‘Bubsy 4D’ Developer Found Inspiration In One Of The Worst Platformers Ever

When Bubsy debuted in 1993, the lovable bobcat with an attitude managed to stand out among a glut of quirky, quippy anthropomorphic video game mascots. Credit belongs to the hype developer Accolade built for its new 2D platformer, and the fact that Bubsy, as a video game series, wasn’t half bad. The first game, clumsily named Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind, was well-received by critics and sold well enough to get two sequels.

While he never reached the same popularity as his A-list competitors like Mario and Sonic, the wisecracking Bubsy was riding high in the early 1990s, and even got a kids’ TV pilot. What could possibly go wrong? Adding another dimension to the mix, as it turns out. Bubsy’s fourth game, aptly titled Bubsy 3D, was the franchise’s attempt to pull off what Nintendo’s Italian plumber did just months earlier. Unfortunately, the result was one of the worst games of its time, an industry-wide lesson of what not to do when making games in 3D.

For Ben Miller, a lead developer at prolific five-person indie studio Fabraz, Bubsy 3D isn’t as irredeemable as it’s been made out to be. In fact, Fabraz even found some inspiration in the maligned platformer as it worked on the feline’s upcoming revival.

“We did a group session where we hung out all weekend and played the old games, and I was expecting to just hit a complete roadblock with [Bubsy] 3D, but it has a lot of interesting stuff in there,” Miller tells Inverse. “Yeah, it’s missing the mark on some things, but that’s the case with any 3D game at that time. Even Super Mario 64 has some challenges.”

The first few years of 3D gaming were a crapshoot, and tragic translations like Bubsy 3D were commonplace as developers pieced together what worked and what didn’t. Even the successful elements of games like Super Mario 64 were immensely improved in sequels. But while Bubsy 3D fumbled with its tank-like movement and rigid camera, it managed to do well in other spots.

“There are things about how momentum works, and some of the movement mechanics,” Miller says, explaining that these ideas were a starting point for the much more refined traversal mechanics of Bubsy 4D.

At a glance, it’s surprising how much Bubsy 4D resembles the series’ worst game. Its charming cartoon art style and inviting cel-shaded visuals are way easier on the eyes, but the game’s level design, combined with the camera placement, makes it feel like a true successor to Bubsy 3D in a way I hadn’t expected.

There are tall towers and floating platforms way above the ground that Bubsy has to jump between to progress. There are dozens of little doodads to collect for unlockables. And the two levels I played had what felt like miles of obstacle-laden ground to cover, providing plenty of space to experiment with the hairball mechanic that turns the platformer into a Super Monkey Ball level.

Bubsy 4D feels like the game programmers set out to make back in 1996, except good, and the weird, wide-open levels of Bubsy 3D are something Miller says stood out to the team.

“There’s just a whole layer of surreal, ‘what the f*** were they thinking of?’ when it comes to world design and objective,” Miller says. “Some of the aesthetics of Bubsy 3D were surprisingly interesting. While it doesn’t inform too much of our take, they were just intriguing as spaces.”

Miller compares those old levels to the maze-like environments of old Windows screensavers. Thankfully, Bubsy 4D largely steps away from that surreal, void-like look in favor of a more psychedelic feel, and the game is better for it. Six years after the last Bubsy game, and four years after Fabraz’s previous title, the platformer Demon Turf, both are overdue for a comeback. It remains to be seen how Bubsy 4D performs, but it’s safe to assume it will be far better than its most infamous predecessor.