It comes from the “stuff just happening” school of game design. Bubsy took the lesson from Super Mario Bros. that platformers should have lots of secrets. And it took from Sonic that there should be lots of variety and multiple paths.
Bubsy’s only sin is that everything is too big on the screen, so you can’t really see what’s coming up in order to avoid it. But Sonic games have the EXACT SAME PROBLEM, except FASTER.
Why is Bubsy worse than Sonic? Well, it feels a little more random, chaotic, and unwieldy. But as the intended audience (a boy child) that was all fine. It made it exciting, and there were things to figure out and memorize.
You’re not supposed to “get good” at Bubsy. Bubsy is more controlled pachinko.
BUBSY COULD GLIDE. That’s the main thing I wanted from platformers as a kid.
I have no idea why people think Bubsy is, like, some kind of disasterpiece. It’s a mascot platformer that doesn’t conform exactly to the standards of a modern indie platformer. But it’s a perfectly fun game, which is I assume developed by British people. It just has that vibe of being, like, a high budget ZX Spectrum platformer. I will not look this up until after posting.
I am wholly in favour of re-evaluating Bubsy, and I’ll make an effort to get past the first level thanks to your post, but Sonic not dying in one hit if he’s got some rings on makes a huge difference actually! The game is also rather obviously charmlessly American. A British version might play even worse but it would have cooler music at least!
The problem with bubsy is someone thought it would be hilarious if they gave the player 9 lives because he’s a cat, then of course they had to balance the game around that, meaning you die constantly in stupid ways
yeah the ring health method is smart specifically because it’s so forgiving, plowing into something before you can react is rarely ever lethal. Hanging onto as many rings as possible is more of a score attack challenge than a necessity (plus you need em for special stages, of course). Also Sonic levels are better designed so you typically don’t plow into stuff before you can react while Bubsy levels… are not
i still like the idea of sticking up for Bubsy in tyool 2025 lol
as a kid i def rented and played Bubsy 1 & 2 (which i remember being a tiny bit more playable, and literally being tied in with Nerf so your main weapon is a Nerf Ballzooka. which kinda owns lol)
lord forgive me, but I’mma have to be the old me again
this is not a problem
Sonic is not about running as fast as possible to the right regardless of the level design in front of you and that you cannot see
this is like getting mad about speeding down a road and then having a hairpin show up in your path
like, do you try to speedrun every game you get on your first attempt? your first time through a level isn’t about blazing through, you’re going at a slower pace so you don’t eat shit
the main difference between Sonic and Bubsy is Bubsy is a fragile diva and can die from a high enough fall, which is at odds of the verisimilitude of the cartoon presentation and they clearly try to mitigate this with gliding
but like
why can a bobcat glide
I think a lot about how the Splatoon team originally had rabbits as the characters and Miyamoto told them that that ain’t it and the character design should compliment the mechanics
I don’t have the bandwidth today to tackle how insane of assertion this is in general, nevermind with regards to Bubsy
Bubsy is fine. it’s a perfectly okay game. people give it shit but you know what? people thought it was fine when it came out! you know what game people hated? Awesome Possum! that game sucks! the issue is more that, just as much as you can do so much worse than Bubsy, you can do so much better too
bubsy doesn’t shut up and everything he says is stupid
the enemies and their huge toes are awful to look at
there are blind jumps
the music is like mediocre when it’s at its best
I think bubsy isnt remarkably bad though, it’s the kind of bad where I’d be cool with never thinking about him again except he’s become some kind of mascot in canias discord, but that’s a different bubsy than the game bubsy
anyway since you like bubsy so much play all the games and post about how good they are
I think the reason bubsy has stuck around is because everyone rememebers the game like the OP after a while, like it has strong enough chatacter design that your brain wants to fill in something meaningful
then they go to play it and hate it so much they just gotta tell someone
