Bubsy Thread

[Barbarianoutkast85]

I have Bubsy 1 and 2 for the Sega Genesis, along with the Super Nintendo, and Bubsy 3d for the PS1. Then a few minutes ago I was bored and looked up Bubsy on wikipedia, and realized there was a Bubsy title for the Atari Jaguar. So here's the question, is Bubsy for the Jaguar different from Bubsy 1 or 2 on the Genesis or SNES? If so, was the game any good? If it's different than 1 or 2 and is any good I might have to start hunting it down, since I am probably one of the few Bubsy fans around.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Yeah, the Bubsy game on the Jaguar is an entirely original game.

I wouldn't consider myself a Bubsy fan, but I enjoyed the first game quite a bit. Despite the fact that it's essentially the exact same engine underlying both games, the Jaguar game is not as good as the original Bubsy, in my opinion. While the graphics are arguably better (arguable, I say, which is pretty bad considering this is a game presumably designed from the ground up on the Jag), the sound effects are actually worse and mostly the level designs aren't as interesting as far as pathways and enemy placement.

The world themes are the best thing about the Jag Bubsy game. Each level is based on a popular children's story and there's lots of nice humorous touches thrown in. Much better then the insanely generic platformer themes in the original game.

It's definitely a lot better than Zool 2, that's for sure, and personally I liked it more than Rayman, which I think is a terribly over-rated game (nice graphics, but terribly boring gameplay). If you like the other Bubsy games, I'm sure you'll like the Jag one, too.


...word is bondage...

[fishsandwich]

I liked the 2D Bubsy games. I don't know why they got such a bad rap.

The move into 3D was a terrible idea that resulted in a terrible game. Ick.

[bangtango]

Thanks for reminding me that I still owe my younger sister a copy of Bubsy on Super NES. I sold her copy by accident in a lot sale over Ebay. So I need to pick one up.

I always thought Bubsy was a pretty fun game. Her and I played it all the time when it first came out and I still enjoy it today. Slightly slippery controls, below average collision detection and a few cheap deaths? Yeah, just the same as a bunch of other 2D platform games, including ones that were popular. So why single out the Bubsy games as everything that was wrong with the genre?

[Barbarianoutkast85]

I'm gonna have to start looking for Bubsy on the Jag.

[Anthony1]

I'm gonna have to start looking for Bubsy on the Jag.


Bubsy on the Jag sucks. I enjoyed the first Bubsy on SNES, and when I got the Jag version, I naturally figured it would be just as good as 1 or 2 on SNES or Genesis, and most likely much better. In all honestly, I think it's much worse. In fact, I would rather play thru Bubsy 3D threee times, than Jag Bubsy once. That's just my personal take though, so consume it with a large grain of salt.

[Rogmeister]

My main problem with Bubsy on the Jag is it was just two hard. You couldn't look sidewise without getting killed...

[bangtango]

An interesting thing about Bubsy is that he usually finishes in the top 5 whenever gaming magazines or web sites do the "Worst Video Game Characters" lists. Yet the first two games on the 16-bit systems got pretty good reviews at the time.

http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=13812

EGM liked him back in 93' but a few years later, with the way he is talked about now, they would have you believe the first Bubsy game got nothing but 2's and 3's upon release and it bombed. Obviously it is different writers yet some version of EGM gave the game one 9 and two 8's.

Every other magazine I saw Bubsy 1 and 2 reviewed in did about the same thing. I never saw Game Fan's review, mascot game they probably slaughtered it for the sake of indie/hardcore cred, but the other magazines loved the game and it apparently did well enough to produce a few sequels. Now everywhere you go it's, "Nobody ever liked him to begin with." Revision history if I ever saw it.

Exact same thing happened with Aero the Acrobat. Good reviews all over the place for installment one and two. Now you hear nobody ever liked those games either.

[j_factor]

Just because it got some high ratings in mags doesn't mean that "real people" ever liked it much. Enter the Matrix got some pretty favorable reviews (8's and 9's), but pretty much everyone always hated it.

[bangtango]

Just because it got some high ratings in mags doesn't mean that "real people" ever liked it much. Enter the Matrix got some pretty favorable reviews (8's and 9's), but pretty much everyone always hated it.

Either way, you have a bunch of magazines that gave the game 8's or 9's now washing their hands of it and pretending they never liked the game at all. That's bogus. So what if it was different editors and writers there at the time? Accolade wasn't big enough to pay magazines off for a good review either. What would their payoff be? A box of already worn t-shirts with that red exclamation point?

Other than being a blatant Sonic ripoff programmed by a less talented team, there isn't a thing "wrong" with the first two Bubsy games (on Super NES or the first one on Genesis). At worst, the character and games are about average. People who say those two games only rate 2 or 3 out of 10 need to reserve those ratings for games that really deserve it.

As for Bubsy 3D, I can grudgingly buy the idea that one bad PSX game killed the future of that series but to go back and rewrite the ratings on the first two games because of Bubsy 3D is waaaaaay out of line.

