The core gameplay involves collecting items and defeating the robots which have attacked different areas in Bikini Bottom while crossing platforms and avoiding environmental hazards like spikes and flames. Some areas require different characters to beat, as each character has unique abilities. The player can control SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy. Switching characters in console versions require the player to find a Bus Stop, upon using which the current character will switch to another, and using it again will switch back to the previous character, giving the player an option of two characters in each level. The default character throughout the game is SpongeBob; Sandy and Patrick do not share any levels as playable characters.