Bubsy 3D

"What happened?"

Look what happens when a great 2D platform game goes in to 3D. Sure, Mario 64 was good, but wouldn't it be good to play a 2D game of Mario? Gex was good in 2D, awful in 3D, so what is Bubsy likes. In case you didn't know, Bubsy is a gliding cat who appeared on the Sega Megadrive (Genesis for those in America) and Super Nintendo. Bubsy was a great platforming games, and now has turned 3D, for the first time ever. What a mess!

You mmay remember me reviewing a game set in space called Captain Blasto. Bubsy 3D is set in space, in a very similar enviroment to that of Blasto's: Space! The ''main'' platforms are not exactly floating or have jagged edges though, everything, including platforms is a quadrilatral. The levels are set in a sort of space-station, with levels made up of patterned squares (just for decoration) and Bubsy must get to the end of the level, kill a boss in certain places and escape.

The first level, we see Bubsy in front of some floating square platforms, You take Bubsy to jump on them, but the thing is, doing this is a difficult task, Bubsy is very hard to control. Most of his skills like jumping and gliding is in the game, but very hard to pull off when you really need to use them. The levels are very strange. The majority of it is usually one massive squared room, with hidden cut-offs which you can't jump over. To get to these parts of the level, you need to warp, which is a strange way of the game, as usually Bubsy tends to warp automatically!

Also on the first level, to get to the end of the first level you must place Bubsy on a moving platform which hovers over some water. Postioning our little cat, Bubsy is hard enough without having to jump on and off the platform. You see, our Bubsy is very slow, especially since PAL games are slower then NTSC, but I have never seen anything like it, Bubsy goes much slower then Croc, Gex and even Blasto!

The graphics, well what can I say? Bubsy was a graphical wonder back on the 16-bit age, but he and everything else in this game is very blocky, you can spot the polygons from a mile away.

As for the sound and music, awful. Bubsy's voice ruins his characters. though his little squirms from the older days was great, the new Bubsy has a very squeaky voice, even more squeakier then Tidus' from Final Fantasy X! The music, it is very light, about five instruments make the soundtrack of each level. You hear more of Bubsy's rants then you do of the music.

As you can see from my review, I don't like Bubsy due to the gameplay, voice, music, graphics and the fact a 2D series is ruined because of one, crap 3D platforming game. Please developers, leave classics alone. I know James Pond 3D is in the works, but don't ruin anything else like Alfred Chicken in proper 3D!

Good

- Bubsy is back

Bad

- Bubsy is back... in 3D
- Graphics, Gameplay, Music, everything is horrible
- Very, very challenging!

Summary

Graphics - 2/10
Gameplay - 2/10
Sound - 3/10
Music - 3/10
Challenge - 8/10
Enjoyment - 1/10
Lifespan - 3/10
Overall - 3/10

Alternatives: Captain Blasto, Gex, Other Bubsy games which are 2D, Alfred Chicken, James Pond and Super Mario 64!

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 04/06/02, Updated 04/06/02