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Tuesday, 30 June 2020
Facebook is shutting down its Pinterest-like experimental app
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EV maker Byton halts operations for six months amid financial woes
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Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell launches a game studio
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Amazing Emulator Turns 2D NES Games Into Fully 3D Worlds
Last week, a strange new product appeared on Steam: a Nintendo Entertainment System emulator that translates the 2D pixel graphics of classic 8-bit games into 3D worlds built with voxels. It’s called 3dSen, it has standard and standard+VR versions, and it lets you experience a select slice of the NES library from…
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Games Should Make Creating Just As Satisfying As Destroying
I’ve had a lot of fun with The Last of Us Part II, especially its more gruesome gameplay elements. As awful as it feels to admit, Naughty Dog made virtual murder fun. There’s a great sense of accomplishment in sneaking up on a pair of enemies, grabbing one, headshotting the other, and executing your captive in a few…
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NASA delays Mars rover launch until at least July 30th
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Cards Against Humanity's Workers Are Unionizing
Following the latest round of complaints over poor ownership and a “toxic” office culture, the workers at the company behind Cards Against Humanity have decided to unionise.
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This Year's iPhone Might Not Come With a Charger, but These Power Bricks and Cables Are Better Anyway
Rumors are circulating that Apple won’t be including a charger or earbuds in this year’s iPhones. As annoying as this is—since I doubt Apple will be dropping the price of the phone to match—the fact of the matter is that the bundled chargers weren’t that great anyway. If you have to buy another charger, skip Apple’s…
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Daily Reaction: Are Video Games Too Long?
“Video games are too long.”
It was a viral tweet that set of a conversation that’s long been boiling and bubbling and brewing just beneath the surface of the games industry. Long have players, journalists, and devs alike debated the “optimal” length for a game, but the latest debate comes from The Last of Us Part II’s lengthy campaign, and whether or not it is necessary to tell its story (all while bringing up reports of crunch that make up these longer games).
Video games are too long
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) June 28, 2020
To be fair, Schreier never meant his tweet to be nuanced discussion. Twitter is rarely eloquent enough to allow for a meaningful conversation about nearly anything. It was simply five words. A general opinion loaded with subtext; subtext that many different people have extruded in many different ways. Was it about The Last of Us Part II? Cyberpunk 2077? Final Fantasy VII Remake? Some old game from five years ago that Jason is just getting around to playing? It was actually prompted by The Last of Us Part II, but realistically, it doesn’t matter. But while a tweet doesn’t inspire nuance, there is a place for deeper discussion around the length of games and what exactly is “too long” for any given game under various circumstances.
On the surface, this discussion could be seen about the valuation of the player’s time. Why tell what you could say in 10 hours over the course of a 25 hour game? Is every part of the experience necessary? What is padding and filler? It’s an onerous and neverending debate. Ask 50 different people and you’ll get 50 different answers, and that’s just for a single game. Some people want more of that experience. Some want to be able to consume it faster. Now apply it to the entire catalog of games coming out. It’s a mess with no real answer.
See, the crux of the player side of this debate lies in people’s individual lives and free time. Some people are just inherently able to put more time into more games. Some people want to play everything. Some people want to spend more time with fewer things. Some dedicate hours of each day to games, while others may only play occasionally for a couple of hours each week. Still the nuance goes on, as some put time into completing every aspect of a game 100%, while others just want to complete the main campaign and move onto the next thing.
And it’s the developers who are given the impossible task to refine the length of their game. It can’t be too short, but it can’t be too grindy or full of filler. It has to have enough to do for players who want to explore on the side, but not make that content “required” for the golden path to complete the game. And the answers to these questions will vary depending on the size of the developer, genre of game, and a multitude of other factors that determine the length and content of any given game.
The simplest answer here is that each game should individually be as long as it needs to be without excessive filler content to artificially pad out playtime. That’s the basic universally agreed on truth (which can then be torn apart by thousands of opinions on what exactly constitutes filler, etc.). But there’s a bigger part of this conversation than the endless debate by players.
Video Games Are Products That Need to Make Money
At the end of the day, a video game needs to be profitable, and “longer” games are traditionally deemed more worthy of that $60 new game price value than something shorter. Comparing a game with a six-hour campaign to The Last of Us Part II’s huge 25-hour story puts artificial “value” barriers in place. Regardless of the game, players tend to think in a “dollars per hour” mindset when it comes to games. This is why replayability and multiplayer and other various features that extend playtime are so important. The more a player can squeeze out of something they paid top dollar for, the more they’ll be willing to pay that top dollar in the first place.
