Bubsy.
Ah yes, Bubsy the Bobcat, this guy was supposed to be the next big gaming mascot, that obviously didn't happen. And why is that?
Well, at first glance this seems like a pretty decent platformer, I had some fond memories with this game on the Sega Genesis growing up.
But looking back on it now I don't know what I was thinking, sure the graphics are pretty decent, it has nice, colorful and often surreal cartoon style visuals, there are some imaginative set pieces from time to time, Bubsy looks like a total dork but at least he's expressive and well animated and the game does it's job at making you feel like you're playing an interactive cartoon, the chirpy music has it's charm too.
..........But everything else about this game makes me want to punch a baby in the face. IN THE FACE!
The biggest flaw is the physics, it's just f*cking weird, just like Sonic (which is obviously where this game took more than a few of it's ideas from) Bubsy can run really fast, but the level design dosen't compensate for your speed (unlike Sonic) and you run into sadistic death traps all the time. Bubsy dies with only one hit, making this game far more difficult than it needs to be.
For whatever reason, Accolade felt that what cartoony platformers like this needed was
realistic physics, so because Bubsy runs really fast, his traction is horrible, there's even a brake button to compensate for this, yes a brake button in a platformer, the action is so frantic however that you never even think about using it. Also, your feline friend can actually die from falling too far and even tripping over something or running into walls can kill him. If that's not enough, jumping on certain platforms and enemies requires a ridiculous amount of precision, both because of the super slippery physics and because of the unforgivingly specific hit detection, for example there's these sewer pipes in the early levels that will shoot you up if you stand on them, but you have to be dead center because if you're standing on the side, guess what? That kills you too.
Another thing is that you never really know what can kill you, I've died so many times because of this, how about this, I walk past what looks like a gumball machine, I assume it's a checkpoint or some special item, that's a reasonable assumption right? But no, of f*cking course not, it shoots gumballs which promptly kill me. Now I have a few questions. Isn't Bubsy supposed to be a bobcat? Aren't bobcats supposed to be badass and stuff? And yet this pussy isn't even a match for a damn gumball machine?
The level design is so convoluted that you never know where you need to go, you'll constantly find yourself stranded on a platform and jumping down only to meet instant death yet again, there's a gliding ability that's supposed to help during scenarios like these, but it dosen't, in fact it's even more of a surefire way to get you killed. The game also has tons of beginners traps that serve no purpose other than to piss you off, like you'll find a tunnel that goes down into what you assume is an underground area, and because it's there you assume there's some goodies to be found, but no, lying in wait is a pool of water and no, you can't swim. Most platformers reward you for your explorer's spirit, but this game punishes you for it.
There's a difference between being hard and being absolutely sadistic and this game is part of the latter category, it's like they made so many different "death" animations they had to use them all somehow, I don't know how this game didn't drive me nuts as a kid, I guess those memories were repressed. Especially because everytime you die you hear Bubsy spouting the same corny catchphrases and movie puns OVER AND OVER.
"What can possibly go wrong?"
A whole lot of things Bubsy, a whole lot of things.