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

Development Info Prototype Info Prerelease Info Notes Unused LevelsWho were you expecting, Tiny Tim? Unused ModelsI'm easy like Sunday morning. Unused Textures...word. Unused AnimationsSteppin' on the beach... Unused AudioI don't speak Italian. Hidden Objects & TriggersI should have known, it was just a piece of string all along! Unused TextWelcome to my nightmare! Hie the hench though spongey freak. GameCube Compiler and Build InformationCompiling the game for GameCube was a bit difficult, apparently.

Early Menu#

Watch on YouTubeAn early version of the pause menu can be accessed by replacing the files of any level with the files for the title screen (mnu3.HIP and mnu3.HOP) and then going to that level using the taxi. When you pause the game, it will take you to the early pause menu, which also has the final menu overlapping it. There's a lot of interesting stuff in the early menu, such as Spanish task names (following the "Task Numero [Spanish number]" format), a reference to a scrapped area named "Glove World" (which is believed to have been adapted into the Goo Lagoon Pier), and a lot of the early menu graphics, such as the pineapple arrows. The following video is a demonstration of the early menu.

Unused Videos#

GameCube#

• In the GameCube version are two unused .bik video files, which are just logos that fade in and out. A similar 3-logo video is used in certain demos of the game, such as the demo found in the OXM Demo Disc #27 from January of 2004 (with an ESRB rating at the bottom).

• In addition are slightly lower resolution duplicates of each bik file used in the game, with the suffix .bkp.

Xbox#

• In the Xbox version are two .xmv video files leftover from Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights. The first is the Heavy Iron logo used in said game, and the second is an unfinished version of its intro video.

sb.ini#

sb.ini manages a bunch of configuration data for the game, mostly involving variables regarding the player character, pause menu, and the camera. Some of these configurations go unused.

These were likely used for debugging purposes- these values (when set to 1) would activate different cheats.

Unused Power-Up Configuration Info#

Configuration data for the Smelly Sundae powerup, showing that it would've lasted for 10 seconds and would inflict 1.5 times the normal amount of damage.

Leftover powerup configuration information from one of Heavy Iron's previous games, Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights. None of these do anything when set to 1.

Oddities#

• There are a few discontinuities in the naming of files in the game:
  • The second area in the Mermalair is internally named barnacle_cave_balcony, despite the fact that the level is quite clearly... not a balcony.
  • In Kelp Forest, there is a level defined as KF02 (Kelp Forest Swamp), and another called KF04 (Kelp Forest Caves), but no files exist for a KF03.
• While this was probably done as a joke by the developers, the Player asset loaded into memory at the start of the game is named SHIT. It does not have a lightkit assigned to it, so using this to spawn a player in the game gives a completely black, textureless SpongeBob.
• Using the Dolphin emulator to run the game, one can go to View and click on Show Log. Every time the player loses all of their underwear, collects underwear, or respawns after drowning, this message will show up in the logs.

decrement time = 0 -- ass saved!

• The Xbox executable has some leftover level names from Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights:

--TakeMeToYourLeader--


Nothing, Monster Gallery, Tower, Cower in the Tower!, Mastermind, Mastermind Unmasked!,
Secret Lab, Little Lab of Horrors, Tunnels, Gusts Abound Underground, Catacombs,
Creepy Crawlies in the Hallways, Cellar, Who's Yella' in the car?, Rooftops,
A Dark and Stormy Knight!, Attic, Panic in the Attic!, Hallways, Don't Look Down, Scooby-Doo!,
Upstairs, All scares Upstairs!, Stairway, Mind Your Manors!, Manor, Clamor in the Manor!,
Shipwrecks, Shiver Your Timbers, Scooby!, Masts, Aghast by the Mast!, Danger Rocks,
Wreck on the Deck!, Lighthouse, Lighthouse Fright House!, Coastal Point, Going Down witch way?,
Shoreline, Coast for Some Ghosts!, Piers, Fear on the Pier!, Cannery Row, Fishy Clues for Scooby-Doo?,
Docks, Shock on the Dock!, Tombs, Gloom & Doom Down in the Tomb!, Crypts, A One Way Trip to the crypt!,
Graves, A Tight Spot for a Grave Plot!, Caves, Misbehavin'? Cause a Cave In, Skull cliff,
Scared stiff at skull cliff!, Haunted Hill, Chills & Spills on Haunted Hill!, Greenhouse,
It's a Mean Greenhouse, Scooby!, Hedges, On Edge in the Hedge!, Mystery Machine The Mystery Machine

