The Hall of Shame 04.30.08: Bubsy

Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 04.30.2008

With Sonic being such a success, Accolade decides to creates their own character with attitude. What could possibly go wrong?

When Sonic debuted he immediately climbed to the upper echelon of popular characters and made Sega a fuckload of money because Sega made him to be everything Mario wasn't, mainly being cool with an attitude, not to mention having a video game that was either just as good or better then Super Mario World depending on who you asked. So of course seeing this newcomer with an attitude suddenly appear and create a franchise out of itself, along comes a company called Accolade to clone Sonic in every way possible, only instead of a Hedgehog their character would be a Bobcat, and instead of speed his main trait would be gliding, and instead of being cool he would be really annoying. This is the shameful story of Bubsy the Bobcat.


"What could possibly go wrong?"

The 2D Game

For this portion of the column I decided to get an SNES rom of the first game, subtitled "Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind," and see for myself whether it was actually horrible or not. The result? It's not atrociously bad as the infamous 3D game which we'll get to later on, but it definitely isn't a good game. Bubsy basically tries to copy Sonic by going at such a fast speed across the levels, you're given a ten minute timer to complete the level just like in early Sonic games, he does silly antics when you decide to stand still for a while, and the ending point is an icon with his face on it that spins when you touch it. Yep, Bubsy was definitely trying to emulate Sonic in every way possible, except what he forgot to copy was his ability to withstand enemy attacks. The only defense that Bubsy has against enemies is jumping on them just like Mario and Sonic would. But Mario and Sonic would also find additional power-ups in order to aid them. Mario had his mushrooms and fire flowers, Sonic has shields, Bubsy apparently has nothing. Another problem is that once Bubsy touches an enemy, he dies. Mario could take hits depending on his power-ups, Sonic would always be alive as long as he had any rings, but aside from the token invincibility power-up, Bubsy has nothing. So basically, when you're running really fast, if you don't look carefully, you're going to smack right into an enemy and lose a life. That is just poor game design, and having nine lives from the start does not compensate for this.

Another annoying aspect of the game was the controls. If you're going fast in one direction, but decide to turn the other way in midair, Bubsy will still get pulled in the direction you were initially running towards. Another serious problem is that it seems to promote trying to go fast, but then Bubsy will suddenly STOP and have his eyes pop out the first time he's about to touch water or fall into a pit or whatever hazard can possibly kill or annoy him. Then there's the problem of going so fast you smack right into a wall. Bubsy will fall on his ass, birds will surround his head for a little while, and you basically waste time. At first I thought I was dead which pissed me off, but then he was alright and I was like "Huh?" It didn't help that Bubsy can also die from taking a really high jump and falling to the ground. Last time I checked, neither Mario nor Sonic had this kind of problem.

Overall, Bubsy's first 2D game is pretty mediocre, but back then it apparently did really well, because the bobcat would return in a sequel, Bubsy II. I also played a bit of that and it's actually quite an improvement over the last game. The whole "run real fast to reach the end" approach of the first game is replaced with a more exploration deal, and get this...he actually has power-ups to defend himself with! This time along with jumping and gliding Bubsy carries an arsenal of toys you can find in the stages or buy with trading cards you collect. Plus he no longer dies after one hit. The camera is still a little jerky at times but it's an okay game.

Bubsy also had a Jaguar game, but we're going to completely ignore that and move on to when Bubsy would enter the world of 3D gaming. And then he would never be heard from again.

The 3D Game

This was pretty much the death knell of the Bubsy series, because it was just so damn horrible that Bubsy has never appeared in a game since. While the 2D games have a few redeeming features, this doesn't. What's so bad about this game?


I've been so many places. I've seen so many faces. But nothing compares to these blue and yellow purple hills.

First let's talk about the graphics,. Even for an early 3D game the graphics look outright horrible, as you can't really tell what those pixelated masses are supposed to be. The only thing I can tell from this game is that the giant blue and white things are mountains, but what the hell are the rest supposed to be? I can probably use my imagination to come up with something, but the use of imagination isn't supposed to be necessary anymore when the graphics are supposed to get better, especially for 3D games. Plus when you can't exactly tell what some objects are supposed to be, that leads to serious issues. For example, take a look at this thing:



Do you know what that spinning thing is supposed to be? At first I thought it was some sort of blades or saw or something because earlier I saw Bubsy get killed by those things. But then as it turns out, apparently that's supposed to be some kind of fan that blows you higher in order to reach some platforms. Are you kidding me?! You also can't see very far as objects will look invisible until you're up close to them, so have fun getting lost.

Then there's the voice acting. You know what really made Sonic cool? The fact that he never really talked at all. Unless you count the cartoons and a few catchphrases here and there, Sonic hasn't talked a lot in his own game until 1999 with Sonic Adventure. Bubsy will just not shut up as he spouts one annoying catchphrase after the other.

Now we get to the most important part of any game that alone could define whether it's actually good or not: The controls. I haven't played Bubsy 3D, but based on what I've seen in that video, the controls of Bubsy 3D are equivalent to trying to catch all 484 Pokémon using only two Pokémon games: IMPOSSIBLE. Despite making the jump to the third dimension, Bubsy decides to only move forward, so in order to go left, you can't just hit left on the joystick and be on your merry way. You have to rotate the camera and then move forward again, and jumping while hitting left or right causes you to strafe. But even worse then walking is the gliding, because instead of actually gliding across the stage, you actually look to be sinking. The camera is placed right on top of you and makes the controls even more difficult to handle. The hit detection is also a complete mess, because it'll look like you never touch an enemy and yet somehow they kill you. As you get near an enemy, the game suddenly shows Bubsy standing under a spotlight and dying through some "hilarious" hijinx, like shattering into pieces or simply falling on his ass.

This game just about fails on every conceivable level. But what I find really pathetic is that this Sonic the Hedgehog wannabe would actually get a 3D game faster then the actual Sonic the Hedgehog would, and these days 3D Sonic games are almost as bad as Bubsy 3D. Good thing Sonic is going back to his 2D roots in the latest Sonic game, Sonic Twilight Princess Unleashed.

The Cartoon

It seemed like any semi-popular character back in the early 90's got their own Saturday Morning Cartoon. Mario and Sonic would be obvious, but others would include Sam & Max, Earthworm Jim, Battletoads, and even the Sonic wannabe we are talking about today. Below is a portion of the pilot episode of the show, the only episode that would wind up ever being made:



First of all, the voices are awful, even for a children's cartoon. Second of all, who the hell is that evil cat person? I don't recall Bubsy's arch nemesis to be some sort of super rich cat. Third of all, must Bubsy constantly repeat his catchphrase "What could possibly be go wrong?" over and over again? Fourth of all, why did they have to add those kids into the show? Fifth of all, it wasn't any funny. I think I now know why this show didn't get past the pilot episode.

Will Bubsy Ever Return?

These days I've learned to never say never when it comes to video games, so I thought to myself if it was possible that Bubsy could ever come back since he was put to sleep in 1996. Turns out the answer is going to be no. Accolade struggled in the mid-90's and would eventually be bought and merged into Infogrames, then all it's assets would be owned by Atari. Almost by coincidence, Atari is facing financial troubles as well. But aside from the guy who uploaded that video, does anybody really want him to comeback?

Personally, I wouldn't mind, because these days he can't do much worse then what Sonic has become.