What's with the hating of Bubsy the Cat?

[vrikkgwj]

Maybe it's nostalgia talking since I haven't played a Genesis in years, but I remember the first Bubsy game being a cool little awkward humorous platformer. Wasn't the second one the same format, therefore equally as good?

What's with the hate :(

[Guru of Time and Space]

Yeah this game rules! Dying over and over uncontrollably at checkpoints is really cool!

Psych.

This game sucks and is broken.

-GoTaS

[portnoyd]

Game is and was terrible. Got hype because it was supposed to be a Sonic/Mario killer. Clearly wasn't, hell, you spend half the game floating downward in midair with no idea where you are or where you're going to land.

[NoahsMyBro]

I was pretty out of touch with videogames from the end of the 5200 era until probably the Dreamcast hit the scene. I was aware of systems, but didn't play them much and wasn't knowledgeable about the games.

So, I first heard of Bubsy when I got a Jaguar being clearanced and saw games being blown out for $8 at KayBee. I didn't know until this thread that Bubsy was hyped, was on the Genesis, or was an attempt at a Sonic-killer.

I thought Bubsy was a fun, though hard, game. And rather than feeling the game was cheap, I just thought I was unskilled at it.

I still think the game is bashed more harshly than it deserves, but of course I don't feel any sense of betrayal due to hype I wasn't exposed to. So there's no sense of being let down.

And there you have my 2 cents. Keep in mind I liked the 5200, liked the Jag, and preferred games on cartridge, so my 2 cents are probably only worth about 0.83 cents.

My tastes trend toward popular failures. :)

[Aussie2B]

Because he's a horribly designed character that sums up everything wrong with marketing and focus-testing in the 90s, plus the game sucks and the sequels are even worse.

I actually have a friend that adores the first Bubsy. Europeans seem to eat up all the crappy 90s mascot platformers that Americans hate, haha.

[Aussie2B]

I didn't know until this thread that Bubsy was hyped, was on the Genesis, or was an attempt at a Sonic-killer.

This is a good read as far as Bubsy's place in gaming history goes:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bubsy/bubsy.htm

I'll say one thing, I'd rather play 10 hours of any of the 2D Bubsy games than 30 minutes of Bubsy 3D. Ugh.

[Emperor Megas]

"What could possibly go wrong?"

Try everything. That game was/is/will always be terrible. It's buggy, broken, unfun, and just plain annoying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NCoTki0QVQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWHskgfaTp0

[Swamperon]

I actually have a friend that adores the first Bubsy. Europeans seem to eat up all the crappy 90s mascot platformers that Americans hate, haha.

That's possibly true actually. A number of my friends have very fond memories of Croc.

[Enigmus]

The Bubsy games are bad (Bubsy 3D makes a better clay pidgeon than a game), but the cartoon... that is horrid enough that it is in its' own special section of the gaming trash bin.

[stalepie]

I remember it being a decent platformer that was a bit frustrating. A good rental.

Not sure how it stacks up to some of the other furry critter games of the day (Wonderdog, Aero, etc). It sure was hyped though.

[Steven]

a decent platformer that was a bit frustrating. A good rental.


My exact feeling. I didn't hate it, I thought it was decent, but definitely not anywhere it was hyped to be. I think if it weren't so hyped, more people would enjoy it for what it was/is.

In closing, not a great or even good game by any stretch, but not as bad IMO as many make it out to be. I can think of many worse 16-bit titles...

[Baloo]

Ugh, hated Bubsy. You moved too fast and died too much. Tried to be Sonic but failed miserably. Pass.

[Gameguy]

One of my friends told me he really liked the game so I picked it up, I'm not sure why he liked it that much. It's not that bad, but it feels a bit generic.

[starsoldier1]

I played a lot worse as far as mascot style platformers go (JJ and Jeff, Aero the Acrobat and Socket). The action was fast, the presentation was decent for it's era, and I even thought it was kinda funny in spots. The sequels pretty much sucked though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dadEcmOS0Ck

[bangtango]

I enjoyed the Bubsy games. Sure, they were a little unpolished, sloppy and full of unfair deaths but like Steven also said, there were at least a couple hundred titles on the SNES or Genesis that were a lot worse than Bubsy.

People who complain about Accolade or gaming magazines making the game out to be a "Sonic-killer" don't understand the basic rule of advertising. You are supposed to say something that makes people want to buy the product. It certainly wasn't going to work if Accolade bought ad space in Gamepro and said that Bubsy is a cheap, low-rent Sonic clone that sucks balls.

