Video game mascots have always been a popular idea – blue hedgehogs addicted to speed, plumbers chowing on mushrooms and even the Pac-Man family eating pills and fruit from the ground – but what if I told you that some mascots had been lost to time, drowning in the sea of inferiority while a spinning bandicoot did victorious pelvic thrusts after beating up a bald scientist to an audience of over twenty million before the turn of the millennium?
Suave secret agent Gex, baby lizard Croc, and even the much-maligned Polygon Man all mark attempts at making a beloved mascot that swiftly drowned in a sea of much more lovable characters. As the purple dragon took centre stage, one last shot was taken by a brash bobcat to dethrone the reigning champions in 1996 (which is more impressive given Spyro the Dragon wouldn’t be released for another two years). Following a trilogy of fairly enjoyable games, Bubsy 3D made its debut and took the world by storm – more accurately, a typhoon, tearing through Bubsy’s reputation like paper.
After a long hiatus, the Bubsy franchise saw a couple of mediocre side-scrollers and a remastered collection renew interest, but it was the announcement of Bubsy 4D that piqued everybody’s interest. Developed by Fabraz (creator of Demon Turf and Slime-San), the game follows Bubsy – now a middle-aged, lazy and heavily sarcastic bobcat – who reluctantly sets out on a quest to recover the golden fleece and save the world. Unlike previous adventures, the Woolies are no longer the main threat, instead becoming prisoners of the Baabots, a race of hyper-intelligent robot sheep with a distaste for organic creatures.
Like its namesake, Bubsy 4D is also a 3D platformer centred on collecting various mcguffins, but unlike Bubsy 3D, the gameplay is actually incredibly versatile and enjoyable. In signature Fabraz style, you have a series of very fluid moves at your disposal that can be chained together to cover great distances – double jumping, gliding, diving and wall-jumping can all help you reach impressive heights and cover impossible gaps, especially when combined with purchasable abilities like a spin jump, crouching dash and even “OG Coyote Time”, a power-up that allows you to walk significant distances off a ledge before falling!
Sadly for all of its incredible gameplay, it did come up short, mostly with the varied abilities falling short in the time trials, where the most effective method is simply to go into “Furrball” mode and take off at high speeds towards the goal. If you are going into the experience just for the story or the item collecting, you will be in for a fairly slim experience; much like Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, the game expects you to either join for the long haul and put a painstaking amount of effort in to experience the whole game or breeze through a short platforming adventure punctuated by a few funny moments of discovery.
This type of design isn’t a first for Fabraz, however; where Demon Tides was built entirely around fast, fluid traversal, Bubsy 4D feels trapped in its own setting, trying to balance being an homage to an often (and rightfully) maligned Bubsy game while folding in the signature style of its developer – the only thing holding the game back seems to be its eponymous character and setting. Despite humorous dialogue and a strong sense of the right levels of fourth-wall breaking, no amount of quips about Gex or boundary breaking can change the fact that the style and gameplay are mismatched.
Unlike other games in the genre, such as Super Lucky’s Tale, which focused heavily on 3D platforming and puzzling, Bubsy 4D is built on the same foundation as other fluid movement platformers – this design choice neglects the fact that Bubsy is a quirky character that thrives on interaction. The game would probably benefit from being its own creation instead of carrying the Bubsy name – a Fabraz platformer like this would be much stronger without being tied to a pre-existing set of rules.
Outside of gameplay, Bubsy 4D manages to be solidly designed in its bold visual style, simple UI and a soundtrack that is frankly absurd; put together by Fat Bard, each world has its own unique style and substance to it that culminates in a funky, jazzy and no doubt endlessly remixable soundscape. That being said, the entire experience can be over in a matter of only a few hours – there are only 3 worlds to explore with 5 levels each, with each world containing a boss – together with a tutorial level and an unlockable “final gauntlet”, there is a fairly short amount of playtime in total.
A short game isn’t always a bad thing, as the game definitely rewards you for returning to complete the time trials and compete against others, but it makes all of those glaring disparities between the character and the style stand out even more. I desperately want to enjoy this game, particularly given how incredible previous Fabraz titles have been, but in trying to be two different games, it has lost its edge from both – in spite of that, it’s still great fun and frankly would be deserving of more content in the future. Also, more importantly, the game features a character chatter slider that is set to the highest level by default, appropriately titled “Bubsy!”, so it was definitely made with a love for the source material.
