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

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom
Developer: Heavy Iron Studios Publisher: THQ Platforms: GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox Released in US: October 31, 2003 Released in EU: November 28, 2003 Released in AU: 2003 This game has unused animations. This game has unused areas. This game has unused code. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused objects. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has revisional differences. This game has a development article This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article This game has a notes page

To do: This video contains a lot of stuff not documented here.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom is a game based on SpongeBob SquarePants. Plankton's robots have taken over Bikini Bottom, and SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy must stop them. Many regard it as one of the best SpongeBob SquarePants games for its gameplay, soundtrack, large worlds, and faithfulness to its source content. A remake titled SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated was released on June 23rd, 2020.

Sub-Pages

Development Info

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Notes

Unused Levels Who were you expecting, Tiny Tim?

Unused Models I'm easy like Sunday morning.

Unused Textures ...word.

Unused Animations Steppin' on the beach...

Unused Audio I don't speak Italian.

Hidden Objects & Triggers I should have known, it was just a piece of string all along!

Unused Text Welcome to my nightmare! Hie the hench though spongey freak.

GameCube Compiler and Build Information Compiling the game for GameCube was a bit difficult, apparently.

Early Menu

The early pause menu, which has the final menu overlapping it.

An 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).

• HILogo.bik

• logo3.bik

• 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.

• HILogo.xmv

• Intro.xmv

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.

Value	Default	Action(s)
G.CheatSpongeball	0	Unknown. This was likely meant to allow the player to transform into the Spongeball at any time (though what buttons would do this is unknown).
G.CheatPlayerSwitch	0	Allows the player to switch between characters at any time by pressing a direction on the D-pad. They can only switch between characters whose files are within the level (so they cannot play as Patrick in SpongeBob's house).
G.CheatAlwaysPortal	0	Allows the player to freely warp to any mission in the pause menu, even if they haven't unlocked it.
G.CheatFlyToggle	0	Unknown. This may have been similar to the "Moonjump" cheat code, wherein the player can fly by pressing A+B.
G.DisableForceConversation	0	NPCs and signs no longer force conversations with the player.

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

Unused Power-Up Configuration Info

Value	Default
G.SundaeTime	10.0
G.SundaeMult	1.5

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.

Value	Default
eSPECIAL_Slippers	0
eSPECIAL_LampShade	0
eSPECIAL_Spring	1
eSPECIAL_FootballHelmet	0
eSPECIAL_StickyBoots	0
eSPECIAL_LightningBolt	1
eSPECIAL_LightningBoltStun	0
eSPECIAL_Plungers	0
eSPECIAL_Shovel	0
eSPECIAL_Umbrella	0
eSPECIAL_BubbleGum	0
eSPECIAL_SoapBar	0
eSPECIAL_BlackKnight	0
eSPECIAL_FlowerPot	0
eSPECIAL_DivingHelmet	0

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

Inside 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.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Console Differences

To do: The audio file for the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard theme has a different ending in each version.

Xbox

There are several graphical 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 graphics have more polish than the other versions, with higher texture resolution, enhanced lighting effects and further draw distance.

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.
• 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 whatever you are doing and bubbles appear, while the other versions go to a dark-blue goo screen with bubbles.
• When using SpongeBob's Cruise Bubble, you get a slight distortion effect that's similar to what was seen in the IGN Prerelease gameplay video.
• 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.

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, making the flower clouds huge and colliding with eachother.

GameCube

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

PlayStation 2

• The music takes a bit longer to loop on PlayStation 2 than on GameCube and Xbox.