The Gex re-release and this seems to be decisions driven by irony-poisoning. And even Gex I can somewhat understand because he at least had a lot of tv and movie-references that gave hil somewhat of a personality. Bubsy's personality just seems to be "we made the most 90's mascot ever" and that's not what I'd call a desirable thing in this day and age. Still... it is preservation, of sorts. I can't be mad that we're at least seeing old games brought back into the limelight if only so we can look back at ALL of yesteryear's offerings, even those that aren't seen as the big winners. Looking forward to Monday's episode!
You're right about comparing Bubsy to Gex. Gex could have very easily fallen into the same traps that doomed Bubsy, but he had a few things going for him. For one thing, Gex had a fully realized personality, thanks in large part to comedian Dana Gould and the CD technology giving him enough time to actually deliver funny lines. It also helped that Gex's platforming continued to get better over the years, unlike Bubsy. The 3D Gex game may not be on the same level as Super Mario 64, but it comes way closer to hitting the mark than Bubsy 3D. And even when Gex was at his most generic, he still had unique art direction and gameplay. He wasn't just a Sonic rip-off.
In Total! magazine #20 (UK), they gave 81% to the first Bubsy (Super NES) and said "it's better than Sonic but definitely not a Mario-beater". But at least the review concedes that the game wasn't the blockbuster everyone expected. Personally, even back then I would have considered it a solid 60% (being nice).
I stand by the fact that the first two Bubsy games on SNES/Genesis are fine, but not amazing, platformers for their day, and the character certainly doesn't deserve to be the hate sponge he turned into in the internet era. There were FAR worse Sonic-alikes back then, and the Bubster at least had some charm. For the QotD, probably the first game, but I really like the weapons, bonus stages and health bar added to Bubsy II, and it has some pretty creative stage gimmicks, too
I do wonder what the ethics of these magazines were back in the 90’s. Especially considering so many other reviewers hated the game, it makes me wonder if there was some shady business going on in the review departments for the magazines that gave the game a higher score.
It's just a case of different strokes for different folks. If you touch grass you'll relate to it. But yes there were some payola of course. Humans are prone to corruption. In the form of ad retraction or actual small brown envelopes with money.
@WhatIsMatter101 If there's one thing I've learned from both posting videos about classic reviews and being a freelance critic for more than two decades, it's that people are way too quick to assume conspiracy theories. The moment a critic likes a game even slightly more than the reader, suddenly it's a sign they were paid off. And if they disliked a game a reader loved, then it must be because the competition paid them to lower their grade. As a critic, you can't win. And yet, the same people will have no problem with their favorite streamers taking huge paychecks from publishers to promote their games. The ironic part is that big streamers are making millions of dollars to promote these games, yet critics at magazines and online outlets are barely scraping by. People just want to think that their opinion is the default, and anybody who disagrees must be biased or paid off.
I rented the SNES version of Bubsy because of EGM’s score back in the day. I thought it was Shatner back then too. I had more fun with Cool Spot on the SNES. (If you don’t know about Cool Spot, you may want to keep it that way.)
Wait ... Cool Spot was GREAT. Much like Global Gladiators, it managed to transcend being an advertisement game and became a genuinely fun platformer. Cool Spot (especially the Genesis version) was one of the best-reviewed games of the 16-bit era. I'll probably do an episode about that at some point in the future.
I'm not too familiar how well Limited Run Games' Carbon Engine ports have been shined up - but I do know that if NightDive was doing this, they'd likely fix half of the jank in Bubsy 3D... ending up making a new game in the process. However, I'm pretty sure they are mainly emulated roms + QOL features? Haven't gotten my flippers on any of LRG's Carbon Engine ports yet.
From what I read, Limited Run are apparently also gonna do some polishing on the games... though to my knowledge they haven't said WHAT kind of polishing they'll be doing. So we'll have to wait and see...
QOTD: I kinda dug the original renting it on SNES! though it certainly had its issues. Funny story I was gifted a subscription to EGM back in the 90s, and the first issue I ever received was February 1993, and Bubsy was lucky enough to grace the cover, haha.
Fun fact: I own four copies of that issue ... THREE of them are still in the plastic wrapper. It's because I went to the 1993 Winter Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, and back in the day, magazines would have booths at these trade shows and give out issues for free. I ended up grabbing a bunch of every magazine I could get my hands on, and that's the issue they were giving out. I kept several of them in plastic just in case they were worth something or maybe to give them away as gifts/prizes or something.
