As I recall there was a fair amount of hype surrounding the release of the first Bubsy game. Mascot based platformers thrived in the market at the time, and everyone was out to create the next Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog. These titles generally released to little fanfare, and were quickly forgotten. Bubsy promised to be something different; developer/publisher Accolade was banking on the success of their smart mouthed bobcat character. Not only was the original Bubsy heavily advertised in video game magazines, but a cartoon series was even in the works at some point. While critical reception was pretty decent upon release I’ve since discovered that Bubsy is actually a pretty terrible game. It doesn’t feel like the developers’ hearts were in it; it’s as if they simply threw together a bunch of random concepts hoping something would stick.
The story is extremely basic. Aliens called ‘woolies’ are attacking the planet in an effort to claim the entire supply of yarn balls as their own. Bubsy the bobcat isn’t going to sit idly by, and it’s up to this quirky feline to stop them. What you have here is your basic side scrolling platformer. As Bubsy you can walk left, right, jump, and even glide. Your basic means by which to dispose of enemies is by hopping on their heads. One difference here is the fact that there are few power-ups. Bubsy can only take one hit before he loses a life and you’re forced to restart the stage from the last checkpoint you reached. This makes the game a little more difficult than more traditional efforts such as Mario because there’s significantly less room for error. Instead of collecting coins or rings Bubsy snags balls of yarn in each stage. These are calculated at the end of the stage and grant you extra lives as a result. While it’s pretty basic the game is a bit of a mess.
Platformers from this time were defined by the power-ups you could collect. Unfortunately there just aren’t a lot of options in this title. Unfortunately our feline friend isn’t given much to work with. There’s a shirt that makes him invisible, and another that grants temporary invincibility except against environmental hazards. That’s pretty weak if you ask me. This wouldn’t be a huge issue but Bubsy just doesn’t have very many abilities. The only unusual one is that, while in mid-air, holding down the jump button allows him to glide. The major problem with this is that it just doesn’t have much of an effect on his momentum. It doesn’t seem to keep him airborne much longer, and it simply doesn’t help nearly enough in making the trickier jumps. For the most part I gave up on this pretty soon after starting. Why does a cat even have a gliding ability? Also, he runs way too fast and that opens him up to cheap deaths because of the fact that he dies from a single contact with any hazard. The mechanics are simply not that interesting; the developers focused more on making Bubsy a likable character than crafting a fun adventure. Bubsy is ultimately forgettable.
The worst offender is the level designs. First let’s take a look at the themes. You’ve got a forest, carnival, the desert, another forest, and a space station. These are entirely generic and extremely boring. I found the fact that there are two forest areas hilarious; the design team ran out of steam way too quickly. The most creative part of this is the various puns the developers included as the stage names. Unfortunately the stages themselves are packed to the brim with gimmicks. There are a few decent ideas, but they’re heavily overused. Just about every area contains water running along platforms that will carry Bubsy with the flow. These are largely pointless and for the most part annoying. Other spots require intricate platforming, and Bubsy is just a little too floaty for this in my opinion. His glide ability does not help during these sequences at all. In addition, many stages contain multiple tiers but these too are pointless with very few worthwhile secrets. At best the level designs are bland and uninspired, but for the most part they’re frustrating.
Bubsy does not take advantage of the Genesis hardware in any meaningful way. The screen can scroll fast, but not quite at Sonic the Hedgehog’s pace. It’s not particularly neat here. The colors are really dull and unimpressive. I was really disappointed at how drab this title is despite most of the environments being outdoors. If I had to pick a high point here it would definitely have to be the animations. While the character/enemy designs are weird and unlikable they at least contain a decent amount of detail in their movement frames. They aren’t particularly impressive, but hey, it’s the best thing Bubsy has going for it. The soundtrack is equally bland. The music is generic fare for this genre, and is interchangeable with all of the other low effort releases of this era. The limited Genesis hardware does it no favors, but at least the composers were able to avoid the screeching and robot fart effects, but the music is still pretty forgettable. The amount of voice samples is actually pretty impressive; Bubsy speaks a one liner at the start of each stage and the quality is surprisingly good for a Genesis title. The audio is just okay in this release.
Bubsy isn’t offensively bad, but it’s a painfully boring experience. It seems that Accolade spent most of their budget advertising the character than actually hiring talented developers. It’s hard to believe that this one reviewed fairly well at launch because it pales in comparison to the competition. Bubsy holds a place in history, and it might be worth adding to your collection because of that fact, but I really can’t recommend it to anyone seeking out a worthwhile side scrolling action game. This is an extremely forgettable title.