Besides, since discussing the quality of a game tends to be a very subjective thing, it isn't like Accolade was outright lying by calling the game a Sonic-killer.

If you enjoy playing Bubsy, then go for it. Two thirds of the people who bitch about the game had no problem with the first one or two Bubsy's. You didn't start hearing a lot of hate on Bubsy until the PS1 game came out or before people at EGM or on blogs started bashing the game left and right in print all the time.

[Emperor Megas]

I never knew that Bubsy was hyped at all, actually. I just knew that sucked ass, hard, and was choppy as hell.

[Edmond Dantes]

I never knew it was hyped either.

But as a kid, I loved it. Nowadays I'm more aware of its flaws, but the first Bubsy was not a bad game by any means.

Bubsy II is a different matter. So bad I didn't even like it as a kid. I never played the Jaguar one, or the 3D one.

[todesengel]

The only problems I have with the Bubsy games is that you move too damn fast and combined with the bad controls you run into shit constantly and die. I never played Bubsy 3D but it looks like utter shit.

[Berserker]

Are we talking about the game itself or the character?

I consider the game to be mediocre-to-bad, and regard it rather indifferently. The character, on the other hand, is something that I've found to be extremely hateable as far back as I can remember - certainly before I had any kind of peer reinforcement from the internet or gaming magazines (which I didn't read at that point).

Back then I wasn't able to articulate what it was that made me want to hate Bubsy. Today, I recognize it as being along the same lines as why other people tend to hate him. To me he represents that which is measured and calculated; a hollow derivative that neither contributes to nor understands that which it's attempting to ape.

Basically, I hate Bubsy because I am unavoidably conscious of how hard he's trying to get me to like him. And 'tude. Too much 'tude.

[pseudonym]

It's a terrible game; I can't stand it. The sequels are even worse.

-Controls are loose and and you can run way too fast. Precise jumping is difficult because the game seems to pull you slightly when you jump; gliding is difficult for the same reason.
-Way too many hazards and enemies; if you fall or are about to make a jump to ledge, there's often an enemy just out of sight, or a hazard at the bottom.
-The Bubsy character is very annoying. Someone else said it was everything that was wrong with 90s mascot attitude and I have to agree.

Contrary to starsoldier1, I thought Aero The Acrobat is one of the better mascot games out there.

[Tempest]

I remember liking it when it came out (rented it for the Genesis). I liked the sequel as well. It was hard, but beatable with a little practice. The Jaguar game is too difficult and doesn't look or play as well as the first two games. I never played the later incarnations, but I hear they suck pretty hard.

Tempest

[LaughingMAN.S9]

i remember liking this when i was younger but thinking it was repetitive as fuck, did like the carnival/roller coaster levels tho

[Steven]

I never knew that Bubsy was hyped at all, actually.


http://www.rvgfanatic.com/mediac/400_0/media/DIR_1410322/EGMBubsyCover.jpg
It certainly got more attention back in '93 than your average Mario/Sonic wannabe

[tom]

My neighbour loved the game. I always remember him saying 'you just gotta be good to win THIS game'

[Emperor Megas]

http://www.rvgfanatic.com/mediac/400_0/media/DIR_1410322/EGMBubsyCover.jpg
It certainly got more attention back in '93 than your average Mario/Sonic wannabeL0L, just wow! they reviewed Flashback, Splatterhouse 3, Rolling Thunder 3 and a Mega Man title, and somehow Bubsy made the cover?

[Aussie2B]

I find that gaming magazines often went with weird choices for the covers, at least in retrospect. Like how recently I read through Vol. 45 of Nintendo Power, and they chose freakin' The Addams Family: Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt for the cover over Cybernator. Although in that case and in others, I think they were relying on licensed properties to the sell magazine, while with Bubsy they were just expecting him to be huge and perhaps turn into its own huge licensed property with the cartoon and all.

[Famidrive-16]

Haha, I was waiting how long it would take until a ulillillia video got posted.

[kupomogli]

I've played Bubsy for the SNES and thought it was a decent game at the time. Not sure how much I'd enjoy it now, but back then I liked it.

[megasdkirby]

The only Bubsy I ever played was the Jaguar version.

I really, REALLY tried to like the game...but the controls were horrid. Camera was very bad too.

A shame really, as the Jaguar version made me hate the entire franchise without me playing any other in the series.

[wingzrow]

Bubsy was a mascot manufactured by a team of marketers and outrageousness specialists to be as zany and full of 'tude as scientifically possible. And boy is he ever! Sometimes he's so sassy, I'm like, "You go raise the roof, Bubsy!" And then I'm all "Woomp! There he is!" because it's so true.