[James8BitStar]

Exact same thing happened with Aero the Acrobat. Good reviews all over the place for installment one and two. Now you hear nobody ever liked those games either.

.... WHAT? Who are these miscreants who are dissing Aero? Those were some of the BEST platformers on the 16-Bit consoles!

[j_factor]

Other than being a blatant Sonic ripoff programmed by a less talented team, there isn't a thing "wrong" with the first two Bubsy games (on Super NES or the first one on Genesis). At worst, the character and games are about average.

I disagree; I think the first Bubsy is well below average. There is plenty "wrong" with it, but my biggest issue with it is the ridiculously cheap deaths. I don't think there's a single non-cheap death in the entire game. It did have cute death animations, but from a gameplay standpoint, it sucked, IMO. The other big thing is the jump physics -- I don't see any graphical representation of gusting wind, so what's with the wonky back-and-forth in mid-air crap? The level design, enemy placement, and the fact that you die from falling too far (especially considering the nature of the levels) are all very suspect.

[bangtango]

I disagree; I think the first Bubsy is well below average. There is plenty "wrong" with it, but my biggest issue with it is the ridiculously cheap deaths. I don't think there's a single non-cheap death in the entire game. It did have cute death animations, but from a gameplay standpoint, it sucked, IMO. The other big thing is the jump physics -- I don't see any graphical representation of gusting wind, so what's with the wonky back-and-forth in mid-air crap? The level design, enemy placement, and the fact that you die from falling too far (especially considering the nature of the levels) are all very suspect.

Dying from falling too far isn't exclusive to Bubsy, though. There are others that have this feature. I've played plenty of games in which you at least take damage when falling too far. Not to mention the numerous other platform games with cheap deaths, some of which people will admit are "classics." I'm not going to sit here and rack my brain thinking of all of them from the 8-bit era up, because you and I have better things to do. I guess my only issue is that neither of the first 2 Bubsy games are as bad as people make them out to be. Yeah, the jump looks stupid and the waterfall animation where things rotate is asinine but the enemy placement and level design are fine by me. If anything, most of the levels are too short especially the ones with shortcuts.

We'll agree to disagree, though. You don't like the game, I love it. The first Bubsy was always one of my favorite platform games from the first time I played it and I've played it as recently as two weeks ago and haven't really changed my mind one bit.

[NinjaJoey23]

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http://www.gamesetwatch.com/bubsy.jpg

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Accolade wasn't big enough to pay magazines off for a good review either. What would their payoff be? A box of already worn t-shirts with that red exclamation point?
I don't know...how about buying the most expensive advertising space in the magazine on contract for six months?

Take a look at the back cover of just about any video game magazine from 1993. Even though I like Bubsy, I think the very positive reviews were pretty clearly bought and sold in this case.


...word is bondage...

[Jorpho]

Was there never a B&W Game Boy version, even in prototype form? Seems almost everyone tried to make ports like that at the time.

It probably occured to someone to try to make a GBA port, I imagine, but maybe the rights have been lost in the mists of time.

[James8BitStar]

Was there never a B&W Game Boy version, even in prototype form?

There's a Gameboy version of Bubsy *II*, but not the original apparently.

[bangtango]

I don't know...how about buying the most expensive advertising space in the magazine on contract for six months?

Take a look at the back cover of just about any video game magazine from 1993. Even though I like Bubsy, I think the very positive reviews were pretty clearly bought and sold in this case.


...word is bondage...

Ok, so he did make it on the cover of one EGM issue. I don't see a problem with that, though. It was at least a change of pace from three years of Street Fighter II (or Mortal Kombat) covers month after month. It got so friggin' bad with those SFII covers that even when a brand new issue came out, with yet another SFII cover, I was constantly worried I was buying an issue I already had at home.

[Barbarianoutkast85]

Hey everyone, thanks for the information about Bubsy. I looked at a few pawn shops for any Jaguar games, I actually found three places that had a handful of different titles, but no luck on finding Bubsy for the Jag.
So today I broke down and bought a complete copy threw someone on the internet, and actually this will be probably only the 12th to 15th game I've bought over the internet.
I've just always liked the thrill of the hunt and finding that rare or prototype out in the wild. So I've never been a big fan of buying games offline, it's just not the same for me. But once in a blue-moon when there is a game I really want and I cant find it within a couple weeks or a month then I'll just break down and buy it offline. After looking for a few weeks, and pawn shops in five states (I drove from PA to TN, so before I left I looked on superpages and found a list of game stores, and pawn shops to shop at on the way to TN.) and not find it, I figured I wasnt going to find it anytime soon, especially since it's a Jaguar game so I broke down and bought it offline.
Thank's again fellow DP'ers for all the information on the Bubsy game, I'll let everyone know if I like it or not.

[jwm2]

Personally i didn't care for bubsy on the atari jaguar, but i loved it for snes and genesis.

[Barbarianoutkast85]

The game came in the mail, and I didnt think it was anything to write home about. Although I dont hate the game or anything.