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In SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, Plankton creates robots all across Bikini Bottom to take Bikini Bottom over. SpongeBob must collect golden spatulas in levels like Bikini Bottom, Jellyfish Fields, Goo Lagoon, Sandy's Treedome, Rock Bottom, The Mermalair, Sand Mountain, The Industrial Park and Plankton's Lab to destroy robots and take plankton down. In Some levels SpongeBob may ride Mystery the Seahorse.

Game objectives

  • played on Bizhawk 2.8.0
  • SpongeBob must collect 3 spatulas in each level and reach a gate to advance to the next level. Once the player completes 6 levels in each chapter they fight a robot boss: Robot Sandy, Robot Patrick, Robot Squidward, The Duplicatron and Robot SpongeBob. the run ends once the player beats SpongeBot SteelPants and the credits play.

Comments

Several glitches are utilized to quickly complete Battle for Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob can glide faster than usual by letting go of the D-Pad, SpongeBob can go even faster if the glide is done off of a moving platform or after jumping off of Mystery after taking damage to activate an extremely fast glide. Mystery can also perform a double jump, allowing for backtracking and several sections to be skipped. if a double jump is done off of a robot, the boost from the robot will be stored allowing for an extremely high jump. By jumping off of mystery, the player can clip through thin ceilings, massively changing 2-5 (New Robotropolis). When riding mystery, SpongeBob can duplicate spatulas to skip 1 spatula in the level. If the spatula is on the ground a Dupe can easily be performed, if not SpongeBob must jump off mystery to duplicate the spatula.

Stage by stage comments

1-1 (When Robots Attack)

In 1-1 Fast glides and bubble strategies are used to skip short gameplay sections.

1-2 (Hi Ho Mystery Away!)

SpongeBob jumps off of mystery and preforms a fast glide to complete a section slightly faster.

1-3 (Robot from the Goo Lagoon)

Multiple tight jumps are preformed using the fast glide. a Bubble will also be used to manipulate a platform cycle

1-4 (Please Please Kelp Me)

A Damage Fast glide is utilized to complete a section faster. A singular double jump is used and there are also tight jumps.

1-5 (There Goes the Neighborhood)

Multiple double jumps as well as a spat dupe is used to complete the level quickly.

1-6 (Nuts and Bolts)

Multiple tight jumps are done to complete the level without using any birdbaths to restore SpongeBob's water.

Attack of the Steel Squirrel

SpongeBob jumps on top of Robot Sandy and takes damage to quickly defeat the robot.

2-1(Bring it Around Downtown)

Fast glides are used to complete the level quickly.

2-2 (Gone Jellyfishing)

Multiple tight jumps are used to skip sections including one that jumps on a robot in midair to quickly collect a spatula. Double jumps are also utilized.

2-3 (Short Circuit)

Fast glides are used to complete the level quickly. A tight jump is also used to make a cycle at the beginning of the level.

2-4 (No Horsing Around)

Fast glides are utilized for quick movement in the beginning of the level. Double jumps are also utilized to skip multiple sections of backtracking.

2-5 (New Robotropolis)

Damage Boosts are used in this level along with a damage fast glide at the end. Double jumps are used to complete sections quicker. Along with clipping through a thin ceiling to skip a long section. Another long section is skipped by jumping on top the roof of a building. Finally, A Spat Dupe is done to skip a section to reach the final spatula

2-6 (To the Mermalair)

A tight jump is made at the beginning of the level using a fast glide to skip waiting for a platform. other fast glides are used to skip waiting for platforms. Tight cycles are used to complete the level quickly

Star Power

SpongeBob jumps off mystery to beat Robo Patrick without mystery like intended.

3-1 (Around the Way Sponge

A spatula is duplicated and then grabs the intended last spatula to complete the level much quicker than usual

3-2 (Seanutbutter and Jellyfish)

Fast glides are used to make tight jumps. a platform is used to increase the speed of a fast glide to make a tight jump.

3-3 (Mystery Loves Company)

Double jumps are used to skip a section in which a robot is pushed. Damage is also taken to avoid waiting for robots

3-4 (Hitting the Slopes)

A spatula is duplicated to skip a long section of gameplay. A Damage fast glide is also utilized at the end of the level.

3-5 (In-Cog-Neato!)

