Imagine taking an old franchise known for having an irritating main character, whose output is mostly mid-to-poor quality games, including one of the most hated games on the PlayStation 1, and deciding, “We can fix this.” This is what developer Fabraz has done with the infamous Bubsy series in the newly released Bubsy 4D. To quote the bobcat himself, “What could pawsibly go wrong?”
Adventures of the Furred Kind
Bubsy 4D stars our titular bobcat, who’s going through a bit of a midlife crisis. Feeling his age, he dons a shirt and tie he finds in his house and wonders what is going to become of him. It isn’t long until his arch-enemies, “The Woolies,” appear on his planet, kidnapping all the sheep and making a break for it. Bubsy, being forever the chill guy, decides that this isn’t an issue and continues just existing.
Soon after, the Woolies return with a new threat, the Baabots, and they go for the one thing that strikes a fire in our hero: his Golden Fleece. With the help of his niece and nephew, the ever-uninterested Oblivia and science whiz Virgil, the crew steal a spaceship and make haste for the Woolies’ planet, which is now enslaved by the Baabots, in the hope of returning the Golden Fleece and gaining relevancy for Bubsy Bobcat.
It’s a very “Saturday Morning Cartoon” style story, emulating the failed Bubsy cartoon from the ‘90s. It leans heavily on the aged protagonist trying to be relevant again, where all the jokes are made at the expense of Bubsy, often making you ask the question, “With friends like these, who needs Woolies?”
It’s a fun enough concept that doesn’t take itself seriously. It pokes fun at the lineage of the franchise in a respectful way, and even invokes feelings of nostalgia for this style of protagonist. Heck, there is even a Gex the Gecko reference in the game which shows the developer knew what they wanted to do with the character and has managed to somewhat balance his irritating nature with a cast that has clearly had to suffer him over the years.
Furred Tails
Bubsy 4D is the second “3D” adventure for our bobcat hero, and he’s seen quite a substantial movement upgrade from that frankly traumatic original adventure on the PlayStation 1. The developers, Fabraz, do have quite the pedigree with 3D platforming games, having previously worked on the slightly above-average Demon Turf and its better-received sequels.
Thanks to their work, Bubsy can run and jump like the best of them. He also has his “iconic” floating ability, but he’s been busy getting a new stack of moves; he can pounce because he’s a cat, he has a dash in the air, and he also has the ability to turn into a giant furball and hurtle around the stages at a wild speed, apparently a side effect of radiation from the spaceship. Or so Virgil says.
The movement in Bubsy 4D is utter perfection. At first, he seems rather wild and erratic in his movement, but by the time you get through the tutorial, you’ll understand how all his moves can chain together. The split-second movement tech he has allows you to do some really wild speed strategies to get through the stage. You’ll be jumping, pouncing, floating, and dashing-into-furballing like you’ve been a bobcat your whole life in no time.
No Time To Paws
The controls are really simple to pick up, and the stages slowly introduce new mechanics as you progress in a natural way so you never feel overwhelmed by your options. Heck, the game gives you an incentive to replay older areas to beat a “speedrun time” with all your abilities. Several of these are unlocked throughout the game by finding hidden schematics.
On the subject of finding stuff, yes, Bubsy 4D has collect-a-thon aspects. There are a certain amount of wool balls to find in each stage, which are used to unlock the various costumes, schematics to unlock new moves, and then a trophy for completing the stage within a certain time. These aside, if you aren’t into exploration in your platformer, you can also just choose to beeline straight for the exit, so it’s not quite as strict as others in the genre.
On every fourth stage of the planets you visit, you’ll come across the boss of that planet. I haven’t mentioned combat yet because there isn’t a whole lot there, as you either pounce at enemies or jump on them. In the boss fights, you are mostly just following a pattern until you can pounce on the enemy. When compared to how well some of the levels are designed, the boss fights feel incredibly anticlimactic and seem included more as a necessity rather than an integral part of the game. They do make use of your learned skills in the levels, but they also slow the gameplay down to a crawl.
All in all, Bubsy 4D is a fantastic speed-focused platformer that is only slightly let down by a few duff levels and poor boss fights. It’s easily the best Bubsy game in the franchise by a mile, and you can tell the developers were fans of the franchise, while knowing mostly where they could turn Bubsy’s negatives into some really shiny positives.
Orange Cat Behaviour
Visually, Bubsy 4D is a bit of a mixed bag. The character models, for the most part, are fantastic and manage to capture the cartoon nature of Bubsy in some semi-cel-shaded visuals. Sadly, it’s the stages themselves that somewhat hold the game back.
Taking a cue from Bubsy 3D, the stages for the most part just look like giant obstacle courses designed by a child. Everything is placed where it is mostly for a gameplay perspective. When you start to explore and leave the beaten path, you’ll notice awkward geometry, stuff that is clipping through, and even parts of the environment just floating. That’s even before I outright say that the stage art is just really unappealing at points,with the second planet being the worst offender for this.
The music is fine, if not slightly grating when it loops over and over again. This is not a problem for those who want to speed through the stages, but I was playing it with more of a collector’s mindset, and was slowly losing it with the looping music burrowing into my mind. Of course, Bubsy also has to make comments a lot, and while they are not quite as irritating as they could have been, I can understand why his family has so much disdain for his repeated voice lines. Still, would it be a Bubsy game if he was unironically charming?
Verdict
Bubsy 4D, for better or worse, is a Bubsy game. It still has some of the main irritations that the franchise is known for, but they are thankfully overshadowed by some outstanding gameplay. The platforming and feeling of speed and control are unmatched, and there is nothing quite like a complex platforming section that just comes off as seamless. It’s in these moments you forget you’re playing a game attached to the Bubsy the Bobcat franchise.
I genuinely wouldn’t mind more Bubsy games of this quality. It’s been a nice palate cleanser and gave me some of my favorite platforming action I’ve experienced outside of a Nintendo game. Bubsy is always going to irritate, that’s just how he is, but when he has gameplay like this to back him up, I can’t help but love the mischievous, fourth-wall-breaking tyke.
BUBSY 4D IS RECOMMENDED
If you enjoy platformers, then perhaps you’d like our review for Kirby and the Forgotten Land or Astro Bot.
Many thanks go to Atari for a PlayStation 5 review code for Bubsy 4D.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk
