After "Bubsy: Paws on Fire!" was released in 2019 as the last title in a long series of games, the courageous cat is now plunging back into the fray almost seven years later. With "Bubsy 4D," Atari is attempting to recapture past successes and breathe new life into the series, especially at a time when retro games and remakes are extremely popular. But how much retro is appropriate here?
Old cat, old problems
The story of “Bubsy 4D"At its core, "is a quirky tale of reclamation: The old enemies, the Woolies, first kidnap Earth's sheep, only to transform them into the MähBots using stolen technology and steal Bubsy's Golden Fleece, a kind of golden ball of yarn. Bubsy initially remains calm in his typical fashion, before embarking on an intergalactic heist with his colorful crew to retrieve the Fleece. Along the way, we fight our way through wildly designed levels and planets, collect blueprints to unlock new abilities, and tackle some adventurous parkour challenges."
The basic idea is simple and more of a pretext for the actual platforming gameplay than a deeper narrative. This fits the series, but also feels a bit like the game is trying to distract from its weaknesses in the actual gameplay with a deliberately absurd premise.
The story is forgotten as quickly as it's told, and doesn't offer a single second of real depth that would encourage further engagement. Every now and then, an attempt is made to throw in a joke meant to reference the previous installments. But it's not particularly funny; rather, it feels stale and boring.
A case for the animal shelter
In terms of gameplay, "Bubsy 4D" relies on a classic, but expanded, 3D platforming framework: Bubsy can jump, glide, climb walls, leap at enemies, and now also transform into a fast hairball form, allowing him to roll through the levels. In addition, there are time trials, leaderboards, and a collection of new abilities and outfits intended to provide some structure and a sense of collecting, but essentially just trying to fill the game with more content. In total, we progress through 15 levels across three different planets, each with a major boss enemy at its end.
That's precisely the problem: While the movements appear extensive, they aren't truly elegantly executed. When a game offers numerous options, but the controls are simultaneously jerky, clunky, or overly responsive, precision quickly tips into a loss of control. For a platformer, this isn't a minor issue, but rather the core of the experience. For me, this resulted in frantically jumping back and forth, either managing to save myself at the last moment or even losing one of our cat lives. This severely limits the enjoyment of the game.
Is this still retro or already outdated?
Graphically, "Bubsy 4D" looks like a game caught between being playfully witty and looking a bit rough around the edges. The levels are visually dense, but the overall design sometimes feels haphazard. Colors, lighting, and textures don't always blend seamlessly, making the world feel more chaotic than cohesive.
For a 3D platformer on the PS5, this is a clear step backwards – it feels less like a stylized retro look and more like a product that lacks cohesion in several areas. The levels rely on unusual elements, such as houses made of cardboard boxes, towers of binders, and walls of sticky adhesive that has spilled over the facade. The idea itself is quite original, but hardly novel.
The animations don't improve the picture. Movements sometimes appear jerky, transitions are jarring, and the characters occasionally seem to move against the camera and the environment instead of blending harmoniously into it. They also don't support the pace and jumps, which only underscores the already weak gameplay.
The sound also attempts to score points with a highly idiosyncratic mix – funky, almost big-band-like elements blend with electro-swing and crisp synths. At first glance, this sounds like a distinct character that fits Bubsy's absurdly exaggerated persona. However, much like the graphics, the sound feels more like a single, striking accent that doesn't fully integrate into the game. This is largely due to the exclusively English voice acting, which sometimes sounds very poorly mixed.
Ultimately, the impression remains that "Bubsy 4D" has more rough edges in its audiovisual presentation than it can truly carry. The idea isn't bad, but the execution feels disjointed. The graphics disrupt the atmosphere, the animations disrupt the pacing, and the sound remains more of a striking detail than a cohesive whole.
This reinforces the feeling that a familiar name has been tacked on rather than genuinely reinvented. They're relying too heavily on past successes and building on old ones instead of creating new value. What a shame!
