Bubsy 4D | Review

If you had told me 1 year ago that I would be playing a new Bubsy game and it was actually decent, I wouldn’t have believed you. Developed by Fabraz, the indie studio behind the Demon Turf series, and published by Atari as part of their major comeback effort, Bubsy 4D is a new 3D platformer that riffs on its past, parodying the memeification of Bubsy as a series and character, all while making the first actually enjoyable game in the series.

Bubsy 4D pulls from across Bubsy’s history fighting the woolies, including introducing characters who previously only existed in the failed TV pilot. Rather than fall back on what the previous games did for this third attempt at a series revival, Bubsy 4D brings the series into new territory with entirely new antagonists and a generally different tone coming from its cast, one that doesn’t celebrate Bubsy but pokes fun at him.

Bubsy, like his more successful contemporary Sonic the Hedgehog, is a 90s mascot and was born with a 90s attitude. He’s a quipper and a jokester – a pain in the backside for his enemies and someone who is the center of attention from his allies. However, while Sonic developed with the times, following the trends of Shonen manga to stay relevant to its Shonen-aged demographic, Bubsy remained stuck in this era.

It’s not entirely Bubsy’s fault that he didn’t get to evolve – Bubsy 3D was released in the 90s after all, but previous revival games like The Woolies Strike Back and Paws of Fire stuck closely to that 90s feel for the character, and it didn’t land. That approach works when you have a beloved 90s mascot, but Bubsy is remembered for being annoying, both in personality and in game quality. That’s the difference between him and a more successful 90s quipper: Gex. The Gex games are good, and that makes Gex’s referential commentary come off as more palatable than when Bubsy attempts it. Bubsy 4D even acknowledges this in one line, which got a good chuckle out of me.​

In comparison, Bubsy 4D accepts the fact that Bubsy has been out of the spotlight for two decades and decides to leverage that for its new interpretation of the character. Dropping the shirt for a suit jacket and tie, playfully stylized still to keep his ‘iconic’ red exclamation mark, Bubsy now has the vibe of a used car salesman long past his prime who still clings to the glory days where he was the hero. And his allies treat him in a similar regard, not believing in him to save the day, cringing at his attempts at one-liners and generally kicking down toward him. Bubsy himself also feels more pessimistic this time – still making quips but with an occasional awkward chuckle, or trying to hype himself up after an accidental insult. And for me, this makes him more endearing.

You feel bad for Bubsy here. He does, in fact, save the day, and he does it against the expectations of his friends, who essentially force him to be a hero because they don’t want to do it themselves. But then the game will remind you why they treat Bubsy this way – he just can’t help himself sometimes and will kill the mood with a terrible one-liner or awkward interaction. He’s a platform mascot past his prime, and for the first time a platform mascot who feels like he has his own identity – separate from the trends of his era.​

As a game itself, Bubsy 4D often seems at odds with itself, but it manages to come together enough to be enjoyable. Fabraz has a reputation for making 3D platformers that are simple to understand for newcomers but with a lot of technical details for genre veterans. Demon Turf and Demon Tide both encourage speedrunning, sequence breaking, and impressive mobility, and Bubsy 4D is no different – with its time trial records that might seem impossible on a player’s first completion of a stage. But the toolkit is there in Bubsy’s moveset, with dashes, wall climbs, a Fuzz Ball mode that turns Bubsy into a ball, a dive, and a glide. Pulling all these off in succession will see players launching themselves across the game’s 12+ stages.

However, while the toolkit is snappy and responsive (a far cry from Bubsy games of old), the conflict arises with the level design. I would describe the level design of Bubsy 4D as being somewhere between a Super Mario Sunshine and a 3D Sonic level. Contained, explorable sections with multiple paths and obstacle courses, riddled with secrets and collectibles, separated by straightforward half-pipes for Bubsy to speed through or super precise platforming segments. It’s not a bad combination by any means. Still, for players who want to get all the collectible Yarn in a level, the more Mario-esque explorable sections clash with Bubsy’s slippery, fast-paced control scheme.​

Many times I found the desire to go fast clashed with the actual platforming challenge in front of me, and in several instances the level design actually got in the way of Bubsy’s need for speed. Nowhere is this more obvious than after coming out of a clear pipe. In Bubsy’s Fuzz Ball mode, he can be sucked up into clear pipes that function as quick ways to gain vertical height, and it often ends with Bubsy being launched out at high-speeds – especially if the player is holding forward on the movement stick. Unfortunately, in most cases, what awaits Bubsy at the end of these pipes is some wall or barrier. From a game design perspective, I suspect it’s meant to serve as a cushion for players when they come out of the pipes, but because of the physics, Bubsy tends to hit the wall and just bounce back – not back into the pipe but often off the level itself. It happened enough times throughout the game that it felt like a glaring stage design issue.

Bubsy’s level design also isn’t the best for a collectathon platformer, which often encourages backtracking. Thankfully, Bubsy can unlock abilities that make this easy, like a ‘radar’ where Bubsy points vaguely in the direction of a missing collectible and fast-travels through litter boxes – which serve as the game’s checkpoints. I did find that some unlockable abilities weren’t clear in their requirements, though; you can buy them in any order, and it turns out you need to buy the power to crouch with the crouch jump, something I wish I had known before I bought a healing ability that only activates when I crouch. Still, Bubsy’s unlockable abilities do add more platforming options, which is always appreciated. Bubsy also has some unlockable costumes for players to purchase, including an obvious throwback outfit and a… questionable Sonic the Hedgehog reference.

Even with its flaws, Bubsy 4D is still the best the series has to offer and is a promising return for the bobcat. It isn’t anything special, though; there are much better 3D platformers of all types available to play, including Fabraz’s other 3D platformers. But with more content confirmed to be on the way, Bubsy is worth looking into for those curious if this bobcat can still be relevant in the big 2026.