Polite society buried a lot of platformer mascots as we exited the 90s, but something Bubsy had over contemporaries like Gex and Croc (it's a crock of something, alright!) is that his games were astoundingly, memorably dreadful. Bubsy is the best evidence we have that all publicity is good publicity, because he's still getting games in big 2025, which is something we can't say for competent has-beens like Dynamite Headdy.
The problem is, most of Bubsy's new games aren't much better than the ones that made him famous. Two recent revival attempts, The Woolies Strike Back and Paws on Fire, sit at a Mixed user review rating on Steam, and it's felt for a long time like the bounding bobcat just can't catch a break.
But something has shifted. My heart stilled and my mind raced when I played the Bubsy 4D demo that dropped yesterday as I realized… I was having a good time. I was playing Bubsy, listening to him crack jokes that were so bad it actively pissed me off, but the platforming was tight, responsive, and fun.
It's a brief run through the game's first three levels, but Bubsy has an impressive set of moves from the jump. He can glide, double-jump into an extended bit of hangtime like Yoshi in Super Mario World, pounce forward and lock onto enemies, crawl up walls, and go into "hairball mode," which turns him into a furry pinball so he can roll down slopes at mach speeds.
If you've played 1996's Bubsy 3D, I'm sorry that happened to you. But you'll also remember that the movement was stiff, slow, and unresponsive; Bubsy 4D is on the other side of the spectrum, almost to a fault. It's easy to dart around and careen past obstacles so fast the camera struggles to keep the action in frame. On one hand, it's a speedrunner's dream, on another, it can feel a little unpolished at the fringes.
Beyond that, it's shaping up to be a by-the-book collectathon. Stages are littered with various yarn balls and doodads you need to progress to the next stage and unlock new abilities. The unique draw, I suppose, is Bubsy's sense of humor, which in this game embraces his place as a platforming D-lister. He's older, lazier, and a little loath to be the star of another game, and it's all done with an unsubtle wink at the camera.
The joke, admittedly, is a little old. These games have been bad for so long that pointing and laughing isn't novel anymore, and hearing Bubsy quip "T-pose, baby!" nearly every time he glides doesn't endear me to him in the slightest. His Gen Alpha niece is around to call him "cringe," but that never succeeds in shutting him up—and with Heathcliff and Garfield on the table, Bubsy is my third favorite orange cat by a very wide margin.
Still, I'm shocked to walk away from this demo cautiously optimistic about the final game. I'm hesitant to say it'll change the face of 3D platforming, but I'm sure Bubsy fans will be happy with anything a few notches above misery.
If you're Bubsy-curious, you can try out the demo for yourself on Steam.
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