Does the world need a Bubsy game in 2026? This was, after all, the ‘We have Super Mario at home’ of ‘90s platformer series. It was the supermarket own-brand version of Sega and Nintendo’s blockbuster franchises, an insipid approximation of what made those far superior titles so popular, distinguished only by the titular Bubsy’s soul destroying wisecracks and an art style from the MS Paint design school.
Sentiment towards the series was so apathetic, in fact, that following the critically mauled Bubsy 3D in 1996, there were precisely no franchise releases between 1997 and 2016. Two attempts at rebooting the series in 2017 and 2019 made all the cultural impact of a light cough. For Bubsy 4D developer Fabraz, this is one tough assignment. What could possibly go wrong?
To Fabraz’s credit, this game carries itself with a degree of self-awareness and irony that is, frankly, necessary. Being rubbish is this franchise’s legacy and USP, so if a new title is to have any kind of chance, it has to find a way of leveraging it for fun. And that’s what this one does. Bubsy himself is always the butt of the joke, to the extent that even the titular Bobcat himself seems reluctant to embark on his own game when he learns that the Woolies have stolen all Earth’s sheep and returned them as deadly BaaBots.
What follows is a series of perfectly fine platforming levels in which our hero must retrieve golden fleeces from various planets, using a surprisingly robust and mostly fluid set of movement controls. I’ll go all out here: this is the best the series has ever been to control. Granted, that’s a bit like saying ‘this is Uwe Boll’s finest cinematic work’ but traversal is genuinely quite good.
Being a Bobcat, Bubsy is all about lithe movement, pouncing and clawing his way around the environment. Sir David Attenborough evidently was not a consultant on Bobcat behaviour because the moveset does also include the ability to soar through the air after jumping, like a sugar glider, and turning yourself into a giant furball and rolling around Super Monkey Ball style.
As you progress through the levels and amass the riches (yarn) required to purchase upgrades, you can expand your moves even further. Within three levels I was able to not just double-jump, but effectively triple-jump, and it’s admirable on the level design’s part that levels are able to accommodate different movement loadouts which players may have picked without eliminating challenge or soft-locking some players who did pick the ‘right’ upgrades for the right levels.
There’s enough variety from one mission to the next to showcase that broad moveset. Some levels are laid out like marble runs for your furball form, or race tracks, complete with time limits. Others are more vertically minded, challenging your jump timing and ability to combo various leap and glide inputs. It’s here where the camera behaviour becomes troublesome, particularly when you guide Bubsy near tall buildings. There are moments when you feel you’re wrestling with the camera itself in order to progress, rather than with the environment, and I wish there was an input command for forcibly zooming the camera out to stop it getting discombobulated when you’re bounce-jumping between walls. Still, this issue is a minor blemish on Bubsy’s platforming, nothing more.
It might just be me, but I bounced harder off the art direction than the camera mishaps. By the nature of his heritage Bubsy is duty-bound to be colourful and at least slightly garish, but I remain adamant that there’s a more stylish, ironic, or ‘90s-literate way to convey that than Bubsy 4D employs. The character design is adequate enough, if a bit stock, but it’s in the level environments where art assets become noticeably basic or downright unsightly. And look, this is a Bubsy game – I may not be aware of the precise limitations imposed on Fabraz, but I feel confident in saying they’re not working with a Final Fantasy-level budget here. Efficiency is the name of game development in 2026 and it’s highly likely that a talented environment design team simply didn’t have much runway. Nevertheless, you notice the rudimentary nature of the middle-distance as you’re bounding through the levels.
Conversely, the soundtrack from Missouri-based duo Fat Bard is outrageously good, and meets the visuals more than halfway to conjure a sense of ‘90s nostalgia and ironic reinvention. Its chiptune-adjacent synth runs and pumping beats motor you along through the levels, reminding you how important the audiovisual element is to whether a retro revival platformer sticks its landing.
Tonally, it’s a cheery affair and well-voiced, with frequent humour beats that oscillate between genuinely funny and the kind of inoffensive banter you’ve seen in every Pixar movie since 2001. Returning characters join our hero on his journey including Terri, Terry, Virgil, and Oblivia, and can be found in a home area between levels where you can chat to them, embark on VR training missions, or buy new moves or skins.
So, back to the pressing question? Does the world need this game right now? While it’s hard to argue that there’s a mandate for Bubsy to take his place at the centre of pop culture, there are reasons to play this game that extend beyond morbid curiosity or ‘I had the first game when I was a kid.’
It’s a solo game with no battle pass, no microtransactions, and cosmetics earned exclusively through in-game actions. It has an end point. It’s not trying to keep you ensconced in its live service offering until the heat death of the universe. It has very, very good music.
It’s a platform game that dares to take a few risks by adding new moves to an established character, and even gives you some agency over that moveset. And its levels are well equipped to deal with different upgrades, functioning well as playgrounds that let you explore the possibilities of each mechanic and, in time, build on them to pull off feats that might not have seemed possible in the early game.
So yes, there are solid reasons to play Bubsy 4D. It’d be easy to take a cursory glance and see a reviled platformer returning in less than stunning visual form, play a couple of levels, get turned off by the camera issues and send it on its way with a smacked bottom and a low score. But Fabraz has poured some genuine quality over the shaky foundations of this project, and deserves plaudits for it. I’m not saying it’s a classic, but it could have gone way more wrong than this.