Man, 2010s of RUclips did some damage on some game series all in the name of "entertainment". I rented the first game a lot due to its challenge and I think I own it too at one point.
Theoretically, Sparkster seems like he should be in the same camp as a mascot. But he actually has an identity. Because making a good game came first, and a cool character was created with a function in mind. Thats why Sonic works; Sonic has a perfect mix of form and function. ..Bubsy looks the part, but what does he actually DO? He just checks off some imaginary boxes. Earthworm Jim pushes it a little bit, but atleast he's so absurd it kind of works. His function is to show off really interesting art/animation. And his games are quality enough to let it shine for the most part. If you exclude HIS dubious 3D game! Now I'm making a 90's platformer mascot tier list in my head!
The problem Bubsy was always going to run into is that he's a knock-off of Sonic that didn't bring anything new to the table. Compare that to Earthworm Jim, which is a character that burst onto the scene with almost the exact same amount of bravado. Shiny was able to back up Jim's confidence by giving us a game that didn't feel like other platformers (it was more of a run 'n gun shooter), had great art direction, committed to the bit of being genuinely weird and put in the work to be funny. So much of the personality of EWJ came from the animation, which means that Shiny put in the extra time to do more than the bare minimum. After playing EWJ, I could name you a dozen unique things that were exclusive to that game. In contrast, Bubsy gave us nothing new. The levels and games are often puns on movies, but they don't commit to the bit. It's as if they brainstorm bad puns and then they stopped there. Bubsy the Bobcat doesn't feel like it was made by creative people. I would also argue that Sparkster works because, much like EWJ, he didn't feel like a rip-off. His attacks and unique abilities set him apart from Sonic and Mario. They put in the minimum amount of work required to construct a world that felt unique to Sparkster, even if it's not as memorable as something like Earthworm Jim. The problem that Bubsy has always had is that he burst onto the scene with an unearned confidence and didn't bring anything new or original to the table.
@@DefunctGames Design by comitee, and totally pandering. The source of most bad media! I love the discussion! I was listening to a podcast series with Devs from Retro Studios. And one of them was talking about Nintendo's design philosophy about generally putting function over form. And its had me thinking about it ever since. Like, Mario's enemies are seemingly pretty random. But they were all carefully designed to present specific kinds of challenges, and communicate that challenge clearly to the player. I think the same goes for a mascot that's supposed to sell your game. Sonic runs fast, and can roll into a ball. Rocket Knight can do cool aerial acrobatics.. even Kao the Kangaroo. He's a kangaroo with boxing gloves. Pretty generic... But hey! If you like punching things, maybe you'll like it! Bubsy is not just generic, he's confused! I feel bad for anyone who had to work on those games. Having nothing to work with!
there aren't many franchises I hate, but this is one of them. I hate Bubsy with a firey passion of 10,000 white hot suns. Ever since the first one came out it just stank to me of all the things wrong with the industry. The thought process seemed obvious to me: let's make a mascot game because everyone is doing it, but because we have money in the bank we'll market the crap out of it, sell a mediocre game, and people will just eat it up because...reasons. Oh and we'll make sure to give him plenty of 'tude as well because it's the 90s! God I hate this game lol
My brain remember a Busy 64 but I know it doesn't exist. These games all seem to have this thing where most of the enemies aren't even moving, they're just standing there sometimes hopping. It's really weird and lazy. Also every game has extremely grating music. It's like they did it on purpose. QOTD, If i had to pick it would be the Jaguar game, which i played the least out of all of them.
I'll be able to answer your question right off the bat, I've not played any of the Bubsy games. Most I know of them is watching a Tacoman playing them. Hearing they put together a collection really confused me, as I wondered, is there really a demand for this? What's the worse that could happen? Not making your money back in sales. 😉
I'm happy that finally my favorite character (after 5 years on paws on fire) is back in action but I'm not that surprised by his new game, in short it's just like the Sparkster one released this year, it's a compilation of the their old retro games from the 90s, and literally bubsy two-fur from 2015 but only you can also play with bubsy 3D, honestly I didn't understand why insert that abomination of game which had actually been the peak of the grave of the poor bubsy franchise ! in short, bubsy for atari even though it was a frustrating game it wasn't as creepy as 3D so in fact it deserved its place 100%, atari made this compilation for the cute little cat and didn't add bubsy for atari? I don't know! well obviously we bubsy fans know that the first bubsy is the best of its sequels and if they have to include 3D in this compilation at least I hope they change 1 billion things there or if not everything at least the controls to begin with! However, Bubsy is more reminiscent of Looney Tunes than Mario and Sonic, and you can tell from Bubsy's objects and animations, but obviously the speed is not that comparable, also because I've heard that lynxes of any species go much faster than hedgehogs❗❗❗
I still maintain that the original Bubsy is a good game. It was my favorite game for many years beating both Mario and Sonic (to be clear I don't like it THAT much any more). The sequels are not that great though.