A spatula is duplicated to skip a long section of gameplay. A ceiling clip is used to get out of a building. A robot bounce is stored to skip jumping on platforms

3-6 (Robots in the Skies)

Fast glides are used to make tight cycles. Damage is used to skip waiting and many tight jumps are done.

Squid Vicious

SpongeBob quickly grabs 6 bombs with mystery and throws them at robot Squidward.

4-1 (It Came from Rock Bottom)

Fast glides are used to skip a section of gameplay. A robot is hit in midair to skip waiting.

4-2 (Deep Trouble)

A jump is used to skip the first section of gameplay needed to get mystery. A spat dupe is used to have 2 spatulas out of the first section. once inside a portal near the end of the level. A double jump is used to collect an out of reach spatula.

4-3 (Escape from Sand Mountain)

Fast glides are used to complete sections faster. a tight jump is preformed using the fast glide.

4-4 (Back to the Seacave)

Double jumps are used to make a section much faster. A spatula is duplicated to skip a spatula at the end of the level

4-5 (Industrial Robolution)

Fast glides are used to make tight jumps and manipulate gas cycles. several tight cycles are made in the level. A robot bounce is stored to skip a section and a spatula is duplicated.

4-6 (Plankton's Inner Sanctum)

Fast glides are used to complete the level quickly. some tight jumps are preformed.

SpongeBot SteelPants

Bombs are thrown on the left side of the Duplicatron to skip needing a robot bounce. the credits play after the boss is beat.

Other comments

the Audience may enjoy the tight jumps done with fast gliding, along with Damage Boosts, mystery's double jump and R-Clipping
Darkman425: Forgot to set this to delayed as the author is working on improvements.
Darkman425: Submission cancelled by author request.