And so it goes, developers then squeeze everything they can out of their games, to varying effect. They are placed in this impossible predicament of making something that is accessible to everyone, whether they play occasionally in brief spurts or whether they mainline the entire campaign over the course of a weekend.
I, for one, felt that The Last of Us Part II’s length and pacing was nearly perfect (with just a couple of sections that felt they dragged on a bit too long). There was a good balance of optional exploration and mainline story path, and I was more than satisfied by the time I reached the end of it all those hours later. Others, however, weren’t as keen on its length, feeling that it plodded along miserably and could have been truncated by about 30% or more. Did The Last of Us Part II’s success hinge on its length? That’s debatable. Probably not, to be honest, but it does now set a precedent for the next Naughty Dog game, raising the bar ever higher.
I have to mention that I do love the occasional short game too. Getting in a quick 4-6 hour story over a couple of days on a weekend is a nice break to the hundreds of hours I inevitably pour into games like Destiny 2 and Call of Duty: Warzone. Is a game too long if I’m the one dictating how much time I spend playing it? And there have been enormous games that I’ve been turned away from because I can’t justify spending so much time in those worlds anymore (the two most recent Assassin’s Creed games, for example).
Video games are too long is an absurdist statement (again to be fair to Schreier, he never completely meant it to be all that serious to begin with). Like saying movies are too long, it’s both an absurd generalization and filled with more nuance than one tweet will allow. It’s an age-old debate that can only be answered personally. As long as a game never feels like its wasting my time just for the sake of keeping me playing, games can be any length they wish. I’ll happily spend 100+ hours in the worlds of The Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk 2077. I didn’t mind that Final Fantasy VII Remake was a 50+ hour epic.
Respecting the Players, Respecting the Devs
The fact is we’re starting to reach that glass ceiling of diminishing returns. Game worlds getting bigger and playtime getting longer simply isn’t impressive anymore. Now they need to focus on density. It doesn’t matter how big and varied Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City is if it’s not teeming with life. I’d rather a smaller environment that feels alive and interesting than a massive empty world that’s just a bullet point on a box.
In addition, asking developers to create more, more, more, burning themselves out and costing more development money and time may not be directly linked to the revenue the game makes on release. It’s a metric that’s extremely difficult to track. For example, had Naughty Dog cut anywhere from 25-30% of The Last of Us Part II, could they have saved money on development costs? Would it have still made the same amount when it released? Would it have been true to the artistic vision the studio had for the game? Would it have felt like it was “missing” pieces of it? And of course the biggest consideration here is not churning and burning hardworking developers who are pouring their souls into making these games. A game’s length should not come at the expense of the very people making it.
Those are questions the studios need to answer internally and responsibly. Extending a game’s length to reach a consensus of “minimum viable product” to sell to the consumer at $60 shouldn’t be the primary focus, as much as it needs to be somewhere in the cards given games as a business. It’s not even about whether critics and vocal minorities are saying something is too long or too short. It’s about quantifiable metrics and discovering what will impact sales and what keeps players coming back to and playing these games. If the completion percentage for your game is low, was the journey too long for players to get through? Too high, did it leave players demanding more, or worse, moving on and forgetting the experience?
As long as the game respects the time that it asks of me, I’m happy to pour hours and hours into each of these worlds. As long as the developer is respecting the health and happiness of its employees, I want them to pursue their artistic vision for whatever length that means for the final product. That’s what’s at the center of the “are video games too long” debate. Somewhere in the middle of artistic vision, consumer demand, developer health, and business viability is the perfect answer, an impossible paradox that we’ll never solve because you can’t please everyone.
Daily Reaction reacts to the video game industry. Have suggestions for the column or subjects you’d like us to react to? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to check out previous Daily Reactions for more dives beyond the headlines.
The post Daily Reaction: Are Video Games Too Long? appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
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PlayStation Store Update Worldwide – June 30, 2020
Each week Sony brings PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation Portable owners new content, add-ons, games and more. PlayStation LifeStyle catalogs the PlayStation Store updates for the major regions across the globe. Check back every Tuesday to keep up to date with each week’s PlayStation Store Update.
