Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back (PS4, PC)

[Nz17]

90s platforming mascot Bubsy the cat is staging a comeback with Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back, the feline's first game in 21 years.

Coming this autumn to PS4 and Steam, The Woolies Strike Back is a retro side-scrolling platformer developed by Black Forest Games, the studio responsible for Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams.

Bubsy's last official adventure was the poorly received 3D platformer Bubsy 3D, which launched on the original PlayStation in 1996.

Unofficially, independent game collective Arcane Kids created the surreal parody Bubsy 3d: Bubsy visits the James Turrell Retrospective, a free browser-based game about the crude-looking cat going on a stroll to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in 2013.

Bubsy is most known for the 1993 SNES platformer Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind, and its 1994 sequel Bubsy 2.

One of the strangest parts of this announcement is that Bubsy publisher Accolade has returned from the dead after the company was acquired by French publisher Infogrames in 1999 before the Bubsy series' rights ended up at Tommo Inc. The newly resurrected publisher now plans to bring back several of its lost properties.

"Accolade returns with classic all new, reimagined games from its vast catalog and brand new franchises that will thrill anyone from nine to 90 that calls themselves a gamer," the publisher said in its Bubsy announcement. "Get ready for the return of iconic games and franchises like Busby, Hardball, Slave Zero, Deadlock, Eradicator, Redline and more!"

One-on-One Interview with Bubsy the Bobcat

Bubsy the Bobcat was a gaming legend in the 90s with titles on the Jaguar, SNES, PlayStation, Genesis and PC that skyrocketed to the middle of the charts. Suddenly, Bubsy was gone… he dropped out of sight, left the business and left no forwarding address. In 2015 Bubsy Two-Fur, a Bubsy homage, appeared on Steam with the help of the votes of over 60,000 fans (and a few against). Today, following the announcement of the all new Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back, we sat down with the elusive Bobcat and discussed his past, his disappearance and the new game.

Reporter: Bubsy, why after all these years are you coming back now?

Bubsy: I found a residual check for Bubsy Two-Fur in my PO Box. That’s when I knew: Yeah, I’m thinking I’m back.

Reporter: So you were out the game business entirely before then. How did you live? What did you do to earn a living?

Bubsy: I realized that I couldn’t get any lower after the unauthorized indie pixel games and deeveeart portraits. But then I got a call from a Q-List producer from Liechtenstein. Seems Liechtenstein is the 6th smallest country but also the richest! Plus, they LOOOOVE me there.

Reporter: So you made more games?

Bubsy: I made movies… Really bad movies. Like, Bubsy 3D… bad movies.

Reporter: Would we have heard of any of them?

Bubsy: I don’t know…. The Good, The Bad and the Bobcat, Bubsy and the Lost Ark, Bobcats of the Caribbean, and of course my favorite, The Sound of Bubsy, a musical starring me and Julie Anderson.

Reporter: These all sound weirdly familiar.

Bubsy: Of course they do! It’s Liechtenstein. There are like 7 people, but tickets are REEALLY expensive.

Reporter: So why did you stop?

Bubsy: A lawyer finally moved into Liechtenstein and told the producer that he couldn’t make “other peoples’” movies anymore.

Reporter: And then came Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back?

Bubsy: Well, I moved back to LA – but they had already rented out the apartment I had 20 years ago, those monsters. I was pretty down on my luck and considered auditioning as Crash Bandicoot’s stunt double.

Reporter: No!

Bubsy: Yeeeesssss! But then I got THE call.

Reporter: From Accolade?

Bubsy: I don’t know, my agent got the call. Anyway, I read the script.

Reporter: And you loved it!

Bubsy: It stars ME! I have all the dialog, what’s NOT to love! AND, they were going to pay me! Also, I thought the modern retelling of the story of man as told by a Bobcat, was pretty cool too.

Reporter: …it’s a platforming game right?

Bubsy: Running, jumping, gliding… they’re all metaphors for life. Just ask Mario.

Reporter: Do you know Mario?

Bubsy: No, what’s your point?

