Bubsy 4D Review
Bubsy 4D releases seven years after the anthropomorphic bobcat's last appearance in Bubsy Paws on Fire! Now, publisher Atari have made the wise decision to entrust the platforming mascot to Fabraz, the experienced hands behind this year's fantastic 3D platformer, Demon Tides.
Having released a great open-world 3D platformer only a few months ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see Bubsy 4D release so soon. But after completing Bubsy 4D, it's clear that the two titles share many of the same visual and gameplay elements, which would've helped with development.
You play as the anthropomorphic bobcat, Bubsy - a fourth wall breaking comedic mascot who's once again reluctant to take up the mantle of a hero. But when Bubsy's notorious enemies the Woolies steal all of the world's sheep, he refuses to do anything about it, until the sheep topple their captors and return as robotically modified BaaBots. Yet, before Bubsy can act, the BaaBots steal Bubsy's most prized possession, The Golden Fleece.
No longer able to ignore what's happened, Bubsy hijacks a BaaBot spaceship with his allies: his nephew and niece, Terry and Terri; the mocking but supportive Oblivia and the brains of the operation, Virgil. Leading to an intergalactic adventure where Bubsy explores worlds made of craft supplies, to collect yarn, blueprints, medals and a golden fleece.
Unlike Demon Tides' massive open-world, 3D platforming adventure, Bubsy 4D uses a linear level-based structure, like a focused and shorter Super Mario 3D World. On the game's galactic map, each world has 5 missions with 150 yarn balls to collect per level to spend at the home base spaceship's store, 1 blueprint to purchase new abilities, medals for beating completion times, and a golden fleece at the end of each level. While the fifth levels have the same collectibles, they culminate in boss battles that see Bubsy challenge three villainous BaaBots with three lives and evolving attack patterns, like any good traditional Mario boss.
Bubsy 4D starts with a tutorial mission in the spaceship hub. You enter Virgil's virtual reality simulation to learn the gameplay basics. If you played Fabraz's previous game, Demon Tides, Bubsy's platforming will feel very familiar. He can jump, double jump into a flutterstep hover, dive forward into a pounce that can either be an attack or a traversal necessity that claws Bubsy higher up a surface. He can also pounce and bounce off needle points, sprint, reset and zoom out the camera, bounce between walls to get higher and climb specific surfaces. But Bubsy also has a version of Beebz' high-speed snake movement in the form of his hairball mode, where he inflates into a furry ball and can speed along open tunnels and through suction pipes. All while feeling the motion with solid haptic feedback and adaptive trigger implementation on Playstation 5.
Bubsy 4D also uses many similar environmental obstacles found in Demon Tides and a few new ones: adhesives that stop you dead in your tracks, turning and moving platforms, timed spike traps, traffic lights to freeze a way forward, a cat toy that activates a race style section, slipper surfaces, cannons to land on platforms, gravity bubbles, side-scrolling and top down sections and more.
Where Demon Tides was all about customising your moves, Bubsy focuses on a core moveset that only has a few abilities to unlock. Techniques to improve the games approachability and enhance your speedrunning times after you've completed the story. You spend your collected yarn to unlock costumes like classic Bubsy and a variety of fancy suit jackets, but it's the blueprints you spend to unlock abilities. You unlock a crouch jump, twist jump, the ability to warp between the litter box checkpoints, being able to heal at benches and much more.
The level design feels like Demon Tides crossed with a level based Mario game. For what's here, the gameplay has that instant fun Nintendo effortlessly captures. I would've just liked a few more levels. If Bubsy 4D was double the length at this quality, it'd be another platforming classic from Fabraz.
Although, Fabraz continues its strong focus on speed-runs and additional modes. The choice to use a more fixed moveset makes speed-runs about the mastery of the gameplay. Of knowing when to use a twitch movement, switch to the hairball mode, to be the first to locate a brand new shortcut or learn from another player's ghost run. You can even turn off cinematics, snappily repeat challenges and add a timer on screen for those who want to measure their progress in real-time.
Fabraz also includes a few extra modes: an option to play the game with traditional tank controls, Nine Lives mode, where you must complete the whole game with nine lives, and an approachable Invincibility toggle for those who don't want to restart a level once you've taken your three or upgraded four hits in a level.
But it's Fabraz's unique visual style that instantly grabbed me. A repeat of Demon Tides' cel-shaded, paper cutout art with a similar colour scheme designed to direct a player's eyes to collectibles and other points of interest. Reusing the same artist to redesign Bubsy's cast is a smart move. It gives Fabraz a continued studio identity, and aside from a few blurry and flickering textures, it allows the 3D platformer to look good and run smoothly.
However, Bubsy 4D does use incredibly similar HUD elements and typography, when I would've preferred something more distinct. But when the gameplay is so good and the character models are so charming, it's easy to overlook the little things.
Animations is another area the game excels. It feels like a playable Looney Tunes show when Bubsy kicks his legs in the air to hover or frantically claws up a wall to safety before his legs stop. This attention to detail even continues in the humourous death animations that play when you've taken too many hits and failed to reach a checkpoint to replenish your health.
Fortunately, Bubsy 4D also fixes one area I found lacking in Demon Tides, by including a good amount of voiced lines to add personality to Bubsy and his crew. Silent protagonists might work in some platformers, but when Bubsy is such a comedic character that frequently breaks the fourth wall to directly address the audience, it adds a bit of flair to an otherwise bare and minimal story. Bubsy even spouts witty lines when you pause the game, such as comments about playing the game with dirty fingers.
The whole crew and the villains are perfectly cast to illicit that feeling of a Saturday morning cartoon. Even the sound effects feel like listening to a familiar animation. And the energetic score masters the balance of creating looping tracks that never become grating.
Bubsy 4D caters to players, young and old, whether you want to breeze through the short four to five hour campaign, or complete each mode, collect everything or attempt to place on the leaderboards, it's an approachable 3D platformer for everyone. If it'd been a touch longer, it would've been another modern great. Although, at $19.99, it's still a game I'd definitely recommend to fans of focused 3D platformers with fun characters, well-designed levels and free flowing gameplay.
*Review Code Provided By Publisher