*Links are for the listed region*
North American Update
June’s PlayStation Plus Lineup
PSVR Games
- Party Pumper ($16.99)
PS4 Games
- Arcade Archives Wiz ($7.99)
- Blaster Master Zero ($9.99)
- Blaster Master Zero 2 ($9.99)
- The Catch: Carp and Coarse ($24.99)
- The Demon Rush: Legends Corrupt ($29.99)
- Dungeons 3 – Complete Collection ($39.99)
- The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor ($59.99)
- The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor Collector’s Edition ($79.99)
- Firefighters: Airport Heroes ($29.99)
- Goosebumps Dead of Night ($39.99)
- Hard West: Ultimate Edition ($19.99)
- Hunting Simulator 2 Bear Hunter Day One Edition ($59.99)
- Hunting Simulator 2 Day One Edition ($49.99)
- Indiecalypse ($12.49)
- Pic-a-Pix Pieces 2 ($7.99)
- Pushy and Pully in Blockland ($9.99)
- A Summer with the Shiba Inu ($9.99)
- Wolfenstein: Alt History Collection ($79.99)
PS Vita Games
- Pic-a-Pix Pieces 2 ($7.99)
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Just a Start Screen, Nothing More: Games Coverage, Early Embargoes, and Ghost of Tsushima
There’s a pattern surrounding the impending release of major games and you might only notice it if you follow a bunch of game journalists on social media. Secretive screenshots without context, allusions to playing things that they can’t talk about, and a whole lot of wink-wink-, nudge-nudgery that tends to make others jealous. Then a deluge of early reviews hit the web once the embargo is over–usually at some inane time like 3 am–and everyone forgets all about it until the next game. It’s happening again today as the Ghost of Tsushima review embargo is announced ahead of its July 17 release date, outlets receive their early review copies, and people post seemingly-smug pictures of the game’s start menu screen to confirm they are playing it early. The cycle starts anew and folks get snippy. Well, I’m here to tell you: When it comes to early coverage, embargoes, and Ghost of Tsushima, it’s just a start screen and nothing more.
I have it.
I’m playing it.
I’m reviewing it.
Tuesday, July 14th at 7 a.m. PT.#GhostofTsushima #GameProvidedByPlayStation pic.twitter.com/ehTpT4sipI
— Greg Miller (@GameOverGreggy) June 30, 2020
If you’re wondering why this is all note-worthy it’s because of the perceived line that separates fans and game journalists. Being a hobbyist industry, gaming has long suffered the problem that, in reality, there isn’t any special set of skills required to cover video games. This was far more debatable back in the early magazine era of games coverage in the ’90s and early ’00s, when cringe-worthy writers would write such captivating coverage as “Girls think controllers are icky and should stick to Dance Dance Revolution” and A 1997 piece in the game magazine PC Zone by eventual Black Mirror creator Charlie Booker, who wrote “The problem with Quake is that you need to use both hands to play it. Which doesn’t leave a hand free for drinking and smoking. It’s things like that, that turn women away [from gaming].”
The point being is that there was a turn at some point from games writing being more by an everyman, someone who could just be your dumb buddy sitting next to you and talking about how we could actually be living in The Matrix, like, for real, man. Eventually, that turn became more about critique and hard news, like the kind many of us have degrees for. However, the impression has long stuck that anyone can spit out 900 words about “game good” or “game bad” and call it a day. That impression has led to a generation of games fans who look at professional writers as nothing more than whiny babies with their noses in the air, being given games for free and still just complaining all the time.
But I’m here to tell you as a writer with a decade of experience, approaching certain games from the angle of a journalist trying to get the job done has more than ruined my experience with some of my favorite titles. So, if you feel the urge to get salty because a bunch of game journos are vague-tweeting about how they have Ghost of Tsushima early, I’m here to tell you that if you’re really a fan then you don’t want to experience games the way we often have to in order to get coverage out and on time. Our own Editor-In-Chief Chandler Wood had some really smart things to say earlier today about the perception of getting things early in regards to Ghost of Tsushima, found below.
Today’s games Twitter discourse is apparently the “I have the game menu screen” embargo.
Here’s my take you didn’t ask for:
It helps us promote that we have content coming up. People who know and follow me or PSLS know that we’ve got #GhostofTsushima coverage incoming.
1/x
— Chandler Wood (@FinchStrife) June 30, 2020
Here’s the first major hurdle: More outlets than not by a large margin don’t pay their reviewers for time played. This has been my experience with literally every writing gig I’ve ever had, including my current job as a print columnist for a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper. I’m playing the games I review and write about on my own time, which means time away from my family that is also usually on a ticking clock. This is easier for some games than others. One of my first major early embargo reviews was getting Fallout 4 a week before release. I also had pneumonia at the time, not to mention that there wasn’t a strategy guide or tips provided. So, feeling literally like death and working to just beat the main campaign and not even considering I still had to write about the thing, I trudged on at all hours of the night trying to complete the game.
