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Bubsy 4D has quickly become one of my favorite platforming games in recent years and, yep, there are no bobcat claws at my throat making me say that. I've gone from rudely maligning the overly chatty '90s mascot to becoming a genuine fan. That time has passed in-universe too, meaning that Bubsy the Bobcat has become a down-on-his luck, schlubby uncle who has to exhaustingly pounce back into action to recover the golden fleeces from enemy robot sheep. Finally, I can see myself in a platforming hero.
Developed by excellent platformer studio Fabraz, the only detractor here is that Bubsy 4D released so close to its much more ambitious and fully-featured Demon Tides (which I called "a high watermark in my 3D platformer pantheon" in my Demon Tides review). Yet, there are enough differences to make playing both worth it. Jumping through linear levels chosen from a menu screen means that Bubsy 4D is a more straightforward affair, as is his suite of platforming moves (Demon Tides is more about customization).
Only boasting three worlds with five levels each, this is a snappy adventure that matches its budget price, but the focused approach also makes replaying to scoop up collectibles or try for new time trial records appealing. I have to admit I'd love to get my paws on more levels – but what's here feels like a perfectly sized bit of platforming catnip.
Fur your paws only
Bubsy 4D makes controlling the bobcat star much slicker than the Bubsy 3D days, though that's admittedly an extremely low bar. In fact, controlling Bubsy here makes for some of the best platformer jumping I've played in a long-time, mixing together some of the genre's classic abilities with unique abilities that keep it feline fresh.
Early on, you might find Bubsy a bit jerky, but the more I've played, the more I've come to appreciate his twitchiness. It suits him as a bobcat, but it also means I really feel in control of how he moves. Running through each level with the goal of reaching its glowing golden yarn balls – definitely not golden stars, which makes for some of Bubsy's reams of pop culture observations gleefully delivered by actor Sean Chiplock – you've got to make the usual death-defying leaps through 3D obstacle courses. Hold the button and Bubsy will jump higher, can extend those hops with a Yoshi-like flutter and, of course, can tip his furry quiff to Mario for a chained three-hop combo to sneak in a little extra height.
Speed can be adjusted by pouncing while on the ground, swapping Bubsy's two-footed movement for four-legs as he breaks out into a run like a true cat (and, yes, checkpoints are, of course, litterboxes). Bubsy's abilities get more creative while in mid-air. Suspended, he can switch his leap into a glide or a pounce. The latter acts like a bonus jump that flings him quite a horizontal distance, and doesn't stop once he hits a wall – this kitty's got claws and will clamber up vertical walls for extra height, helping out with near-misses, but also neatly combining big leaps with wall-jumping in a way that makes transitioning into upward movement feel natural.
The way you can chain all of Bubsy's moves together reminds me of the hat-flinging in Super Mario Odyssey. While in the air, you can choose to use all of Bubsy's moves once in any order, weaving together different combinations to suit a variety of situations, often trading control for distance, or favoring vertical or horizontal movement. Bubsy's glide won't get you that far, but will greatly reduce his fall speed to nail landing on a narrow space, for instance. Or, pounce on a target mid-air, and Bubsy's abilities reset, allowing you to chain together big jump combos.
Just like the plumber's recent adventure, Fabraz leaves plenty of room for player creativity to move through and even sometimes around platforming gauntlets. Successfully mastering Bubsy's movement to shave down my time in each level feels rewarding, even if sometimes my own hubris can be my undoing as I try to do one big jump into several small ones.
More moves are doled out as you complete optional platforming challenges in each level to unlock blueprints. These can be added into Bubsy's movement chains to extend jumps even further, from a running jump that can kick off leaps with plenty of distance, to a spinning-top jump that can provide excellent starting verticality – especially useful in some low-gravity situations. These all compliment his moveset well without feeling like they change anything too much, more a slow way to add a smidge of extra complication that doesn't touch on Demon Tides' often completely rule-changing powers, but that helps Bubsy 4D feel more focused.
I'm less keen on Bubsy's furball power that blows him up into a sphere capable of boosting at high-speeds. Within the stage design, this is used for some half-pipe or highway-like bits that connect sections of a stage, or to boost down Mario-like pipes. You can swap between these forms at will, for instance using it to boost jump before swapping back into conventional jumping, but I find weaving this in a bit less elegantly than swapping between his other moves. A bouncing wall jump has more utility, but it can often feel like furball sections are just padding out the size of an area a bit.
The quest to defeat the baabots and recover Bubsy's yarn has him moving from planet to planet, all three arbitrarily themed in the classic '90s manner: there's a craft world, a pens-and-scissors stationary world, and a trash world that gets more machine-like as you progress. Similar to the recently released Rayman, classic Bubsy also featured some oddly abstract stage themes (both have an unreasonably hard music world) – and you know Bubsy 4D is tongue-in-cheek about evolving that formula here.
It's really this tone that pulls the whole of Bubsy 4D together. It's a charming adventure that makes me chuckle with how knowingly it treats the strangeness of reviving Bubsy of all things, and is able to balance poking fun at the character's infamous past with genuine affection for both those adventures, and the era of mascot platforming in general.
It certainly helps, though, that the platforming itself feels this good. I've really come to love expressive platformers where being able to use skill to break apart some of the challenges is part of the fun. While I'd like a bit more meat on the Bubsy 4D treat stick, one task is certainly accomplished with aplomb: I'm left wanting more Bubsy. That's something I never thought I'd be typing.
Bubsy 4D is out now on Steam, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2, and Nintendo Switch.
Looking for a throwback? Check out our best SNES games list!
