Bubsy returns. There's not much more to say other than that.
My lord, Bubsy is back. Think of all the platformers from the '90s to the early '00s that you would want to see return...Earthworm Jim? Klonoa? Pandemonium? Even Boogerman? Nope -- it's Bubsy the Bobcat who's going to get another shot in the spotlight. Lord knows he has something of a point to prove -- what with two rather bad 16-bit sidescrollers, a failed attempt at a cartoon series, and a 3D title that's often regarded as one of the worst games ever to his name? Maybe Bubsy should actually get a chance to finally prove himself. It is completely random, mind you...still, you can see it for yourself in the teaser trailer below -- Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back is coming out in 2017, for PlayStation 4 and PC, with the Accolade name on it.
So, considering the pedigree that Bubsy has as a series, is there anything interesting about this revival, or indeed anything that could make someone optimistic about it? Well, the interesting part is seeing Accolade's branding again -- Accolade, the studio who were originally responsible for these "Games with Purrsonality!", haven't released anything since 2000. Of course, the main reason for that is they've been defunct since that time -- in 2000 they were one of the many studios acquired by Infogrames in their bid to become a major player in the world of games, but their branding was never used. It seems as though the branding and license was acquired some time ago by a company called Billionsoft, who have amassed the branding (and presumably licenses) of other long-defunct studios acquired by Infogrames such as Humongous, GT Interactive, MicroProse and Spectrum Holobyte...that's certainly interesting, if nothing else.
But is there any reason to think that Bubsy, having batted a grand total of .000 since his birth, could actually produce a good game now after all these years? Actually there is one -- it seems as though the actual development work is being done by Black Forest Games. That name might be familiar to you -- they've already had experience resurrecting another old platformer from the grave...these were the guys behind the excellent Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams a few years back, and looking at the trailer for this game it seems as though the new Bubsy has a few things in common with that -- it could well end up being a modernish platformer where our Bobcat hero collects hundreds of balls of twine. If that is the case, then hey -- perhaps there is a chance that the new Bubsy could be a decent game.
Mind you, it doesn't seem as though Bubsy's lost all that much of his signature Purrsonality in the years since his last game -- he's still clearly full of catchy quotes and "what could possibly go wrong?" one-liners. One quite amusing thing to note is that Bubsy says that he's been waiting for this opportunity since 1993 -- meaning quite clearly that Bubsy 3D, a 1996 release, has fallen down the memory hole and never actually existed in his mind...plenty of us know better, mind you. There's always many a weird thing that happens in video games, and in the end maybe someone getting the bright idea that Bubsy the Bobcat, of all things, deserves a second chance ISN'T the strangest thing that's happened to video games in 2017...regardless of his reputation though, Black Forest Games might just make the game worth a shot if they can do what they did with Giana Sisters. What a time to be alive, eh?
