Bubsy is a meme for all the wrong reasons. Nearly every game in the series is arguably terrible, and the self-deprecating jokes are often just as bad.
Well, Bubsy is back.
Again.
But all of a sudden it looks like he has the sauce. Out of the 30 game demos I played during GDC, Bubsy 4D is in my top three, and it’s not number three.
This isn’t the first time we talked about Bubsy 4D. Kayla wrote a preview right before Steam Next Fest last fall. I tried getting my hands on the game during PAX West, but the demo station was always occupied. If you’ve read our review of Demon Tides, and have been following up on Bubsy 4D‘s development, you probably already know why people are all of a sudden expecting this to be a winner.
Bubsy 4D is being developed by Fabraz, and that’s all you really need to know. These guys just get platforming. I only got to play through a couple of levels in this demo, and I struggled more than I’d like to admit in the last one, so I’m not going to talk about level design, but when it comes to how the game controls? I can already tell we’re dealing with something special.
Using the furball ability in what looks like a slotcar, skateboarding half-pipe is always fun.
Since I haven’t played any of the previous builds, I went through a tutorial level that felt like Bubsy‘s take on VR missions. In this level I ran, jumped, double jumped, glided, pounced, and turned into a rolling furball to just take in all the different ways to move. The cool thing about the glide is that it also allows you to run up walls for a little bit, and I mentioned to the devs that this is definitely going to make speedrunners excited. They laughed and also snidely mentioned that there were a few YouTube videos of the level I just played uploaded by people in the speedrunning community.
That humiliation aside, I went for more in the second level I played. While Bubsy 4D definitely has a collect-a-thon aspect to it, it’s really more of a “get to the finish” kind of platformer with the shiny thing to collect at the end. I wasn’t paying enough attention to know what the shiny balls of yarn actually do, and while I did let out a guffaw at some of the jokes in the cutscenes, I honestly wasn’t paying too much attention to the story. I just really like the way the game handled.
A lot of cutscenes I came across were actually fun, but a lof them kept the cringe in right way.
Just to go back to the furball real quick, I liken this sort of to Goron mode in Majora’s Mask with a little bit of Metroid and Sonic in here. You’ll often use the ball in obvious slide or slot-esque environments to get around. There was this one mission where I had to get to this place in less than 52 seconds. Bet. All you had to do was roll on these doilies in furball mode and it’s smooth sailing, but I kept failing because I kept falling. It had nothing to do with confusion either, I was just playing the game very badly despite being a platformer lover. It happens. The 30 minutes I had quickly came to an end.
Bubsy 4D wasn’t really something I had my eye on, but after the half hour I spent with the game, it’s near the top of my most wanted list. The game is currently scheduled to come out on May 22, and three people on the staff want to review it, so you can definitely expect our review around then.
Bubsy is a meme for all the wrong reasons. Nearly every game in the series is arguably terrible, and the self-deprecating jokes are often just as bad.
Well, Bubsy is back.
Again.
But all of a sudden it looks like he has the sauce. Out of the 30 game demos I played during GDC, Bubsy 4D is in my top three, and it’s not number three.
Bubsy is a meme for all the wrong reasons. Nearly every game in the series is arguably terrible, and the self-deprecating jokes are often just as bad.
Well, Bubsy is back.
Again.
But all of a sudden it looks like he has the sauce. Out of the 30 game demos I played during GDC, Bubsy 4D is in my top three, and it’s not number three.
This isn’t the first time we talked about Bubsy 4D. Kayla wrote a preview right before Steam Next Fest last fall. I tried getting my hands on the game during PAX West, but the demo station was always occupied. If you’ve read our review of Demon Tides, and have been following up on Bubsy 4D‘s development, you probably already know why people are all of a sudden expecting this to be a winner.
Bubsy 4D is being developed by Fabraz, and that’s all you really need to know. These guys just get platforming. I only got to play through a couple of levels in this demo, and I struggled more than I’d like to admit in the last one, so I’m not going to talk about level design, but when it comes to how the game controls? I can already tell we’re dealing with something special.
Using the furball ability in what looks like a slotcar, skateboarding half-pipe is always fun.
Since I haven’t played any of the previous builds, I went through a tutorial level that felt like Bubsy‘s take on VR missions. In this level I ran, jumped, double jumped, glided, pounced, and turned into a rolling furball to just take in all the different ways to move. The cool thing about the glide is that it also allows you to run up walls for a little bit, and I mentioned to the devs that this is definitely going to make speedrunners excited. They laughed and also snidely mentioned that there were a few YouTube videos of the level I just played uploaded by people in the speedrunning community.
That humiliation aside, I went for more in the second level I played. While Bubsy 4D definitely has a collect-a-thon aspect to it, it’s really more of a “get to the finish” kind of platformer with the shiny thing to collect at the end. I wasn’t paying enough attention to know what the shiny balls of yarn actually do, and while I did let out a guffaw at some of the jokes in the cutscenes, I honestly wasn’t paying too much attention to the story. I just really like the way the game handled.
A lot of cutscenes I came across were actually fun, but a lof them kept the cringe in right way.
Just to go back to the furball real quick, I liken this sort of to Goron mode in Majora’s Mask with a little bit of Metroid and Sonic in here. You’ll often use the ball in obvious slide or slot-esque environments to get around. There was this one mission where I had to get to this place in less than 52 seconds. Bet. All you had to do was roll on these doilies in furball mode and it’s smooth sailing, but I kept failing because I kept falling. It had nothing to do with confusion either, I was just playing the game very badly despite being a platformer lover. It happens. The 30 minutes I had quickly came to an end.
Bubsy 4D wasn’t really something I had my eye on, but after the half hour I spent with the game, it’s near the top of my most wanted list. The game is currently scheduled to come out on May 22, and three people on the staff want to review it, so you can definitely expect our review around then.
by Danreb Victorio