Reporter: Do you think the new game, Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back will propel you back to the top? Errr the middle?

Bubsy: I’m counting on it!

Reporter: Well, what could possibly go wrong?

Sources:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...me-in-21-years

https://gamerant.com/bubsy-the-bobcat-new-game/

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/06/...back-announced

http://stevivor.com/news/bubsy-makes...e-back-pc-ps4/

http://gematsu.com/2017/06/accolade-...ke-back-ps4-pc

[RP2A03]

Why?
Just why?

[WulfeLuer]

I don't know if this is some sick joke, or a sign of a lulzy apocalypse.

[Aussie2B]

There is no god.

Seriously, though, I like Black Forest Games and really enjoyed Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. The fact that they joined in reviving a total garbage IP that deserved to stay dead like Bubsy is pretty disappointing. If it's anything like Twisted Dreams, this may actually be the first Bubsy game that's any good, but I'd feel really torn about that with how much I loathe the character and the whole marketing behind the franchise. The only wool around here is the IP owners trying to pull the wool over our eyes, thinking we'll associate Bubsy with warm, fuzzy 90s nostalgia.

Lemme just link the HG101 article here, which sums up the Bubsy franchise better than I ever could: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/bubsy/bubsy.htm

[celerystalker]

This is easily one of the dumbest revivals yet, if not the worst. Not everything needs to be revived, remastered, and regurgitated. Can't we just start taking other weird, previously unused IPs instead to digging through a pile of garbage if we're not gonna create something new? Turbo Teen?

[WulfeLuer]

I do have a cynical mindset about bringing this back from the dead, but we're going to have to wait and see. The first Bubsy was more of meh experience for me then anything else, mostly since I did it on emulation something like 15 years after release more or less for the hell of it. I never touched 2, and I just took a look at some screenshots for 3D and just backed away slowly.

That said, that has been some hope for dead or near-dead properties getting a good game and starting afresh. I just wish it'd be something like ActRaiser or the Mana series. Even a 'fixed' version of Army Men RTS would be pretty awesome (multiplayer, a bit of faction differentiation, custom maps).

[Aussie2B]

Adventures of Mana (the 3D remake of Final Fantasy Adventure) is good, but yeah, if you want a brand new Mana, that's a different matter.

[WulfeLuer]

Hell, a remake of Secret of Mana would be great, especially if they took the time and effort to put it all the cut content that was talked about.

[Aussie2B]

They were saying they'd be interested in doing a Secret of Mana remake if Adventures of Mana sold well, and it seems like it did, so our odds of getting one seem pretty decent. I dunno if they'd go any further than to just make a faithful remake of what was released on SNES, though. After the backlash from many over Sword of Mana, I think they're scared to get too liberal with their Mana remakes.

[WulfeLuer]

A faithful remake would do me just fine; I'm just indulging in a bit of wishful thinking. I used to be fair-ishly hardcore about Mana (until Dawn happened), and I keep quietly hoping to see the missing Secret content and an international release of SD3.

[Edmond Dantes]

This is surreal.

I was actually a huge fan of Bubsy as a kid, and even today I don't understand why the first game is treated like its worse than Action 52 (at worst its an average platformer that at least tried to have a sense of humor). Bubsy II was crap though, and I never played the Jaguar one or Bubsy 3D.

But as I grew up I came to understand it was indeed flawed so some of the negativity makes sense, and thought Bubsy was doomed to obscurity much like the (admittedly much better) failed mascot Aero the Acrobat.

So this announcement.... I almost feel like checking to make sure its not April 1st because this is just so what the hell. I mean granted this is the same day and age where Shaq Fu got a sequel, but that was some glorified fan project for luls, this is apparently a company doing it. Just what the hell.

Now watch this game turn out to be surprisingly good.

[Aussie2B]

They're interested in remaking SD3 too, if SD2 gets remade and is successful enough too. That's what I'm really hoping for. It's probably our only shot of SD3 ever getting localized.