As bad as most of these games are, I'm actually oddly looking forward to the collection. If it was just one or two games in a collection, no thanks. But if includes everything including the Jag then definitely. But I especially especially especially hope that controls more than anything will be tweaked, in Bubsy 3D more than anything. Definitely for me was the bottom of the barrel of the entire series
Sadly, it seems they won't be including the Atari games. All that's mentioned is the SNES, Genesis, Game Boy and 3D game. The issue here is that these games are all being run on Limited Run's internally developed emulator, and they haven't made it to include Atari Jaguar functionality since... well, they haven't had the financial incentive to emulate Jaguar games before. No one's really clamored for a Jaguar game. And they're seemingly not about to develop a whole new emulator branch just for Bubsy's sake.
@@goranisacson2502 Oh damn, I was concerned about that. But then I started seeing people mentioning the Jag game being included so I thought maybe I missed something when they announced it. Yeah I know it's not exactly easy to emulate Jag as it is, but I do know there is finally a decent emulator out there but I'm sure limited run would have to pay for using it. Or at least that's my understanding. Well I'll still get this but I am bummed about the Jag game for sure. I do own the original but it would be great to have it included with all the other games!
I mean, they are literally doing remasters of infamously bad titles like Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, so in that way this is on-brand. I bet they are anxiously sitting on Superman 64, waiting to release it to accompany the new film.
Dear god I hope this collection has achievements
I, for one, cant wait to be tortured by Bubsy 3D.
Get ready for an M. Night Shyamalan-sized twist ending!
The Gex re-release and this seems to be decisions driven by irony-poisoning. And even Gex I can somewhat understand because he at least had a lot of tv and movie-references that gave hil somewhat of a personality. Bubsy's personality just seems to be "we made the most 90's mascot ever" and that's not what I'd call a desirable thing in this day and age.
Still... it is preservation, of sorts. I can't be mad that we're at least seeing old games brought back into the limelight if only so we can look back at ALL of yesteryear's offerings, even those that aren't seen as the big winners.
Looking forward to Monday's episode!
You're right about comparing Bubsy to Gex. Gex could have very easily fallen into the same traps that doomed Bubsy, but he had a few things going for him. For one thing, Gex had a fully realized personality, thanks in large part to comedian Dana Gould and the CD technology giving him enough time to actually deliver funny lines. It also helped that Gex's platforming continued to get better over the years, unlike Bubsy. The 3D Gex game may not be on the same level as Super Mario 64, but it comes way closer to hitting the mark than Bubsy 3D. And even when Gex was at his most generic, he still had unique art direction and gameplay. He wasn't just a Sonic rip-off.
In Total! magazine #20 (UK), they gave 81% to the first Bubsy (Super NES) and said "it's better than Sonic but definitely not a Mario-beater". But at least the review concedes that the game wasn't the blockbuster everyone expected.
Personally, even back then I would have considered it a solid 60% (being nice).
I stand by the fact that the first two Bubsy games on SNES/Genesis are fine, but not amazing, platformers for their day, and the character certainly doesn't deserve to be the hate sponge he turned into in the internet era. There were FAR worse Sonic-alikes back then, and the Bubster at least had some charm.
For the QotD, probably the first game, but I really like the weapons, bonus stages and health bar added to Bubsy II, and it has some pretty creative stage gimmicks, too
I do wonder what the ethics of these magazines were back in the 90’s. Especially considering so many other reviewers hated the game, it makes me wonder if there was some shady business going on in the review departments for the magazines that gave the game a higher score.
It's just a case of different strokes for different folks. If you touch grass you'll relate to it.
But yes there were some payola of course. Humans are prone to corruption. In the form of ad retraction or actual small brown envelopes with money.
