Bubsy has spent the last three decades of game history as a punchline to a bad joke. The series started as a “mascot platformer” in the early 90s, trying to chase gameplay feats of Mario and Sonic, as so many other similar games did, and the first couple of games had positive reviews at the time. Now, I personally haven’t liked a single Bubsy game until now and retrospective reviews seem to often write even the first titles off as mediocre games, but at the time Bubsy was just one of many. And not even the worst at being a mascot. But then in 1996 Bubsy 3D came out and nothing has ever been the same for the poor bobcat, who wasn’t as annoying as many people love to say. However, the game was hot garbage and so the franchise basically died with it.
After several rather bizarre attempts at revitalizing the series over the last decade, Bubsy 4D is a success. And while it’s not a great 3D platformer, it’s quite good if you like this sort of game. Which sort? I’ll try to explain.