The people at Black Forest Games are no strangers to reviving long dormant platforming franchises with less than stellar reputations. Just look at what they did with the Giana Sisters. So who better to resurrect Bubsy? While they succeeded in giving him his best game, the series is just as bad as ever.
The first thing that becomes noticeable is how few one-liners the bobcat has. I heard everything he had to say by the time I reached the second level. As a result I quickly made use of the option in the menus to decrease the amount of talking he did. Given that the characters personality is supposed to be such a big part of the experience, shouldn't they have tried harder at giving him more dialog?
It is not hard to see why they thought it might have been a possibility to get away with the verbal repetition. There is remarkably little content in the game. There are fourteen levels in total including the tutorial and boss stages. While there are collectible yarn balls and T-shirts throughout, there isn't enough here to justify the price tag. Perhaps this would have been better off as a $10 downloadable game. Even then it wouldn't have been good.
Serviceable platforming and tight controls make this much more playable than any of the previous Bubsy titles, but the shoddy hit detection and frustrating boss fights bring things down. Your pounce move is completely useless for anything other than breaking through certain walls. Even the simple act of jumping on the enemies' heads is unreliable. This partly due to the hit detection issues, and partly due to the weird physical design of the enemies themselves. This can be especially annoying when jumping on foes is necessary as a part of a platforming challenge to reach a collectible.
When all is said and done, I think it's safe to say that Bubsy can be retired again. The time wasn't taken to make this a truly memorable comeback. If anything the lack of wit and variety in the one-liners and the poor gameplay are a reminder of why some series should just stay dead. Maybe someone will come along again in the next 20 years or so and finally do Bubsy right. Until then, I don't think he should be showing his face around these parts anymore.
4/10
The first thing that becomes noticeable is how few one-liners the bobcat has. I heard everything he had to say by the time I reached the second level. As a result I quickly made use of the option in the menus to decrease the amount of talking he did. Given that the characters personality is supposed to be such a big part of the experience, shouldn't they have tried harder at giving him more dialog?
It is not hard to see why they thought it might have been a possibility to get away with the verbal repetition. There is remarkably little content in the game. There are fourteen levels in total including the tutorial and boss stages. While there are collectible yarn balls and T-shirts throughout, there isn't enough here to justify the price tag. Perhaps this would have been better off as a $10 downloadable game. Even then it wouldn't have been good.
Serviceable platforming and tight controls make this much more playable than any of the previous Bubsy titles, but the shoddy hit detection and frustrating boss fights bring things down. Your pounce move is completely useless for anything other than breaking through certain walls. Even the simple act of jumping on the enemies' heads is unreliable. This partly due to the hit detection issues, and partly due to the weird physical design of the enemies themselves. This can be especially annoying when jumping on foes is necessary as a part of a platforming challenge to reach a collectible.
When all is said and done, I think it's safe to say that Bubsy can be retired again. The time wasn't taken to make this a truly memorable comeback. If anything the lack of wit and variety in the one-liners and the poor gameplay are a reminder of why some series should just stay dead. Maybe someone will come along again in the next 20 years or so and finally do Bubsy right. Until then, I don't think he should be showing his face around these parts anymore.
4/10