- Reaction score
- 1,936
Is it funny that Bubsy 4D exists? Is it a joke? I thought it was when Atari announced it last year. The first trailer didn't look good but then, that only makes sense: it was a trailer for a Bubsy game, and Bubsy games aren't good. Bubsy 3D is notoriously one of the worst games ever made. With renown like that, it'd be silly to retire the IP.
But then I looked at the studio responsible, Fabraz, which has developed several well-received platformers: Demon Tides has "overwhelmingly positive" reviews on Steam, and Slime-san is one of those deliberately grotty-looking 2D platformers that was very well received in 2017, back when action-oriented platformers were the rage.
So it took me a while to come to terms with the fact that, despite the studio's pedigree, and despite being a passable but by-no-means-brilliant 3D platformer, I still don't like Bubsy 4D. Actually, I kinda hate it.
If it resembles anything it's a Sonic game, except Bubsy's reliance on speed and mellifluous movement is wedded to a more complicated moveset. This genital-less cat is highly manoeuvrable: he can double jump, leap and glide, and if I chain these abilities together I can spend a lot of time in the air, or else scramble to impressive heights. There are also more subtle movements, like quickly doubling back mid-sprint and then jumping to execute a higher-than-usual jump.
Controlling Bubsy feels like tossing around a sack of trapped kittens at first. He has a habit of bouncing away from walls after he's grabbed them, which can make chaining together jumps and scrambles extremely frustrating at times. But eventually I realised that most of the problems I had with Bubsy's movement were my own fault: by the fourth level I understood that he's a kind of hybrid of Sonic and Super Mario Odyssey.
But then I looked at the studio responsible, Fabraz, which has developed several well-received platformers: Demon Tides has "overwhelmingly positive" reviews on Steam, and Slime-san is one of those deliberately grotty-looking 2D platformers that was very well received in 2017, back when action-oriented platformers were the rage.
So it took me a while to come to terms with the fact that, despite the studio's pedigree, and despite being a passable but by-no-means-brilliant 3D platformer, I still don't like Bubsy 4D. Actually, I kinda hate it.
If it resembles anything it's a Sonic game, except Bubsy's reliance on speed and mellifluous movement is wedded to a more complicated moveset. This genital-less cat is highly manoeuvrable: he can double jump, leap and glide, and if I chain these abilities together I can spend a lot of time in the air, or else scramble to impressive heights. There are also more subtle movements, like quickly doubling back mid-sprint and then jumping to execute a higher-than-usual jump.
Controlling Bubsy feels like tossing around a sack of trapped kittens at first. He has a habit of bouncing away from walls after he's grabbed them, which can make chaining together jumps and scrambles extremely frustrating at times. But eventually I realised that most of the problems I had with Bubsy's movement were my own fault: by the fourth level I understood that he's a kind of hybrid of Sonic and Super Mario Odyssey.
