There’s a lot to be said about the 90s and somehow not all of it is terrible. Extreme this and edgy that, so much of its pop culture is cringe-worthy tryhard wannabe that it’s hard to take seriously. Games like Awesome Possum, Boogerman, and Bubsy all fell into the trap of following trends rather than having their own identity, but somehow Bubsy managed to break out enough that it’s not completely forgotten. The orange bobcat in the white exclamation-point t-shirt was remembered well enough to have a couple of revivals, from official ones like 2017’s The Woolies Strike Back to unlicensed oddities like 2013’s Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective, the latter of which is still freelyavailable here. Bubsy has had a longer career than two barely-adequate 16-bit platformers and a legendarily awful 3D PS1 game can justify, but every time he’s almost forgotten he comes back again.
Proving That the Past Doesn’t Have To Define the Future
This time around, though, promises to be different. Bubsy 4D is the latest game in the series, just announced today, and it’s coming from developer Fabraz. Fabraz is probably best known for Demon Turf, a 3D platformer PS1-style throwback, with the sequel Demon Tides on the way. Demon Tides has a demo that I had a great time with, bashing my head against its challenges until there were no more left, and now it turns out there’s a second “expressive 3D platformer” in the works coming hot on its heels.
An expressive 3D platformer is basically a standard platformer with a whole lot of skills, each of which can play off the others in unexpected ways. You may be over here and a platform waaaaay over there, but the method used to clear the jump can vary from person to person depending on the kind of skill chains they favor. Run and jump-jump-triple-jump to glide might work, but there could also be abilities that can segue a long jump into a double-jump into a jump-counter reset, and so long as you end up on the platform at the end it doesn’t matter which play-style you favor. You’ve got a big box of jumping skills and how you use them is based on a combination of creativity and checking the (usually multi-page) movelist, figuring out which ones aren’t just the easiest but most fun to pull off. And when those moves get repetitive, there’s a whole library of other skills to play with.
As for the plot of the new game, Planet Rayon’s Woolies are back again, this time stealing Earth’s sheep. A remodeled Bubsy, t-shirt replaced by an open button-up and a red tie with a white stripe to replicate his ! symbol, goes up against the BaaBots after they overthrow the Woolies, in a plot that’s going to make a lot more sense in-game than out of it. Bubsy has a host of new moves, not to mention a hairball form for blasting through the levels, and finding hidden blueprints can open up new skills as well. It’s ok to feel weird about actively looking forward to a Bubsy game, but so long as it seems as solid as Bubsy 4D is shaping up to be the quality-deficient history of the series is far less important than the possibility of great gaming ahead.
Bubsy 4D will be available on just about everything- Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox One and X|S, Switch and Switch 2, and PC. As for a release date, that’s news for another month so it’s a fairly safe bet that we’re looking at some time in 2026.
