Bubsy

Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind for the SNES.

Bubsy is a series of video games created by Michael Berlyn and released by Accolade for the SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis, Atari Jaguar, the PC and PlayStation in the early and mid-1990s.

Though the games were platform games similar to Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog, the eponymous anthropomorphic bobcat never came close to the popularity level of the two bigger name mascots. Nevertheless, the first Bubsy was a big hit and met with positive reviews for the SNES version. The success of the first game spawned a series of Bubsy games, though none of them were able to reproduce the success and acclaim of the first game.

Bubsy also had a pilot episode for an animated series in 1993, produced by Calico Creations. The pilot however received very low ratings and poor reviews, leading to the show's immediate cancellation.

In the first game, Bubsy was voiced by Brian Silva. Bubsy's voice was dubbed over in the Japanese release of the game. In the cartoon, Bubsy II and Fractured Furry Tales, he was voiced by Rob Paulsen. In Bubsy 3D, he was voiced by Lani Minella.

Bubsy's Abilities

Bubsy has two key abilities, jumping and gliding. Later games allowed Bubsy to use various other objects as well, such as the nerf-like gun in Bubsy 2, and "atoms" in Bubsy 3D.

List of games

Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind

The basics

The first Bubsy game was released in May 1993 by Accolade for the SNES, and later for the Genesis. The plot focuses on a race of fabric-stealing aliens called "Woolies", who have stolen the world's yarn ball supply (especially Bubsy's, who owns the world's largest collection). Naturally, Bubsy does not take too kindly to the theft and sets out to "humble" the Woolies.

The game features five main worlds with three levels in each, and a final level after completion of the first 15 levels. A password is given at the end of each world, which can be used to continue the game after getting a "game over" (in this game, "continues" are special items which must be found).

There are several cartoon-like animations in the game. If Bubsy collides with a wall at high speed, he becomes disoriented with a comical bird effect appearing above his head—this is one of only two "injuries" that doesn't kill him; the other is being frozen solid for a few seconds by an ice cream cone, which he then thaws from. After sliding down a water slide if the player does not press any buttons Bubsy will shake the water off himself leaving his fur frizzed up for a few seconds.

Matt Berardo wrote the musical score. The voice samples (performed by John A. S. Skeel) were present in the Genesis version, but they were encoded in PCM, whereas the samples in the SNES version were encoded into individual SPC modules.

The player moves Bubsy left and right along the screen with the D-pad, jumps with the B button, and glides with the A button. Enemies are defeated by jumping on top of them. Touching an enemy while not falling on top of him will cause Bubsy to lose a life. The player scores points by collecting yarn balls, defeating enemies and finishing the level. T-shirts conferring extra lives, invincibility, and invisibility are present.

Being a cat, Bubsy starts with 9 lives. However, Bubsy is very vulnerable. He'll instantly die if he touches an enemy from the sides, gets hit by an enemy projectile, steps on something pointed, falls too far without gliding, or lands in water, thus making it very hard to survive. Another problem is Bubsy's lack of traction, which makes him hard to control and can result in many deaths. Whenever Bubsy dies, a comical death animation is usually shown, including the stereotypical cartoon "accordion" motion (when crushed by falling boulders in the third desert world) or holding his throat and sticking his tongue out when consuming poison.

Super Bubsy for Windows 95

ATI's DirectX game development group made a special version of Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind as one of the first games to use the new 2D features of DirectX in Windows 95. This version, released on January 4, 1996, featured graphics redrawn for higher resolution, new game elements and the entire Bubsy Cartoon television pilot. In addition to the powerups found in the original game, there are bouncing TV's that Bubsy can collect which allow the player to view more of the cartoon.

Bubsy II

Bubsy II was released on April 3, 1994 and features five zones (a music-themed world, a medieval era, an Egyptian area, an outer space zone, and an aerial zone with Bubsy flying a World War I biplane). It also features three levels of difficulty, corresponding to easy, medium, and hard.

In this game, a new historical theme park, the Amazatorium, has been made. Though impressive, the park's sinister technology is stealing away actual history and placing it on exhibit. Having taken his niece and nephew to the park, Bubsy loses them and is soon caught up in the evil plans of Oinker P. Hamm, who runs the Amazatorium and wants to extort money from his unwitting customers who'll "pay anything to see their own history". Now, Bubsy needs to "humble" Oinker and close the fascinating-but-deadly Amazatorium before anyone faces a hairy ending.

Bubsy collects trading cards which he can use to buy various items. These include a "portable hole" (a small portal he can step through and disappear to the main menu), a diver's suit (When you go in water wearing this suit; you will go to a bonus level instead of losing a life.), a Nerf gun, screen-clearing smart bombs, a slingshot, or extra lives. The game features the addition of Bubsy's nephew and niece that can be played by another player to help or hinder Bubsy. There are also secret stages involving Bubsy and his unwilling sidekick, Arnold the Armadillo. Additionally, Bubsy could take two hits (denoted by his expression next to the "lives" counter), and on a third, he would lose a life—though some hazards will still instantly kill him.

Bubsy II is the only Bubsy title to be reprogrammed for the Game Boy as a black-and-white game with limited Super Game Boy support for limited colors. This version of the game features the three levels of difficulty, but only has three of the original worlds (Egyptian, Musicland, and Skyland) available for play.

Bubsy in: Fractured Furry Tales

Bubsy in: Fractured Furry Tales was released December 15, 1994 for the Atari Jaguar.

This title sets Bubsy in a string of fairy tales. It is up to him to help the children of the world by "humbling" the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, the Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk, the Djinni in Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, a sea monster in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Hansel and Gretel in candyland. After defeating all those opponents a captured Mother Goose is set free, making all right again at storytime.

A bonus level was available for collecting all of the jewels. This level consists of the seven dwarves from Snow White and would last until the timer ran out.

While Bubsy does not have any of the gadgets or band aids of Bubsy 2, he was graced with level codes for each level.

Bubsy 3D: Furbitten Planet

Main article: Bubsy 3D

Bubsy 3D is the first and only Bubsy game in 3D and was released in 1996 for the PlayStation video game console. It is a sequel to the original in terms of the story and takes place on the Woolies' home planet, Rayon. Bubsy 3D has 16 main levels and two boss levels and the main character's goal is to defeat the two queens of Rayon, Poly and Esther. The player can collect rockets, as well as atoms, in order to eventually escape from planet Rayon. The graphics are very simplistic, even for their time, with a dense fog that covers entire levels throughout the game. Bubsy actively speaks throughout the game based on various actions performed by the player. Accolade planned to release the game for the Sega Saturn.

Bubsy 3D was smashed by both critics and fans alike due to its confusing control schemes and camera angles and is often considered to be one of the worst games of all time. In fact, it was featured on Seanbaby's EGM Crapstravaganza: The 20 Worst Games of All Time list as well as in eighth place on GameTrailers' top 10 best and worst games list from 2006, where it was described as "A horrible, horrible clone of Super Mario 64." GamesRadar also recently called Bubsy the most unlikable character in the history of video games. Its failure is usually said to be what laid the Bubsy series to rest, as no new games have been announced since Bubsy 3D's release.

Reception

Bubsy was awarded Most Hype for a Character of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.

External links

• Bubsy series at MobyGames
• Bubsy Pilot at IMDb
• ScrewAttack's Top Ten Big Names That Fell Off
• Sega-16 interview with Bubsy creator Mike Berlyn
• Sega-16 retrospective on the entire Bubsy series
• Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind Review at XGD
• Playing Catch-Up: Bubsy's Michael Berlyn - Gamasutra
• Bubsy Fan Blog -Atariage