All three playable characters – SpongeBob, Sandy, and Patrick – have the same repetitive line or two of dialogue they bleat out after finding collectibles, grabbing health, or hitting enemies. Every entrance to a new area is saddled with a few seconds of load time, even when going into a small building like Patrick or Squidward’s one-room homes (PlayStation 5, you can’t get here soon enough!). A remake should do its best to modernize and improve aspects that haven’t aged well, but Rehydrated rarely does that. But even though it’s called a remake, in every conceivable way it feels like a disappointing remaster, with its PS2-era hang-ups often getting in the way. There’s very little, in fact, aside from a few SpongeBob meme references here and there, that offer something new for returning players like myself.ģ3 Images It’s been years since I’ve watched SpongeBob, and the pleasantness of returning to Bikini Bottom for a few hours was occasionally fun. Its jokes and episode references remain kid-friendly and largely based on the earlier seasons of the show, leaving the majority of the series’ rich comedy deposits untapped. But in playing with beloved source material that has long outlived the original game’s era, Rehydrated is in a strange place. Sane Trilogy revamped it, while Spyro’s Reignited Trilogy became the fiery new standard for what I thought these remakes could do. F Is for Faded MemoriesPlaying a nostalgic platformer remake is something I’ve done quite a few times at IGN. Worse, it now comes with the added context of having been so thoroughly surpassed by almost two decades worth of amazing 3D platformers. But it’s largely the adventure around those mechanics which, while admittedly fun and enjoyable for how it took advantage of the SpongeBob license just a few years after its debut, remains as limited in its scope, design, and overall thoughtfulness so many years later as it did back on the original Xbox. Play To its credit, Rehydrated runs cleanly on PlayStation 4 Pro, its remastered soundtrack’s cheery tunes have earwormed their way into my mind, and the actual feel of running, jumping, and bubble-blowing as SpongeBob is precise and responsive.
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