It sucked, and I won’t lie: That experience did color my impression of the game. Its bugs and glitches were far more noticeable and, in general, I was leaning into being harsher on it then I might have been otherwise. I certainly didn’t have fun, and that sucked as a gamer who considers Fallout: New Vegas to be one of my favorites of all-time. And that story is pretty standard across the industry. It’s a lot of late nights, ignoring friends and family, and in general, crawling through the proverbial mud–and this is all before you even get to the multiple revisions and edits that come along with writing massive, 1,500+ word reviews.
It’s not always a fun time, but it’s so very necessary. I’d be lying if I didn’t say there wasn’t some small thrill from getting to play big releases early, but that wears off the minute you get the game in front of you and realize “Crap, now I have to do the thing.” The early embargo isn’t just about a race to what outlet can get its review out first or one writer bragging about playing a game before others. It’s about getting the most concise information to our readership as early as possible so that you, the readers, don’t have to go in blind on a purchase you might otherwise regret.
And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t occasionally feeling some FOMO when I see other writers posting pictures of their early game acquisitions like Gollum screeching about “My Precious,” but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. That’s the tradeoff for getting these games early. It’s not just a digital wang-measuring contest about who gets what before everybody else, we’re also ruining a little bit of the experience for ourselves so that the people that trust us for our opinion aren’t led astray.
But, hey: That’s the job. Someone’s gotta do it. Let it be us and try not to sweat the start screens along the way.
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Bandai Namco is streaming an anime game showcase on July 22
Are you ready? Here's another streaming event to catch in this endless summer of no-E3 gaming.
Bandai Namco is organizing a Play Anime Live showcase on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook with fresh looks at the publisher's "lineup of console, PC, and mobile anime titles" alongside developer Q&As.
The event is weeks away – it's scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Pacific on July 22 – so there's plenty of time for speculation and leaks. There might even be enough time for me to come to terms with that odd name.
I'm expecting localization news, Switch ports, and a new game or two.
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Contest: Win Super Soccer Blast for Xbox One or Steam
Win a copy of Super Soccer Blast in today's contest!
For better or for worse, the world is trying its damnedest to get back to some semblance of normalcy. Restaurants are coming back to life, social gatherings are far less restricted, and organized sports are trying to stitch together some sort of respective season...albeit mostly without fans in the stands.
Well, video games still have digitized spectators, and what better game than the world's most popular sport to pretend the world is back to its regular ways? We're giving away some copies of arcadey soccer title Super Soccer Blast, so come win one for yourself. Nay, win one for the planet.
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Advertisers are running from Facebook. What's next?
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Save up to 20% on Western Digital and SanDisk microSD Cards, Hard Drives, Flash Drives, and More, Today Only
Save up to 20% on SanDisk and Western Digital Storage | Amazon Gold Box
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Nintendo President Apologizes For Joy-Con Trouble
During a recent financial Q&A, Nintendo finally apologized for issues caused by Joy-Cons but will not comment further due to the current class-action lawsuit.
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LG's latest Bluetooth speakers have passive radiators for extra bass
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Microsoft and Bridgestone launch real-time tire damage system
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The Morning After: Facebook revealed its sunglasses-like VR prototype
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Boeing successfully tests Starliner's parachutes ahead of second flight attempt
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The Microsoft Store, an always reliable source of leaks, leaked Crysis Remastered details
It's been a great summer for people trawling Xbox.com, as they've uncovered a veritable treasure trove of "E3" leaks thus far.
As one of a string of leaks, Crysis Remastered info has been revealed ahead of the Wednesday morning official stream. Plain as day, you can head to the Xbox listing for Crysis Remastered now, which showcases several details about the new re-release.
Most notably, it's arriving very soon on July 23, clocking in at 7.01GB. Although Crytek is listed as the sole developer, Saber Interactive is actually the studio handling the port job, as evidenced in the gameplay trailer that's perfectly visible at the top of the listing itself.
It seems like 4K Ultra HD and HDR10 is supported on Xbox One, and the description doesn't stray from confirming that this is a straight remaster with no additional mechanical bells and whistles. Even a new coat of paint isn't going to suddenly elevate the original Crysis, but at least we know what to expect.