Hidden Cheat#

Watch on YouTubeInside the game’s code, there is a hidden cheat code called Panhandle, which is activated by holding L+R and pressing Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,X,Y,X,Y,Y,X,X very quickly. After the cheat is activated, if the player’s shiny object count is above 75,000 and they walk over to an NPC, the shiny object counter removes 500 shiny objects from the total. This cheat works on both the Xbox and GameCube releases of the game, but doesn't seem to function on the PlayStation 2 version, despite a sound cue playing after successfully inputting the code.

Console Differences#

To do: The audio file for the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard theme has a different ending in each version. The GameCube version has more oddities, such as the laser floor in Rock Bottom Museum instantly killing the player.

Xbox#

Due to the more powerful hardware, there are several enhancements in the Xbox version that the GameCube and PlayStation 2 versions lack.

• The save select screen shows a video clip of each level from the area it was saved in.

GC/PS2	Xbox

• The visuals have been given various improvements in this port:
  • Various textures are in a higher resolution compared to the PS2 and GameCube versions, with one such example being of Gary's.

GC/PS2	Xbox

• • The game renders at a higher resolution of the Xbox's standard 640x480, compared to the GameCube and PS2's 640x448.
    • Oddly enough, while 480i is standard for PS2 and GameCube, the Xbox version only supports 480i, despite 480p being standard for most other Xbox games.
  • Extra lighting effects such as bloom have been added, and the draw distance was also improved.

PlayStation 2	GameCube	Xbox

• • When using SpongeBob's Cruise Bubble, a slight distortion effect that's similar to what was seen in the IGN Prerelease gameplay video is utilized.
• There is support for the 5.1 Dolby Digital audio output, while the other versions only support stereo.
• The Flying Dutchman's eye lasers look slightly different, suggesting they were reworked.
• When the game loads a level, it freezes the last frame while bubbles appear, while the other versions go to a dark-blue goo screen with bubbles.
• A warning telling the player to not turn off their Xbox while saving was added.
• A message explaining kill planes and walking out of bounds was added.
• Saving no longer freezes the game for a few seconds.
• For some reason, the left-side weakpoint on SpongeBot is incorrectly rotated in the Xbox version.
• At the beginning of the final phase, the fish announcer's voice is cut off on Xbox, nor does he even appear on the side of the screen.
  • This is caused by how the Xbox version handles the NPC's spawn coordinates. The NPC's position is one billion units away from the origin in all directions, which the game deems too far away. Changing it to where it's within 78 units from the origin fixes this issue.

Xbox 360 (Backwards Compatibility)#

Battle for Bikini Bottom is one of the few 462 out of 990 original Xbox games that made it onto the list of backwards compatibility with the Xbox 360. Just like how the console is emulated on the 360, this version of the game has some flaws and bugs.

• Instead of freezing on the last frame, the loading screens are entirely blank.
• The skybox occasionally has a chance of bugging out, switching its texture with the one used for the rainbow Shiny Object in the HUD.
• Some models and shadows can corrupt and distort, most notably SpongeBob in the cutscene before the Flying Dutchman boss fight, and Patrick in the cutscene before the second phase of the Robo-Spongebob boss fight.

GameCube#

• All voice clips and music are slightly lower quality on GameCube than on PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
• All FMVs are in a lower quality in both video and audio.
• Although used in the level itself near SpongeBob's House, the intro cutscene for SpongeBob's Dream lacks the cutscene audio.

Missing Sounds#

Several sounds are also missing in this version.

PlayStation 2#

• The music takes a bit longer to loop on PlayStation 2 than on GameCube and Xbox.
• Robo-Plankton can be seen inside SpongeBot's head at the beginning of the ending cutscene.

References#