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Posted: 4/25/2023 1:31 AM
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TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #8243: Entepp's GBA SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom in 56:40.78
Posted: 5/11/2023 3:20 AM
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RetroEdit
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Review: It's about time I flexed my reviewing muscles again to help with the site's backlog. This post ended up being very long; strap in! Overview This game's developer, Vicarious Visions, is a familiar sight that I've encountered in several other licensed GBA platformers, including Shrek 2 and Madagascar: Operation Penguin. As such, the basic mechanics and game engine are somewhat familiar to me, although each game has its own unique twists on the formula. The game does suffer from some unfortunate design choices that disrupt the action, including halting character acceleration after the jump button is pressed, requiring a delay to push pushable objects, requiring a noticeable 2-second delay to get back onto Mystery after dismounting, and some poor enemy and platform cycles that require waiting to progress. However, the TAS is interspersed with moments of excitement and tricks, including the super fast glides and spatula duplications. As far as general routing within levels and game knowledge goes, the TAS seems pretty good. The TAS saves about five minutes over the current real time record on Speedrun.com (1m 13s 110ms at time of writing, held by this TAS's author), and about three minutes over the sum of ILs on the leaderboard (59:19.020 by my calculation). Improvements I decided to play around with the game a bit looking at some slow moments in the TAS. Some of them were easily improvable, while others were cycle-dependent and could not be improved. I didn't look at every level, and I didn't completely optimize my movement. My improvements (updated movie file) totaled a time save of 00:23.99; the new movie length is 56:16.79. Here's a breakdown:
  • 00:07.65 throughout from advancing through menus and level transitions faster.
  • 00:02.24 in 1-3 from tighter pathing to collect spatulas and less air time.
  • 00:03.23 in 1-6 from better glide flow (fewer landings) and better enemy handling (less waiting for cycles)
  • 00:00.44 in boss 1 ("Attack of the Steel Squirrel") from immediately stomping on the boss each time the boss's invincibility times out. I didn't look at the start of the boss.
  • 00:02.85 in 2-2 from better ladder jumps, faster falling, loading floating platform in earlier, and generally tighter movement around platforms.
  • 00:00.42 in 2-5 from tighter movement with Mystery and when generally navigating the level.
  • 00:00.45 in 2-6 from falling faster in two parts.
  • 00:01.46 in 3-1 from tighter early movement and advancing through the dialogue faster. Ideally, the dialogue would be avoided entirely and Mr. Krabs would have a better (leftwards) position when you do the double-jump with Mystery. I didn't experiment too much to figure out why Mr. Krabs is positioned poorly; if you can affect his position, I imagine you can save an additional 10-20 frames by avoiding the dialogue entirely. The real-time IL (link) doesn't appear to have this issue, but it does also reach Mr. Krabs more slowly.
  • 00:01.24 in 3-2 from gliding a bit sooner early in the level and tighter movement around the ladder sections. This level has one of the most significant waits of the run: there's a platform that moves in a clockwise square that the character barely misses, and it takes 10 seconds for the platform to move back into an accessible position. Unfortunately, the platform movement appears to be based on the character's proximity, so I don't think this wait can be avoided; half of the time I saved was from just prior to this platform, and it didn't appear to affect the platform's relative position.
  • 00:00.07 in 3-3 from jumping out of a crawl at the end of the level. I originally looked at this level because the bubbling on the left side looked slow, but you have to wait for the enemy to advance rightwards towards you to fall on the button and open the gate.
  • 00:00.17 in 3-5 from avoiding a triple bot bonk near the end.
  • 00:01.02 in 4-4 from falling sooner after pushing the fan down. The fall still looks a bit suboptimal.
  • 00:02.49 in 4-5 from handling ladders better (jumping on the first possible frame). This is a very basic proof-of-concept; there's maybe a few seconds of other optimizations I can imagine.
There are almost certainly other movement microoptimizations in other portions of the run, since the TAS appeared to be largely done using slowdown instead of frame-by-frame inputs. In the author's movie, certain inputs were frame-adjusted to be pressed on the first possible frame, but there were also many segments where small amounts of time were lost from not jumping on the first possible frame, or moving a bit too far when moving around tight passages. I also learned certain mechanics while I was improving levels, so the improvements have varying levels of quality. There's also some specific game physics knowledge that came in handy for my improvements. Partway through, I figured out how to locate the RAM address for the character's coordinates (although, it is nontrivial and varies from screen-to-screen, so I will not describe the procedure I used here). Generally, you want to minimize time spent in the air, since walking is faster. There are situations where gliding off a platform can be the same speed as walking, but jumping is always slower because the character completely stops for 5-6 frames to wind up the jump. Sometimes it is better to hold jump for height, and sometimes you want to shorten jumps by gliding early in the jump. I will note this game is fairly sync-friendly, and later levels do not appear to depend on earlier levels. I didn't resync this movie to 2.9.1 for the sake of comparable time spent on screen transitions, but it probably wouldn't be that difficult. Synopsis For an hour-long movie, the level of optimization isn't too bad in my opinion. This movie isn't perfect, but I think it's nearly publishable. I would be happy to see this TAS published, especially with a few more improvements that I'm sure I missed from my one watch-through, although I also have a personal investment now since I spent several hours improving the movie.
Posted: 5/11/2023 10:12 PM
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Darkman425
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Entepp, I heard from RetroEdit that you're working on an improved TAS for this game. Would you like have this submission set to delayed, where you can then upload your improvement input file to Wiki: Userfiles and have it replace the one in this submission, or cancel this submission and submit the improved version in the future?
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Posted: 5/14/2023 5:37 PM
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Entepp
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Darkman425 wrote:
Entepp, I heard from RetroEdit that you're working on an improved TAS for this game. Would you like have this submission set to delayed, where you can then upload your improvement input file to Wiki: Userfiles and have it replace the one in this submission, or cancel this submission and submit the improved version in the future?
Delayed will work!
Posted: 7/7/2023 3:17 AM
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Darkman425
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It has been over two months since this has been submitted. Entepp, what is the current status of improvements for this submission?
Switch friend code: SW-2632-3851-3712
Posted: 7/7/2023 1:05 PM
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Entepp
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Darkman425 wrote:
It has been over two months since this has been submitted. Entepp, what is the current status of improvements for this submission?
Recently, the progress made to improve the TAS has slowed significantly, I believe it is best we cancel the submission for now
Posted: 7/8/2023 3:53 AM
(Edited: 7/17/2023 1:22 AM)
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Darkman425
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You can manually set the submission to "Cancelled" by editing your submission and changing the Status. EDIT: It's been over a week with no response. Cancelling it myself.
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Posted: 7/17/2023 1:23 AM
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TASVideosGrue
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om, nom, nom... sweet!