Somehow, Bubsy Returned

Welcome back to Remastered! We’re entering the busiest part of Spring for the game industry, with multiple game launches happening right now and Summer Game Fest on the horizon! This week, I’m reviewing one such game that came out today: Bubsy 4D. Please subscribe if you want to stay in the loop for all of my new retro-inspired and Summer Game Fest coverage over the next month, and consider supporting me on Ko-fi!

Bubsy's Return Makes Far More Sense Than You'd Think

I played a brand new Bubsy game in the year of our lord 2026, and it was actually good! On May 22, Fabraz and Atari will release Bubsy 4D, capping off a cultural remediation of the obnoxious ‘90s platforming mascot that has been going on for over a decade. While it’s too short to truly cement itself as a new 3D platforming classic, Fabraz and Atari have done the impossible: they've made a Bubsy game I can recommend for more than its historical and cultural value to gaming.

For this Remastered, I want to take a step back and look at how we got here with Bubsy the Bobcat, a franchise that feels as if it should have been forgotten by time but has instead become an infamous gaming icon. Then, I want to take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of Bubsy 4D and highlight what Atari did well in bringing this infamous gaming mascot back.

As you can learn by playing last year’s Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection, this series began with Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind on SNES and Sega Genesis in 1993. This was at the height of the platforming genre’s popularity, when every company was trying to create its own answer to the success of Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. Bubsy was Accolade’s response and, retrospectively, serves as the epitome of the weird platforming mascot era.

Bubsy is a wisecracking bobcat, the archetypal animal character with attitude. The game was a 2D platformer with momentum-based gameplay, trading Sonic’s rings and badniks for yarn balls and Woolies. There’s just one problem: it isn’t a very good game. Whereas Sega had perfected the game feel of 2D Sonic platformers by this point, Bubsy’s momentum never feels quite right, and it makes the game much more difficult than it needs to be. 

Still, there’s something charming about Bubsy here in the same way as the most annoying Looney Tunes characters. He’s annoying as hell, and none of his jokes are actually that good, but that makes it hard to look away. I’m clearly not the only one to think that way, as this first game was successful enough to kick off a franchise. Bubsy II followed the first game up on SNES, Sega Genesis, and Game Boy, while Bubsy in: Fractured Furry Tales somehow ended up an Atari Jaguar exclusive.

While some of those sequels do have better level design and animation, Accolade could never really nail Bubsy's game feel. There are contemporary platformers, particularly from Nintendo, that play so much better. That’s why I’m not too surprised that Bubsy completely faceplanted with Bubsy 3D, a terrible-looking 3D platformer with tank controls that’s considered one of the worst games of all time.

A game that terrible would be a death knell for most franchises, and for a time, it was for Bubsy. But he was brought back into relevance for one reason: Bubsy’s whole gimmick was perfectly suited to the irony-filled internet of the late 2000s and early 2010s. I remember first learning about the character through a JonTron video in 2012, and many YouTubers have taken a crack at the series over the years since then.

Bubsy is both too easy to make fun of and too hard to look away from, so the internet embraced Bubsy as a ubiquitous punching bag representing all terrible retro platformers. Of course, that irony bred some genuine fandom and brand relevance for the character, leading to a couple more games in the late 2010s, none of which were that great either. Then, after a few more years of dormancy, Atari acquired the franchise rights and staged a full-on comeback that people are genuinely invested in.

The effort now culminates with a 3D platformer that attempts to right the wrongs of Bubsy 3D from 30 years ago. For the most part, Bubsy 4D actually accomplishes that due to Atari’s collaboration with one of the most talented 3D platformer developers working today. Fabraz is best known for Demon Turf and this year’s excellent Demon Tides, and Bubsy 4D takes the foundation of those games and lays an immaculate Bubsy sheen over it. 

That reality is pretty shameless; if you played Demon Tides, some moves are essentially copied one-for-one here. You’re just now platforming across 15 linear levels, built for both speedrunning in two minutes or less and collectathon exploration if you want to take your time. Bubsy can jump, roll, and glide through the air, and even more abilities can be unlocked if you find a hidden collectible in each level. 

It’s simple, but it is by far the best-feeling Bubsy game to play, as it understands how to keep players in control of Bubsy’s momentum and build level design around it. At times, it does feel like it doesn’t have that much of a connection to its retro predecessors, but then I hear Bubsy make a “paws menu” joke when I pause the game. It reminded me that Bubsy's vibe is ultimately more important for this game to maintain than the gameplay or aesthetics of its predecessors. 

This feels more like a Sonic the Hedgehog fan game that just happened to get an official Bubsy license, but for a series with such a spotty record, that’s a godsend. My one real issue with Bubsy 4D, shockingly, is that it’s much too short. I beat it in under three hours on my first playthrough, which makes it much shorter than many indie platformers that are just as good, like Big Hops. 

Despite its issues, Bubsy 4D is still a fun little jaunt for $20. It understands that if you make a great game first, any IP can work with it. Bubsy just so happens to be one franchise that never quite got that kind of love and treatment until now. The internet has willed this ridiculous franchise back into the limelight 33 years after it should’ve ended forever, and I can’t help but adore the fact that I can play an actually fun Bubsy platformer on my PS5 in 2026.

What's Old Is News

The Adventures of Elliot demo, a Titanfall spiritual successor, and more

• The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales got a new demo, and progress from it will carry over into the full game.
• Dark Scrolls got delayed to June 22 so Doinksoft and Devolver Digital could avoid competing with Yacht Club Games’ Mina the Hollower.
• The Thing and Cyclops came to Marvel Cosmic Invasion, and I’m glad video games are making Cyclops cool.
• Terraria, the 15-year-old survival crafting game with a 2D pixel art aesthetic, is one of the best-selling games of all time, with 70 million copies sold.
• Splitgate’s developers are making a Titanfall spiritual successor, Polygon reports.
• A new State of Play was confirmed for June 2. I wonder if any retro revivals will feature there? 

Because Bubsy 4D was so short, I had the time to play some other games this week. Two in particular stood out to me:

• Motorslice: This 3D action-platformer with a low-poly aesthetic is the closest we’ve gotten to a new 3D Prince of Persia game in a long time. I’ve been enjoying playing it for that reason, although I’m skipping a lot of the story content because it weirdly fetishizes its main character.
• Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight: I haven’t loved a new Lego game in well over a decade, but TT Games’ latest finally changes that. As I wrote on Bluesky, Legacy of the Dark Knight is a clear love letter to the character and the Batman: Arkham games. While I wish it could match the combat and puzzle design difficulty of the Arkham games, I understand why it doesn’t. Still, having a new Gotham City sandbox to explore as different Batman characters and being able to drive almost every version of the Batmobile around it is a delight. I was also happy to see that it features a retro-themed costume based on Sunsoft’s NES Batman game. I'd love to see those retro Batman games all get remastered at some point

Thanks for reading through this week’s Remastered! Please look forward to next week, when I’ll be covering a clever retro-inspired indie game and breaking down my plans for the newsletter through Summer Game Fest. Subscribe for free or support me on Ko-fi so you don't miss out!