Bubsy 4D review: 30 years later, the cat finally knows how to drive

There are franchises that have defined generations of gaming. Mario, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot. And then there are franchises that have defined the category of "how not to do it," and in that niche league, Bubsy stands on a pedestal like a waiter. Bubsy 3D from 1996 is still considered one of the worst 3D platformers ever made, and for good reason. Thirty years later, indie studio Fabraz (creators of the excellent Demon Tides) and publisher Atari decided to attempt the impossible: to make a Bubsy game that doesn't stink. Bubsy 4D is set to release on May 22, 2026, on practically all platforms (Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC) at a budget price of $19.99, and against all expectations, the ginger cat has finally learned to drive.

The biggest surprise of the year: mechanics that don't fall apart

The greatest praise for Bubsy 4D is deserved exactly where every predecessor fell to its knees, and that is movement. Fabraz has been building a reputation on "feel-good" platformers for years, and here they delivered a set of moves that connect phenomenally. You have the classic double jump, the return of Bubsy's iconic gliea (still looks like a bobcat using a sailing jacket), and a new pounce attack that functions similarly to Sonic's homing attack.

The star of the repertoire is Hairball Mode, transforming into a giant orange ball and allowing Bubsy to dive into a tube, roll through a half-pipe on an alien planet, and shoot out of a cannon over an abyss, reminding you why we missed platformers of this pace so much in the nineties. The mechanics have a depth you wouldn't expect: combining moves to pass levels in one breath, without touching the ground, gives that rare "I've caught the rhythm" feeling that was until recently reserved for a completely different league of titles.

Content: three worlds, fifteen levels, one weekend

This is where the more objective part begins. Bubsy 4D has three worlds with five levels each, totaling about fifteen stages. The main campaign lasts between three and five hours, depending on how much you mess around with collectibles. The goal of each level is to reach the Golden Fleecea (golden fleece), which Bubsy himself notes in the game is "suspiciously similar to the golden star" from some other well-known plumber. In each level, you can collect 150 balls of yarn and hidden blueprint scrolls to unlock new abilities and costumes.

The replay value is also hit or miss. The levels are designed with speedruns in mind: there are multiple paths, shortcuts, time trial leaderboards, and ghost data from other players you can race against online. If you belong to the type that loves to shave seconds off, there's a good amount of fun waiting for you here. If not—nothing of that.

Visual impression: ugly, but (mostly) intentional

This is where the situation gets amusing. Bubsy 4D is objectively ugly. The textures are blurry, the environments sometimes empty, and the lighting looks like time stopped somewhere in 1998. But that's intentional. Fabraz consciously emulated the aesthetic of the original Bubsy 3D, which is actually quite a humorous artistic move when you read the game as a metatextual joke. The characters (especially the robotic sheep called BaaBoti, the main enemies) look like they came out of an episode of Ren & Stimpy on a bad TV signal, which is less "trash" and more "charm" if you're in the mood for that kind of joke.

What is definitely not intentional: the camera. The camera occasionally tends to wildly shift just when you need it to be damn still, and in tighter platforming sections, there's a real chance you'll fall into the abyss because the system suddenly decided to show you a beautiful view of Bubsy's tail instead of the next platform. It's not game-breaking, but it's annoying. However, this time you can't just wink and say, "well, that's part of the retro charm." Okay, maybe a little.

The soundtrack is by Fat Bard and leans towards jazz and big band arrangements, which sounds completely bizarre on paper and works perfectly in practice. The voice acting and writing, on the other hand, are the most contentious part of the game. Bubsy constantly throws out one-liner jokes, which can sometimes be tiresome. Sometimes it's funny. It all depends on how many times he says "I'm a bobcat."

Boss fights and strange logic

Each of the three worlds ends with a boss stage against a BaaBot commander. The bosses are more interesting than the story (the story exists more out of courtesy than dramatic necessity, which is fine because this isn't The Last of Us). Mechanically, they require you to use the entire arsenal of learned moves, which gives a nice "wrap up" feeling at the end of each world.

Who is Bubsy 4D actually aimed at?

Bubsy 4D is a strange case. If you're a hardcore fan of 3D platformers who have been waiting for something that isn't Mario or Crash for years, there's enough good mechanics here to make it worth your time and twenty dollars. If you're looking for a revolution in the genre, well, none of that. Astro Bot showed last year where the new boundaries of 3D platforming are, Donkey Kong raised the bar even higher. Bubsy doesn't even try to measure up to that crew. Bubsy plays in its own league, the league of "surprisingly solid indie games with a reputational burden of three decades that you can't believe actually works."

And here Fabraz deserves a tip of the hat. Taking a brand that has been synonymous with "bad" for thirty years and turning it into a solid, sometimes even excellent platformer is an achievement in itself. It's not perfect, it's short, the camera behaves as if it refused to take its pills that day (sometimes), not everyone likes that retro-intentionally-ugly design, and the humor is hit or miss. But for the first time in three decades, Bubsy is in good shape. That's news in itself.

Conclusion

Bubsy 4D is a redemption story that no one asked for, and it turned out surprisingly well. The mechanics are solid, Hairball Mode is pure joy, the soundtrack is memorable, and the budget price of $19.99 makes the short duration much easier to swallow. The camera still occasionally wanders off as if it has a mind of its own, the visual impression is intentionally archaic (your mileage may vary), and the humor is what it is. Still, if you're a fan of 3D platformers, speedruns, or just want to see a cultural phenomenon in action, the cat is worth a casual look. Bubsy has waited thirty years for someone to take him seriously, and Fabraz finally answered the call.