[Analysis] Bubsy 4D: The Most Surprising Return of the Year

I never thought I'd see the day when I could write "I'm liking the new Bubsy" without it being a bad joke. But here we are. Almost thirty years afterBubsy 3Dwill easily earn a place in the video game hall of infamy, the most unbearable orange cat in the world returns inBubsy 4D, and against all odds, the experience doesn't hurt. It hurts a little, yes, but not in the way I expected.

Developed by Fabraz and published by Atari, this game landed on May 22 on practically everything that breathes: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and both generations of Switch. And although my first impulse upon seeing the trailer was to laugh in disbelief, after several hours with the game I have to admit that Fabraz—the studio behindSlime-sanandDemon Tides— knew exactly what he was doing by accepting this project.

The Movement: All the Weight in the World on Four Legs

The first thing you notice when you take control of Bubsy is that he moves. And I don't mean that he walks from A to B, but that the cat has a repertoire of acrobatics that would make more than one platform mascot from the 90s pale. He can double jump, glide with that ridiculous jacket he always wears, cling to walls with his claws and, the jewel in the crown, become a ball of fur that rolls, bounces and launches at absurd speeds. It's a set of moves that at first feels chaotic—Bubsy bounces off the walls like a pinball out of control—but when you start to understand the physics, when you learn to chain a double jump with a glide jump and then transform into a ball to cross half a level in one sitting, things change. Suddenly, the control becomes addictive.

Of course, mastering it takes time. I spent the first phases crashing into edges, crossing platforms, and cursing the cat for its habit of bouncing off walls instead of holding on like a normal being. But Fabraz has a craft in this platform thing, and it shows. Each level is designed so that once you internalize the character's rhythm, you can fly through it without touching the ground. It is a system that rewards repetition and practice, something that will be appreciated by those who enjoy squeezing the levels to the millimeter.

What's Inside: Three Worlds, a Lot of Thread and a Handful of Hours

I'm not going to fool you:Bubsy 4D is short. Some players have reported finishing it in an hour and a half in a straight line; I, going more calmly and collecting what I found, added about three or four. There are three thematic worlds, each with their own settings and a BaaBot-style final boss—robot sheep that are Bubsy's new enemies, along with the usual Woolies. The length may seem short for a platform game, but the price is not high (it will change depending on your region, but you know what I mean), which puts it in that "cheap platform" territory where the value for money doesn't hurt as much.

But here comes the hook: replayability. Each level has hidden collectibles—colored threads, blueprints that unlock additional moves, and a special currency for the skin shop. And if that doesn't motivate you to repeat, the game has a timer and scoring system that is clearly designed with speedrun lovers in mind. Return to a level knowing exactly where to go, chaining the movements optimally and see how your time is drastically reduced... that satisfaction is real. And that's where the game extends its lifespan beyond what the main campaign suggests.

The “Art” of Being Ugly on Purpose

Let's talk about the elephant in the room:Bubsy 4D is horrible to look at. Not accidentally or due to lack of budget, but deliberately horrible. The textures are low-res, the models have that rough polygonal aesthetic reminiscent of early PlayStation games, and the platforms sometimes seem to float in the void without any architectural sense. It's a game that, if you judge it from a screenshot, would look like an asset flip from the PS1 era.

But here's the kicker: it's an intentional homage toBubsy 3D, and as a tribute, it works. Because Bubsy was never pretty. Bubsy was never polished. Bubsy was that failed attempt to compete with Mario and Sonic that failed miserably, andBubsy 4Dembrace that failure with open arms. It doesn't try to be a triple-A platform with next-gen graphics; tries to be exactly what a Bubsy game should be: ugly, loud, and absurdly aware of its own ridiculousness. By the end of the first few hours, that aesthetic stops being annoying and starts to feel like part of the joke.

The Jokes: Awkward Uncle Humor in Industrial Quantities

Humor is another point that divides waters. Bubsy constantly breaks the fourth wall, making comments about being a "forgotten video game character," making fun of his own story, and dropping references to other franchises with the subtlety of a hammer to the face. There are moments that made me genuinely smile—especially a skin that turns Bubsy into his infamous original PlayStation version, with the death animation just as ridiculous as it was in the '90s—but there are also plenty of jokes that fall by the wayside. The comic pacing is uneven, and sometimes the cat insists so much on being funny that it ends up becoming tiresome.

The Camera: The True Enemy

If there is something that repeatedly got on my nerves, it was the camera. At certain moments – especially when Bubsy sticks to a wall or performs a maneuver in a tight space – the perspective becomes erratic, disorienting and, at worst, obscuring key platforms. It's not a problem that ruins the experience, but it's one that's frequent enough to be remembered with annoyance when you're about to complete a perfect jump and the camera decides it's best to show you a close-up of the texture of a rock. 3D platforms of the 90s vibes.

My Truth: Is it worth it?

Yet,Bubsy 4D is the best game in the series by far. The bar was on the floor, literally, but Fabraz has not only surpassed it, he has built a solid platform in his own right. Yes, it's short. Yes, the camera fails. Yes, humor can be exhausting. But beneath all that is a game that understands what it's doing, that embraces the ridiculousness of its own existence, and that, when it all comes together, offers a sense of fluidity and control that rivals the best exponents of the indie genre.

I don't regret giving it a chance. And who knows: maybe in another thirty years, when Bubsy 5D is released, I can say without irony that I was looking forward to the return of the orange cat. Stranger things have happened in video games.

Bubsy 4DIt is available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. If you've ever had a morbid curiosity about the Bubsy phenomenon, now is the time to satisfy it. Just be patient with the camera.

"What could possibly go wrong?" — Bubsy, seconds before everything goes wrong.