Some gaming mascots have staying power. They are entrenched in society so deeply that even if you don’t know where they originated, you recognize them. Mario, Pikachu, Sonic… but not Bubsy.
This wild and snarky bobcat is back in Bubsy 4D, with yet another attempt to revive the franchise. Bubsy is infamous at this point. You might only know who or what the character is based on how poorly the games have been received over the years. But with the team at Fabraz at the helm, things seem promising. After all, they released an excellent platformer earlier this year and gave this platforming fan some hope for what’s to come!
I’m happy to say that most of what’s on screen is fun, inventive, and entertaining. It might not be a… purrfect… experience, but it’s still a great way to zip around wild 3D environments with a wise-cracking, largely forgotten mascot that deserved a solid treatment long before Bubsy 4D came around.
Bubsy 4D Revives a Long-Forgotten Franchise
I was hopeful about booting up the game for something better than what we’ve already seen of the titular character. Bubsy’s past has been a rough ride, but it’s been nearly 10 years since his last official release and 30 years since one of the most universally hated 3D platformers hit consoles with Bubsy 3D. In new hands, we had a promising vision.
One of the things I noticed while playing through the Bubsy 4D story was how often I was comparing it to Demon Tides. Fabraz’s previous outing was a whole lot of fun to play and did a lot of creative things with its platforming. Bubsy 4D attempts to do the same but never quite reaches the heights (figuratively and literally) of its 3D cousin.
The orange bobcat can still do a lot of what you want out of a game like this: double jump, glide, pounce and jump off walls, and even turn into a rolling ball of fur as you quickly whip through stages and off ramps! Overall, it’s very entertaining, but most of the time, I didn’t feel I had the same opportunities as I did in Demon Tides.
I will say that Bubsy 4D stands on its own four legs and has a lot to offer. All in all, it’s a collectathon 3D platformer with a snippy protagonist and original, creative stages to traverse. And even though it is a low… low bar, Bubsy 4D is a massive improvement over what’s come before. I love retro games and playing titles I didn’t experience when I was younger. But if you want to play a Bubsy gam,e I find it hard to recommend any of the others.
The main story here is fine. It gives our reluctant hero a reason to get the gang back together and face the Woollies once again. Equipped with a spaceship and a whole lot of attitude, the team jets off into space to save the day. Even though I found the whole conceit of the story to be the last thing on my mind while playing, it does give the player a chance to take a breath between levels and introduce some big bads along the way. There’s just enough snark and humour to provide some light entertainment.
Pounce, Glide, Slide, and More!
If you do have any experience with games from the 90s, you may remember the floaty, momentum-based movement that led to some unique yet frustrating platform gameplay. This modern iteration keeps that feel, but it all operates far, far better. With more interesting environments, some more room, and a more forgiving engine overall, Bubsy can zip around levels with ease.
Much like Beebz, the protagonist from Demon Tides, our orange feline is equipped with quite a few moves from the get-go. Basic jumps and double jumps are here, along with the ability to pull out Bubsy’s claws and cling to walls. Then there’s the addition of the hairball: a move that curls the cat up into a rolling ball of fluff similar to Sonic’s classic speed-demon form. Almost every starting ability can be enhanced by collecting blueprints spread across the game and exchanging them at your ship. It’s a simple system and one we’ve seen before, but at least it gives you a reason to search for the lone piece in each area.
Getting around can be fun, and often is. But I also had a more frustrating time with Bubsy’s feelings than I anticipated. The light-footed and floaty jumps work, but when implemented in hairball form, they just felt off to me. There were numerous occasions where I felt a real sense of satisfying momentum that was cut short by a jump or obstacle that was nearly impossible to avoid. The respawn system is forgiving, which helps, but the game relies on this ability so much to get around that I felt it was more of a bug than a feature at times.
I also didn’t find the level design to be as interesting or as populated as I might have liked. The design and art direction are there, it looks really great and pops with colour and originality; though the layouts and platforming paths weren’t as dynamic as some others in the genre. To their credit, though, the developers have said that if, at times, you feel like you’ve “broken” the game to get to your goal, that’s mission accomplished. This actually happened to me quite a few times, and they’re right, it’s actually very rewarding. Bubsy’s movement and animations are always fun to see as I traverse some truly insane layouts and platform placement in almost every stage.
Spinning Yarn
Bubsy 4D is a collectathon and 3D platformer, though I didn’t find it truly excelled in either. Collecting yarn and blueprints can be cool, but I never felt all that compelled to nab all 150+ items in each stage. There are some rewards to be had: the ability enhancements, as I mentioned, as well as cosmetic changes.
Our reluctant hero and his crew are also on an adventure filled with snippy dialogue and mostly voice-acted conversations. It’s all fine at best, with no character or interaction really standing out to me. It works, but the shtick of “Bubsy 3D was terrible” and the callbacks to old games, with “T-pose!” constantly said during gameplay, got old fast. Bubsy himself is supposed to be a little edgy and have some feline sass, but after a couple of hours, I had heard everything 50+ times during gameplay, and the attitude grew a little stale for me.
Verdict
What Fabraz has done with this franchise is pretty great. I may not have had as much fun as I may have expected, but there is more than enough here to dig your nostalgic ’90s claws into. The adventure is grand and colourful, and Bubsy’s moveset feels unique and varied.
Bubsy 4D is a massive pounce in the right direction for this character. And as long as it remains in some reliable hands, I think we’ll see more of this snarky bobcat. And for the first time, I can gladly say I hope that is the case.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PC/Steam Deck
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Author: 360 Technology Group