Crysis Remastered [Xbox.com]
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Telegram to pay $18.5 million and return $1.2 billion following SEC crypto charges
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Lenovo's Google-powered Smart Clock drops to $40 at Best Buy
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If One Nintendo Switch Cooling Fan Isn't Enough, Here Are Two
Earlier this year, Kotaku introduced a USB-connected fan to help chill things down during Japan’s notoriously hot summers. Now, here’s a USD peripheral is not one, but two fans. How cool is that?
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Google Photos will no longer back up WhatsApp and Instagram images by default
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Monday, 29 June 2020
Amazon will let you co-watch Prime videos with friends in the US
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What's on TV: 'Hamilton,' 'Baby-Sitter's Club' and 'Unsolved Mysteries'
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Uber is reportedly trying to buy Postmates
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Tomica Put Weapons-Grade Nostalgia In These Excellent Car Model Sets
I squealed like a kid waiting for NSYNC to come onstage in the year 2000 when I saw this toy Civic. That’s the first pop music reference that came into my head, which should explain why my nostalgia for this era of Hondas is strong. (I’m old.) Also, you have to see the Montero set. You have to. Get over here! LOOK.
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Safari in macOS Big Sur will stream Netflix in 4K HDR
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Multiple People Accuse Skullgirls Developer Of Making Inappropriate Sexual Comments
Two people have accused Mike Zaimont, a lead designer on Skullgirls and Indivisible, of making them uncomfortable with demeaning and sexually suggestive comments. One incident occurred recently via private messages, while the other accuser’s happened in person over the course of years.
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PS5 is a ‘Masterpiece of Systems Design,’ Says Epic’s VP of Engineering
After working for close to four years with Sony on the PS5 and Unreal Engine 5, Epic’s VP of Engineering says that the upcoming console is a “masterpiece of systems design.” This is the latest in the debate over power versus custom engineering. While Microsoft’s Xbox Series X has more raw “by-the-numbers” power on paper, Sony’s efforts have been put into custom architecture that give the PS5 significant advantages in how it allocates its power.
PlayStation Official Magazine interviewed Epic’s VP of Engineering Nick Penwarden for its most recent issue. “The PlayStation 5 is a masterpiece of systems design,” Penwarden said. “Not only is it driving a huge leap in computing and graphics performance, but it is also revolutionary in terms of storage and data compression technology, unlocking new kinds of games and experiences for players to enjoy.” This is notable because it places a lot more value on the design rather than raw numbers.
Penwarden’s “revolutionary” comments follow a lot of other developers—both first-party and third—who have praised the PS5’s specialized architecture and custom SSD. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer, however, says he feels confident the Xbox Series X’s power will be “visible,” following Sony’s PS5 showcase earlier this month. The debate between raw power and custom architecture continues to rage, but despite all the posturing on either side, the proof will have to wait to be shown until closer to the consoles’ release dates, if not until after they are in consumers’ hands.
Epic’s CEO Tim Sweeney also said the PS5 SSD is ‘best in class’ and ‘better than high-end PCs,’ continuing on to say that PCs will need to catch up with the custom architecture of the PS5 SSD. The company has been specifically working with Sony to enhance the capabilities of Unreal Engine 5. Reports even indicate that portions of the engine were rewritten due to the capabilities of the PS5 SSD.
The PS5 is scheduled to release at an unspecified date during holiday 2020.
[Via: GamingBolt]
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SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated Review – Dried Up (PS4)
Originally released 17 years ago, SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated is a remaster of the classic 2003 licensed platformer, accurate to a fault. Perhaps “remaster” is an unfair term. Watching comparison videos, it’s clear that Rehydrated is a remake, with new character models, animations, and environments that better capture the spirit of the beloved TV show—but while many things were remade and improved, still more elements on the gameplay side were left the same, creating a pretty looking, yet dated adventure into a nostalgia-inducing cartoon franchise.
Based on the early years of the show (SpongeBob first started airing in 1999), the jokes and references mostly call back to the classic humor of the series, though many of those jokes have also become long-running bits over the last 21 years, so not much is lost to the annals of time. Elements like SpongeBob getting his driver’s license (or trying to), drying up in Sandy’s dome, and the ol’ classic Rock Bottom sketch all get nods here, among many others. With the new animations, much of the humor and personality is recreated more accurately than the dated engine of the 2003 original could muster, so the game overall looks and feels a lot more like the cartoon, even if there’s still that uncanny valley divide when making a 2D show into a 3D game.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated Review – Same Old Sponge
Battle for Bikini Bottom is a traditional collectathon platformer with very little in the way of an actual story to drive players through. The overarching plot is that Plankton has unleashed a horde of evil robots on Bikini Bottom and the surrounding area. SpongeBob and Patrick think they are responsible, and thus take it upon themselves to play through a bunch of disparate bits referencing the show until the robot menace is eradicated. To be honest, it’s not an “edge of your seat” “nail-biting” kind of narrative, and too many of the puzzle pieces don’t entirely fit together (like the super random Robo-Patrick fight that just pops up out of nowhere). This isn’t an interactive SpongeBob episode. It’s a bit mashup.
