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 21, 2003 Released in EU: November 28, 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 sounds. This game has unused text. This game has revisional differences. This game has a notes page This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

To do: Cleanup time. Find more unused content and any other version differences.

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.

Sub-Pages

Unused Levels Who were you expecting, Tiny Tim?

Unused & Hidden Objects I'm Easy Like Sunday Morning

Unused Textures A lot of early HUDs and a hidden credits screen.

Unused Animations I'm Walking, Krabby Patty, over to Squidward

Unused Audio I don't speak Italian.

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

Early Menu

Without the final version overlapping, the early pause menu is more visible.

You can get to the unused menu on the GameCube version by replacing the HIP and HOP files of a level with mnu3.hip and mnu3.HOP. Then, go to that level using the taxi. When you pause the game, it will take you to the menu, which has the misfortune of having the final menu overlapping the early menu. There's a lot of interesting stuff, such as Spanish task names and a reference to a scrapped level named "Glove World", which was later adapted into the Goo Lagoon Pier. A lot of the early menu graphics are used by it, too. The following video is a demonstration of the early menu.

Unused Videos

• 

  hilogo.bik

• 

  3logo.bik

There are two unused .bik files in the GameCube version, though disappointingly they're just logos that fade in and out. But hey, they're unused!

There are two unused .xmv files in the Xbox version, One is the logo video Heavy Iron used in their previous game Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights, and the other is the intro video also used in Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights (though this video only plays properly on an Xbox).

sb.ini

sb.ini contains a bunch of configuration information for the game, its features, and more.

Value	Default	Action(s)
G.CheatSpongeball	0	Unknown
G.CheatPlayerSwitch	0	Allows the player to switch between characters at any time by pressing a direction on the D-pad.
G.CheatAlwaysPortal	0	"Can I always portal with the pause menu?"
G.CheatFlyToggle	0	Unknown
G.DisableForceConversation	0	NPCs don't force conversations with the player.

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 information for the Sundae Powerup.

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.

Triggers

Boss Fight Triggers

Probably used for testing purposes- certain boss battles have invisible triggers that instantly end the battle upon the player touching them. Speedrunners exploit these triggers to save several minutes of gameplay during a speedrun, some of which require the use of a speed-boosting exploit called a "Cruise Boost."

SpongeBot SteelPants Phase 1

When SpongeBot SteelPants uses his "Karate Chop", if the player times it right (and SpongeBot chops it in the particular side), as soon as SpongeBob reaches the edge as SpongeBot chops the platform, the player will be catapulted into the air, hitting the trigger if they go high enough.

Prawn

Use the "Cruise Boost" trick to get out of bounds and reach the trigger above the entrance to the arena.

Flying Dutchman

Use the "Cruise Boost" trick to get out of bounds and reach the trigger above the entrance to the arena.

Oddities

• There are a few discontinuities in the naming of files in the game. A notable example is that in Kelp Forest, there is a level for KF02, and one for KF04, but no files exist for a KF03.
• The final area of the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard is internally named "graveyard_crashed_ship". However, in the previous level, SpongeBob saves the ship from Plankton's robots, and never crashes at any point. Perhaps the plot for that level was intended to go in a different direction?
• Probably as a joke by the developers, the Player asset loaded into memory at the start of the game is named SHIT. It has its properties set to default, so trying to use this to spawn a player in an actual level gives a completely black SpongeBob.
• Using Dolphin (emulator) to run the game, go to View and click on Show Log. Everytime you would lose all of your underwear, collect underwear, or drown then respawn, this inappropriate message will show in the logs.

decrement time = 0 -- ass saved!

• The Xbox executable has some left over 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

Version Differences

There are some graphical differences in the Xbox version of the game that the other versions don't have.

• The save select screen shows a "flythrough" of the area it was saved in, like those beginning the level.
• The graphics are better than the other versions, with several higher quality textures and the lighting being significantly improved.

GameCube	Xbox

• The game runs at a slightly higher resolution than the other versions, and the framerate is more stable.
• This version supports 5.1 Dolby Digital audio, unlike the other versions, which 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, as opposed to the other versions, which go to a black screen with bubbles. This effect does not work on XBOX 360.
• When using SpongeBob's Cruise Bubble, you get a slight distortion effect similar to what is 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 plains and walking out of bounds were added.
• Saving no longer freezes the game for a few seconds.