@WhatIsMatter101 If there's one thing I've learned from both posting videos about classic reviews and being a freelance critic for more than two decades, it's that people are way too quick to assume conspiracy theories. The moment a critic likes a game even slightly more than the reader, suddenly it's a sign they were paid off. And if they disliked a game a reader loved, then it must be because the competition paid them to lower their grade. As a critic, you can't win. And yet, the same people will have no problem with their favorite streamers taking huge paychecks from publishers to promote their games.
The ironic part is that big streamers are making millions of dollars to promote these games, yet critics at magazines and online outlets are barely scraping by. People just want to think that their opinion is the default, and anybody who disagrees must be biased or paid off.
It's not a stretch to think Bubsy was a good game if they could deal with the obnoxious difficulty.
I rented the SNES version of Bubsy because of EGM’s score back in the day. I thought it was Shatner back then too. I had more fun with Cool Spot on the SNES. (If you don’t know about Cool Spot, you may want to keep it that way.)
Wait ... Cool Spot was GREAT. Much like Global Gladiators, it managed to transcend being an advertisement game and became a genuinely fun platformer. Cool Spot (especially the Genesis version) was one of the best-reviewed games of the 16-bit era. I'll probably do an episode about that at some point in the future.
My family rented both often
I'm not too familiar how well Limited Run Games' Carbon Engine ports have been shined up - but I do know that if NightDive was doing this, they'd likely fix half of the jank in Bubsy 3D... ending up making a new game in the process. However, I'm pretty sure they are mainly emulated roms + QOL features? Haven't gotten my flippers on any of LRG's Carbon Engine ports yet.
I'm so happy Nightdive isn't wasting their time with Bubsy.
From what I read, Limited Run are apparently also gonna do some polishing on the games... though to my knowledge they haven't said WHAT kind of polishing they'll be doing. So we'll have to wait and see...
QOTD: I kinda dug the original renting it on SNES! though it certainly had its issues. Funny story I was gifted a subscription to EGM back in the 90s, and the first issue I ever received was February 1993, and Bubsy was lucky enough to grace the cover, haha.
Fun fact: I own four copies of that issue ... THREE of them are still in the plastic wrapper. It's because I went to the 1993 Winter Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, and back in the day, magazines would have booths at these trade shows and give out issues for free. I ended up grabbing a bunch of every magazine I could get my hands on, and that's the issue they were giving out. I kept several of them in plastic just in case they were worth something or maybe to give them away as gifts/prizes or something.
Man, 2010s of RUclips did some damage on some game series all in the name of "entertainment". I rented the first game a lot due to its challenge and I think I own it too at one point.
Theoretically, Sparkster seems like he should be in the same camp as a mascot. But he actually has an identity. Because making a good game came first, and a cool character was created with a function in mind. Thats why Sonic works; Sonic has a perfect mix of form and function.
..Bubsy looks the part, but what does he actually DO? He just checks off some imaginary boxes.
Earthworm Jim pushes it a little bit, but atleast he's so absurd it kind of works. His function is to show off really interesting art/animation. And his games are quality enough to let it shine for the most part. If you exclude HIS dubious 3D game!
Now I'm making a 90's platformer mascot tier list in my head!
The problem Bubsy was always going to run into is that he's a knock-off of Sonic that didn't bring anything new to the table.
Compare that to Earthworm Jim, which is a character that burst onto the scene with almost the exact same amount of bravado. Shiny was able to back up Jim's confidence by giving us a game that didn't feel like other platformers (it was more of a run 'n gun shooter), had great art direction, committed to the bit of being genuinely weird and put in the work to be funny. So much of the personality of EWJ came from the animation, which means that Shiny put in the extra time to do more than the bare minimum.
After playing EWJ, I could name you a dozen unique things that were exclusive to that game. In contrast, Bubsy gave us nothing new. The levels and games are often puns on movies, but they don't commit to the bit. It's as if they brainstorm bad puns and then they stopped there. Bubsy the Bobcat doesn't feel like it was made by creative people.
I would also argue that Sparkster works because, much like EWJ, he didn't feel like a rip-off. His attacks and unique abilities set him apart from Sonic and Mario. They put in the minimum amount of work required to construct a world that felt unique to Sparkster, even if it's not as memorable as something like Earthworm Jim.