Most of the game is spent collecting Golden Spatulas (again, for some unknown reason that doesn’t seem entirely related to the robot plot) by performing various tasks and finding them in the environment. There are also Patrick’s lost socks which can be turned in 10 at a tim for Golden Spatulas), “shiny objects” used for unlocking various pathways, and assorted collectibles divided up by region (which ultimately grant Golden Spatulas or lost socks), meaning there’s a lot of collecting to do. It’s a dated formula that just doesn’t translate well 17 years later, with nearly two decades of evolution of platformers behind us. Even in its era, there are better examples of collectathon platformers during that time. Just look at Jak and Daxter, which released two years prior in 2001.
Gameplay is fortunately divided up into multiple different segments, from traditional platforming to combat challenges, to sliding down a sand mountain using SpongeBob’s tongue. You’ll also have the opportunity to switch to both Sandy and Patrick during certain levels to overcome challenges with each of their unique abilities. Still, after some time, the gameplay did start to get tired and dull. I felt like I had to drag myself into the next area to do essentially the same series of challenges in a new iconic SpongeBob location. Add the repetitious soundtrack, audio, and voicelines, and I eventually turned the audio way down and listened to music on Spotify while I continued to collect the game’s 100 Golden Spatulas. Collecting became a chore of necessity, rather than something I was driven to do.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated Review – Nostalgia?
One of the biggest issues with remakes of classic games is failing to update the design language that guides players through levels, clearly defining things like level boundaries and interactive objects. In the 2003 original, it was very obvious where the level boundaries were, and where you could or could not go. While the Rehydrated environments are vibrant and full of life, they also blur those boundaries a lot more. I found myself attempting to jump onto objects that weren’t meant to be jumped on, going out of bounds when levels seemed bigger than they actually were, and getting stuck in the environment as I ventured places I wasn’t meant to go. All because the new visuals don’t clearly delineate the game’s boundaries.
Rehydrated is also shackled by excessive load times, both while moving to new areas and after death. Once again, compare this to the impressive single open-world design of Jak and Daxter in 2001, not to mention the fact that this game is a remake of a 17-year-old game, and the long load times seem inexcusable, particularly for how relatively small each area is. I’m not sure what the technical limitations are behind a game like this but to have it still inherently feel like a title from the early 2000s—limited environments, load times, and all—is a big loss when other recent remasters and remakes have made classic platformers feel entirely fresh and new. Perhaps the original Battle for Bikini Bottom just wasn’t all that great a game to begin with? Maybe its beloved nature comes from its licensed source material and not because its was ever a great game? Alas, the 17-year lens of nostalgia is a fickle thing to look through.
And so it goes, the need to strike a balance between retaining the look and feel of the original creation while updating for a modern audience. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated leans heavily on the former at the expense of quality of life updates that could have given players a great SpongeBob game in 2020. Despite starring a sponge, Rehydrated failed to soak up nearly 20 years’ worth of lessons on platformer design, even as it holds onto its classic nature to a fault. It’s a time capsule, for better or worse.
Oh, and let’s not get started on its worthless multiplayer addition, a senseless horde-mode wave-based brawler that feels tacked on in an attempt to add an extra bullet-point “feature” to the game. Rehydrated’s combat isn’t exactly enthralling, so this mode ends up feeling like an enormous waste of time if you can even convince anybody to sit down and play with you in the first place. I wish the time and development energy put into this mode would have been spent updating the main game with better modern quality of life features.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated is a fun enough game in its own right, but it’s encumbered with the weight of near-ancient game design practices. It’s new bright visuals bring Bikini Bottom to life in a whole new way, with character animations now better portraying the classic cartoon than ever before, but its gameplay is still firmly anchored to 2003, some of which has been negatively impacted by its updated visuals. At its core, Rehydrated is a repetitive and cumbersome 2003 platformer. A bit of water in 2020 isn’t enough to soak new life into this old dried up sponge.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated review code provided by publisher. Reviewed on PlayStation 4. For more information on scoring, please read our Review Policy.
The post SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated Review – Dried Up (PS4) appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
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