Trivia / SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman

• Executive Meddling: The PS2 version of the game was originally rejected by Sony due to a strict standard they had where a game couldn't go longer than six seconds during a load screen without something on-screen changing. Because the game was so far in development, the developers were forced to hack together a band-aid fix where they did a soft reset on the console during the load screen, which got the game passing but is rumored to be the cause of the Game-Breaking Bug where the game can lock up, and is also why the game wasn't playable on backwards compatible PS3 consoles. The GameCube version didn't have to adhere to such a standard and thus does not suffer this issue.
• The Other Darrin: Oddly enough, even though Tom Kenny did reprise his roles as SpongeBob and Gary, the French Narrator is instead voiced by a different (unknown) actor.
• Troubled Production: As covered by Who Needs Normal? and accounts from most of the development team, the game was an utter mess to develop.
  • Original developer Kalisto Entertainment USA run into technical problems regarding the internal engine developed by their parent company in France, who had to constantly update the code in order for the American development team to properly do anything at all. The financial turmoil brought upon Kalisto France from the failures of Nightmare Creatures 2 and NYR: New York Race led to them desperatly trying every tactic to stay afloat; producer Billy Joe Cain described in a 2019 interview (around 11:43 in the video) instances where, upon calling the French office, he and the rest of the development team found out that they were taking the entirety of August off, and in another instance, Kalisto France outright begged the USA team just for a piece of the money they were making on development. Kalisto France would shut down in April 2002, leaving the USA team with two unfinished products that they needed and wanted to complete; they scrambled to form BigSky Interactive and reprogram Kalisto's engine to something more user-friendly in order to prevent publisher THQ from canceling the project. Because of this, the team had to scrap a number of intended features in order to get the game out on time. Notably, the GameCube version was to have functionality with the GBA version, where the Flying Dutchman's treasures would be found with the GBA serving as a radar; the final version uses the GameCube's rumble function for this, with the remnants being left in the code. Development was so rushed, there was an infamous glitch that occurred in the PS2 version where the game would be stuck on the loading screen, which would lead to the game saves being corrupted or even outright deleted; the result of a soft reset tactic that BigSky had to work around due to Sony's draconian policy about loading screens being longer than six seconds.
  • THQ and BigSky's relationship became strained during development. Initally, they were kind to let them continue working on the project, since they were so deep into development they couldn't hand it off to a different developer. THQ began to pay them less and less, to the point where it would come down to the last hour before the bank closed. This greatly stressed management to the point where they were begging THQ for funds until the last possible minute. The entire development team became tense due to crunch time, and issues would rear their ugly heads. One of the lead designers lost his grandfather, who lived in Japan, and had to be gone for a whole week, a move which didn't sit well with one of the producers at THQ, who went ballistic.
  • During development, BigSky contracted a number of publishers in order to secure funds for their future projects. Towards the end of development, they realized that none of the publishers they contacted were calling back; Cain would find out from a friend that Jeff Lapin (who at that point had transferred to Take-Two Interactive shortly before the game was released) had blacklisted the entire company to spite them for rejecting THQ's offer to buy them. They remaining months of development laying off most of the staff just to get the game finished on time; what few staff remained could only work on the game on an on-and-off basis.
• Uncredited Role: The voice of the narrator in this game is still unknown, but considering how different he sounds, it's generally believed it's not Tom Kenny, unlike the show.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The GameCube version was supposed to have Game Boy Advance connectivity. Linking to the GBA version of the game would've let you play a mini game while linking without a Game Pak inserted into the GBA would've let you use a radar function to find the Dutchman's treasures. For whatever reason, GBA connectivity was scrapped. Though voice clips involving this feature still exist in the game's files.
  • SpongeBob's Mermaid Man costume would have a had a whirlpool attack which consisted of SpongeBob spinning in place, hitting enemies around him with his fists.