Prerelease: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

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.

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  Glove World

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  Patrick's Dream

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  Anglerfish

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  Jellyfish Fields

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  Jellyfish Fields

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  Sand Mountain

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  Rock Bottom

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  Robot Sandy

Screenshots

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  Flying Dutchman's Graveyard

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  Goo Lagoon

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  Kelp Forest

Unsorted Prerelease

May

IGN Gameplay

IGN'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.
• There is a Smelly Sundae on SpongeBob's chair.
• The hint sign has a picture of Gary instead of an orange question mark.
• There are Ham-Mers 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.
• 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. There is no other voice acting present.
• 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 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 picked up
• 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 layout of the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard is slightly different.
• There is no death animation. The screen just fades in and out when you die.
• The Robo-Sandy boss moves faster than the final.
• Industrial Park lacks Robot Patrick and there are other robots.
• The lights in the Mermalair changes 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.
• Hans comes from the top of the screen instead of the right.
• SpongeBob is seen clipping through the floor in Goo Lagoon, only to respawn back in bounds.
• The Stone Tikis are different.
• The Thunder Tikis are blue and look different.
• The Throw Fruit were originally soccer balls.
• The Cruise Bubble has no radar screen.
• 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 flying.
• There are no Taxi Gates.
• There are white urchins on the rocks in Jellyfish Fields.
• The layout of Jellyfish Fields is slightly different.
• 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.
• Patrick has a different walk cycle.
• Patrick Headbutts instead of a belly attack.
• The Floting 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.

June

Kiosk Demo

A prerelease video of the PS2 version from a kiosk demo, dated 6/25/2003:

• This is the only known prerelease source to include the logo which is radically different. 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.
• 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

This page or section has one or more broken YouTube links. Please find an archived version of the video(s) or a suitable replacement.

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

• 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
• Golden Spatulas could simply be collected in the overworld.
• 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

• 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

• 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

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

Xbox Sample Video

A strange video found on https://www.videodetective.com/games/spongebob-squarepants-battle-for-bikini-bottom/884819, containing some sample footage of the Xbox and (maybe) PS2 version. It looks like a much later build, but still not complete.

The videodetective video is actually a compilation of videos from other sources that utilizes an archaic method of streaming video and audio content, called m3u8.

• 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.