Bubsy

Bubsy is a series of video games created by Michael Berlyn and developed and published by Accolade.^[1] Four games were released in the series: Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind, Bubsy 2, Bubsy in Fractured Furry Tales and Bubsy 3D. The games are platform games similar to Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. The games were originally released for the Super NES, Genesis, Jaguar, the PC and PlayStation in the early and mid-1990s. In 2015, a compilation of the first two games was released for Microsoft Windows through Steam, by a company called Retroism. In addition to the games, a television pilot was created for a Bubsy cartoon show based on the video game series, though it was not picked up to be turned into a full-fledged series.

The rights to Bubsy and its sequels are currently owned by Tommo Inc., because Atari (the successor in interest of Accolade) auctioned the series rights off in 2014.^[2]

History

Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind

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).

Bubsy 2

Bubsy 2 was released shortly after the first game, on October 28, 1994. In the game, the antagonist, Oinker P. Hamm, has created his "Amazatorium", which actually saps information away from history, and puts it on display, for his personal profit. It's up to the player to control Bubsy and stop this. The game features five levels; 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.

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 lobby), a diver's suit, a Nerf gun, screen-clearing smart bombs, 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 2 is also the only Bubsy title to be reprogrammed for the Game Boy as a black-and-white game with 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 Two-Fur re-release

On November 16, 2015, a Bubsy re-release was posted on Steam Greenlight, titled Bubsy Two-Fur, by a game company that owns abandonware game intellectual property called Retroism.^[3] Two-Fur is a collection of the first two Bubsy releases. Upon community interest, the game was greenlit. It was released on December 17, 2015.^[4]

Bubsy in: Fractured Furry Tales

Bubsy in: Fractured Furry Tales was released December 15, 1994 for the Atari Jaguar. This title sets Bubsy traversing across various fairy tales. The game sees Bubsy taking on 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 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Hansel and Gretel in Candyland. The game plays similarly to the prior two games in the series, but without any of the gadgets or band-aids of Bubsy 2.

Bubsy 3D: Furbitten Planet

Bubsy 3D is the fourth Bubsy game to date, and the only title in 3D; the game 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. Planned releases for the Sega 32X and Sega Saturn were cancelled.^[5]

Bubsy 3D was panned by both critics due to its confusing control schemes and camera angles. It was featured on Seanbaby's EGM Crapstravaganza: The 20 Worst Games of All Time list^[6] as well as in eighth place on GameTrailers' 2006 Top 10 Best and Worst Games list, where it was described as "a terrible, terrible clone".^[7]

Television pilot

Bubsy also had a pilot episode for an animated series in 1993, simply called "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?", produced by Calico Creations. Rob Paulsen provides the voice of Bubsy, alongside voices from Tress MacNeille, Jim Cummings, Pat Fraley, B. J. Ward and Neil Ross. The pilot was not picked up for a full series.

Reception

Bubsy was awarded "Most Hype for a Character" of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.^[8] GamesRadar included Bubsy in a list of the 13 most hateful video game mascot characters of the '90s.^[9]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Bubsy

• Bubsy series at MobyGames
• Bubsy animated series pilot at the Internet Movie Database
• Sega-16 interview with Bubsy creator Mike Berlyn
• Sega-16 retrospective on the entire Bubsy series
• Playing Catch-Up: Bubsy's Michael Berlyn – Gamasutra
• Steam Greenlight for Bubsy Two-Fur