About The Game

The Woolies are back, but they’ve pivoted from stealing Bubsy's fleece to kidnapping Earth's entire sheep population. However, the sheep have rebelled, transformed into "BaaBots" using Woolie tech, and stolen Bubsy’s prized Golden Fleece. Bubsy must travel across craft-themed planets—stylized with yarn, thread, and fabric textures—to reclaim his treasure.  The demo showcases a massive upgrade over previous entries, featuring pouncing, wall-climbing, gliding, and a double-jump "flutterstep".  A new core mechanic where Bubsy curls into a ball to roll at extreme speeds, bouncing off surfaces and soaring over large gaps.  Players collect yarn and hidden blueprints in levels to unlock new outfits and functional upgrades for Bubsy.  The current demo allows players to play through the first three levels, offering a vertical slice of the tone and mechanics.  

History and Inspiration

Bubsy 4D is the franchise’s first attempt at a 3D platformer in 30 years, following the infamous 1996 release of Bubsy 3D on the original PlayStation. This revival is being developed by Fabraz, the indie studio behind the highly-regarded Demon Turf, and published by Atari.  The game’s design leans heavily into the "mascot platformer" era of the mid to late 90s, first established by Super Mario 64. Bubsy 4D also features a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek tone that acknowledges the series' mixed legacy and memes about its protagonist.  

Critical Discourse and Player Feedback

From early demo impressions, the overwhelming sentiment on subreddits like r/xbox and r/NintendoSwitch is one of shock that the demo is "actually somehow good". Many users have jokingly noted that while "best Bubsy game" is a low bar to clear, Bubsy 4D seems to be a genuinely competent platformer. Developer Fabraz's experience with 3D platformers is certainly responsible for the playability of Bubsy 4D, with its movement mechanics having become a hot topic on r/TwoBestFriendsPlay and r/Simpleflips, where users are praising the depth of the "Hairball" physics and the speedrunning potential of the pounce mechanics.  However, some players on r/atarigroup have expressed frustration with the pouncing lock-on system, noting that the timing can feel tricky at first and that the demo’s training sequences don't fully explain the nuance of landing targeted jumps. Finally, on r/videogames, there is an ongoing discussion about whether this "good" Bubsy game means he can finally retire from being the industry's official punching bag.

From a user review standpoint, the demo is also faring quite well so far. On Steam, the Bubsy 4D demo is currently 92% recommended across more than 500 reviews. On the PlayStation Store, it has a 4.26 out of 5 average rating (with 67% giving a perfect 5) across 175 user reviews. Unfortunately there haven't been enough ratings on Xbox yet to generate an average score for the demo. 

My Hands-On Impressions

Ok. In full disclosure. I hated Bubsy long before it was cool, but it wasn't entirely Bubsy's fault. 

The marketing team for his first game, and the game magazines they infiltrated, hyped up Bubsy as a true contender to Mario and Sonic, well before the game released. Screenshots looked colorful and vibrant, illustrations of the many death and idle animations looked great, and all the recorded audio clips made it sound like Bubsy would be a true contender, ready to stomp Mario and outrun Sonic. I was super excited for Bubsy... then it released. The hype was just that. While nothing shown about the game was false, it all came together in a way that wasn't polished nor was it fun to play. Mario and Sonic's thrones were clearly in no danger from the upstart bobcat.

The game must have sold well enough, however, because it got a sequel, then it got the infamous 3D release on the original PlayStation. That game was abysmally bad. Platformers on the first PlayStation were generally not great, but Bubsy 3D took it to another level. I don't recall there being a concept of "indie" back then, but it could have been considered indie in the most derogatory ways - certainly amateurish.

After that there have been a few other attempts to revive Bubsy, but none of them particularly good.

So when I heard about Bubsy 4D I was understandably skeptical. After all, I had been burned by Bubsy hype before, and I thought the preview trailers were uninspiring at best. But now that the demo is available, I was interested to see just what Atari and team had cooked up for Bubsy's triumphant return.

What could possibly go wrong? 

Well... while I'm still not sure that Bubsy 4D will end up being "for me", the demo points to a competently made game that does a lot of things right. Considering this is the follow up to the abysmally bad Bubsy 3D the bar is low, but developer Fabraz certainly knows its way around a platformer, and they've brought their experience to bear for Bubsy 4D.

First of all, and probably more importantly, the gameplay is well designed and some of it honestly feels a lot like the platforming games I've played on Roblox, which could very well be by design. Those "obby" games are super popular, and if Atari and Fabraz are targeting a younger, entry-level gamer audience, taking cues from one of the most popular gaming platforms on the planet is really smart. But the rest of the gameplay feels far more advanced than anything you'd find on Roblox, which of course is good and shows why this is a $19.99 full game release and not a free-to-play game.

Next, the graphics look good, even though the textures look a bit flat. In the demo, the first level has blocks that I think are supposed to look like they are textured in fabric, but it looks abstract enough that it's kind of hard for me to be sure. Certainly not reaching Little Big Planet texture fidelity here, but that's ok. Bubsy himself, and his friends, all look hand animated, so if the textures were photo realistic that would be a bit strange. The music, though, is even better, and the main jam that plays when you are in Bubsy's spaceship (yeah, a spaceship - just go with it) reminds me a lot of the music from the original Sonic Adventure on Sega Dreamcast, which is a big compliment.

Finally, there is the story, writing and voice acting. Now, I know the dev team wasn't trying to craft Shakespeare here, but wow some of the dialog is cringy. But hey, I'm just a grumpy old man. That younger Roblox audience I mentioned earlier might find it totally hilarious. I'm likely just not the target audience for it. The only real gripe I have is that all of the dialog isn't voiced. Considering the original Bubsy hailed the amount of voice sampling in it, and the game starts out fully voiced, it felt weird to me when the game switched from fully voiced cutscenes to abstract voice samples with written out dialog to read. Again, maybe this is just a "me problem". Other people probably won't even notice.

The only other thing I noticed in the demo was a lack of enemies. Most of the levels I played were all platforming based where the main purpose was to collect yarn, and only a few enemies ever popped up. The original Bubsy games had WAY more enemies, so that felt a bit weird in contrast. Maybe later levels will introduce more enemies.

Given the demo only has a tutorial level and three actual stages, I realize it's just a small sampling of what the full game will offer, but hey, for a Bubsy game it seems off to a really solid start.

If you want to see me play the Bubsy 4D demo badly, check out this video from EGN's YouTube channel: