off after Squidward gets zapped, leaving out the part of the Fodder laughing at him. It also seems to be activated by a trigger instead of playing straight after the flythrough.
• The Squidward conversation doesn't happen immediately after the cutscene, and he doesn't seem to be wearing bandages.
• The jellyfish have different flying animations.
• The health reminder text box doesn't appear, and SpongeBob doesn't say "We can't jellyfish today. I'm going fishing for robots!"
• The clam for the bridge originally required 15 Shiny Objects. The final game increased it to 125. There is also no number above it.
• The Ham-Mer cutscene happens in a different spot, right after SpongeBob crosses the bridge. SpongeBob's expression is also different when he screams in horror.
• The E3 trigger involving Patrick and the Freezy Fruit is shown off here.
• A different sound is used for when Patrick picks up an object.
• The pineapple arrows and 2D spatulas can be seen in the pause menu.
• The pause menu background is different, with a simpler puddle design.
• Bikini Bottom and the Mermalair were still called "The Neighborhood" and the "Barnacle Cave" respectively.
• Guppy Mound's flythrough is different.

June#

Kiosk Demo#

Watch on YouTube

A prerelease video of the PS2 version from a kiosk demo, dated 6/25/2003. It seems to be the same build as the one shown off at E3 that appeared in 2K4 Ultimate Xbox. Again, near finalized, but with various differences:

• The early logo was still being used at the title screen.
• The tikis are still using their old designs.
• The icon for objects which Sandy can lasso uses a simplistic arrow instead of a pointing finger.
• All boss health bars have unique designs in this build, while the final reuses the same design for unknown reasons.
• King Jellyfish's attack charge animation is more simplistic.
• Pressure plates have the text "STEP ON THIS!".
• Fish NPCs appear in the Bikini Bottom hub world.

Trailers#

To do: Replace Trailer #2 with a version in the native resolution. For now the 16:9 stretch is being used as a placeholder before it gets added.

Several Nickelodeon games at the time advertised other Nick games. Some had trailers for Battle for Bikini Bottom that have a lot of clips of early gameplay. They share a lot of the same footage, but some have some footage the others don't.

Trailer #1#

Watch on YouTube

• The Dutchman's Graveyard in the hub world isn't dark.
• An unused phase of the final boss, Robo-SpongeBob Musclepants, can be seen very clearly.
• The Floating tikis are different. They're pink, have wings, and have lips. The model is unused in the final game.
• The floating tikis also emit a pink smoke effect
• There is a clip of SpongeBob collecting Golden Spatulas lined up together. This may have been a development feature.
• It is daytime in Kelp Forest.
• Rock Bottom has a toll gate, which seems odd considering the others didn't have anything. Not even the Taxi.
• There seems to be an unused anchor objective in SpongeBob's house.
• Robo-Patrick's "Toxic Cream" is not glowing
• There are a lot of bits of footage from the IGN videos in much higher quality.

Trailer #2#

Watch on YouTube

• The "CHECKPOINT!" text is green.
• The purple "Shiny Objects" box can be seen very clearly.
• SpongeBob is on the slide in the Sandy portion of SpongeBob's Dream.

Trailer #3#

Watch on YouTube

• The explosions the robots make when you defeat them are different.
• The lighting in certain parts of the video is more yellow.
• The buttons say "PUSH" instead of a picture of a hand. The texture remains unused in the final game.
• Above the sign where Patrick throws the melon, there is an unknown chompy teeth icon instead of a button icon.
• Robot Sandy's health meter is different.

Commercial#

Watch on YouTube

• An early version of the first phase of the final boss can be seen very clearly.
• The robot SpongeBob boss' health meter is different.

Videodetective.com Sample Video#

Watch on YouTubeA strange video originally found on the now-defunct website videodetective.com. The video is actually a collection of videos from other sources compiled together with m3u8, which is a rather archaic method for streaming video and audio content. The compilation contains sample footage from what looks like a much later build of the Xbox and (maybe) PS2 versions, though it's clear that the game is still not complete.

• The Goo Lagoon music is playing on the slide.
• The old Shiny Object sound is still there.
• Robot Patrick's sound effects are missing.
• The Bubble Bash sound effect is different.
• King Jellyfish's health meter is different, with jars of Seanut Butter.