[Aussie2B]

I was actually a huge fan of Bubsy as a kid, and even today I don't understand why the first game is treated like its worse than Action 52 (at worst its an average platformer that at least tried to have a sense of humor). Bubsy II was crap though, and I never played the Jaguar one or Bubsy 3D.

I would say the the first Bubsy gets a *tiny* bit of a bad rap by being associated with the series as a whole. Bubsy 3D is an absolute train wreck, and until now, that's the last we saw of the series. It couldn't have "ended" on a worse note.

That said, I think the first Bubsy does plenty to earn its disdain. IMO, it's considerably below average, and I played it all the way to completion. Sure, there are games that are far more broken, and Bubsy is at least somewhat competently programmed. But it's still a junky game, with bad controls, bad hit detection, bad design, a grating character, and corny, repetitive gags that aren't remotely funny. It's games like these that are even more frustrating in a way than totally broken, unplayable games because you're not even going to waste any time on those. Bubsy is playable enough to string you along and hope that maybe it'll deliver some fun, and then it doesn't.

[RP2A03]

It could be worse. At least it's not Awesome Possum.

[WulfeLuer]

This is surreal.

I was actually a huge fan of Bubsy as a kid, and even today I don't understand why the first game is treated like its worse than Action 52 (at worst its an average platformer that at least tried to have a sense of humor). Bubsy II was crap though, and I never played the Jaguar one or Bubsy 3D.

But as I grew up I came to understand it was indeed flawed so some of the negativity makes sense, and thought Bubsy was doomed to obscurity much like the (admittedly much better) failed mascot Aero the Acrobat.

So this announcement.... I almost feel like checking to make sure its not April 1st because this is just so what the hell. I mean granted this is the same day and age where Shaq Fu got a sequel, but that was some glorified fan project for luls, this is apparently a company doing it. Just what the hell.

Now watch this game turn out to be surprisingly good.

The first game was pretty meh, I can't speak to the second but I heard bad things, 3D just should not have been released (I swear it and Superman 64 have an unholy union that begets evil spawn like Star Trek Trexels). A lot of the disdain is actually a result of backlash of the hype-machine built around the franchise. They claimed it was awesome and full of attitude and playing it would do everything short of curing cancer. Gamers tend to get pretty vindictive.

Bubsy 1 is not worse than Action 52. Aero was kinda cool, but something about his nemesis (I think?) Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel really amused me.

[Emperor Megas]

What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

[Edmond Dantes]

Bubsy 1 is not worse than Action 52. Aero was kinda cool, but something about his nemesis (I think?) Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel really amused me.

His nemesis was a clown named Edgar Ektor, with Zero being Ektor's second in command.

Yeah, sadly I remember this shit.

the second Aero game was... insane. Like, it tried to have a storyline but said storyline had no sense of cohesion whatsoever. I mean it begins with Aero walking into a box to another dimension, except no its just a location on his own world where he falls in love with some other bat-chick (nevermind he had a GF in the first game), and later it turns out he's in a rock band... even though HE'S A CIRCUS ACROBAT... and then it turns out Ektor's revenge plan involves an evil train or something. In the ending it actually sets up the Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel game by saying Zero got a letter about his hometown and went to check on it against Ektor's orders.

Seriously, its like they just came up with things at random.

It was still a fun game tho, but its one of those cases where I can't decide whether its better or worse than the original. Somehow the original feels more fun to me but the sequel does have some notable improvements (like the straight-downward drill move).

.... Why the hell is Bubsy getting a comeback but not Aero?

[Aussie2B]

I can't say I'm too crazy about Aero either. I'd only rank it marginally above Bubsy. Never played the sequel or Zero, though. Aero probably has less of chance of revival with Sunsoft being a shadow of its former self.

[Edmond Dantes]

At least Aero doesn't have any outstanding design/coding issues like Bubsy does... though there are some levels where it seems like you have no choice but to die to progress. In the first game, that is. The second, not so much.

[Tupin]

I mean I kind of expected this given how he's basically reached meme status in certain sections of the Internet and they knew it would attract a lot of attention but it's still surprising. Should be decent considering they also did the Giana Sisters remake though.