The problem that Bubsy has always had is that he burst onto the scene with an unearned confidence and didn't bring anything new or original to the table.
@@DefunctGames Design by comitee, and totally pandering. The source of most bad media!
I love the discussion!
I was listening to a podcast series with Devs from Retro Studios. And one of them was talking about Nintendo's design philosophy about generally putting function over form. And its had me thinking about it ever since. Like, Mario's enemies are seemingly pretty random. But they were all carefully designed to present specific kinds of challenges, and communicate that challenge clearly to the player. I think the same goes for a mascot that's supposed to sell your game.
Sonic runs fast, and can roll into a ball. Rocket Knight can do cool aerial acrobatics.. even Kao the Kangaroo. He's a kangaroo with boxing gloves. Pretty generic... But hey! If you like punching things, maybe you'll like it!
Bubsy is not just generic, he's confused! I feel bad for anyone who had to work on those games. Having nothing to work with!
there aren't many franchises I hate, but this is one of them. I hate Bubsy with a firey passion of 10,000 white hot suns. Ever since the first one came out it just stank to me of all the things wrong with the industry. The thought process seemed obvious to me: let's make a mascot game because everyone is doing it, but because we have money in the bank we'll market the crap out of it, sell a mediocre game, and people will just eat it up because...reasons. Oh and we'll make sure to give him plenty of 'tude as well because it's the 90s! God I hate this game lol
7 NES games out of nowhere from NSO update, strange timing on 4th of July.
See you tomorrow with a full NSO Review Crew episode!
My brain remember a Busy 64 but I know it doesn't exist. These games all seem to have this thing where most of the enemies aren't even moving, they're just standing there sometimes hopping. It's really weird and lazy. Also every game has extremely grating music. It's like they did it on purpose.
QOTD, If i had to pick it would be the Jaguar game, which i played the least out of all of them.
I'll be able to answer your question right off the bat, I've not played any of the Bubsy games. Most I know of them is watching a Tacoman playing them. Hearing they put together a collection really confused me, as I wondered, is there really a demand for this? What's the worse that could happen? Not making your money back in sales. 😉
What can pawsibly go wrong?
You should do a video about scant few games that actually got bad reviews in Gamepro
I'm happy that finally my favorite character (after 5 years on paws on fire) is back in action but I'm not that surprised by his new game, in short it's just like the Sparkster one released this year, it's a compilation of the their old retro games from the 90s, and literally bubsy two-fur from 2015 but only you can also play with bubsy 3D, honestly I didn't understand why insert that abomination of game which had actually been the peak of the grave of the poor bubsy franchise ! in short, bubsy for atari even though it was a frustrating game it wasn't as creepy as 3D so in fact it deserved its place 100%, atari made this compilation for the cute little cat and didn't add bubsy for atari? I don't know! well obviously we bubsy fans know that the first bubsy is the best of its sequels and if they have to include 3D in this compilation at least I hope they change 1 billion things there or if not everything at least the controls to begin with!
However, Bubsy is more reminiscent of Looney Tunes than Mario and Sonic, and you can tell from Bubsy's objects and animations, but obviously the speed is not that comparable, also because I've heard that lynxes of any species go much faster than hedgehogs❗❗❗
I still maintain that the original Bubsy is a good game. It was my favorite game for many years beating both Mario and Sonic (to be clear I don't like it THAT much any more). The sequels are not that great though.
As bad as most of these games are, I'm actually oddly looking forward to the collection. If it was just one or two games in a collection, no thanks. But if includes everything including the Jag then definitely. But I especially especially especially hope that controls more than anything will be tweaked, in Bubsy 3D more than anything. Definitely for me was the bottom of the barrel of the entire series
Sadly, it seems they won't be including the Atari games. All that's mentioned is the SNES, Genesis, Game Boy and 3D game. The issue here is that these games are all being run on Limited Run's internally developed emulator, and they haven't made it to include Atari Jaguar functionality since... well, they haven't had the financial incentive to emulate Jaguar games before. No one's really clamored for a Jaguar game. And they're seemingly not about to develop a whole new emulator branch just for Bubsy's sake.
@@goranisacson2502 Oh damn, I was concerned about that. But then I started seeing people mentioning the Jag game being included so I thought maybe I missed something when they announced it. Yeah I know it's not exactly easy to emulate Jag as it is, but I do know there is finally a decent emulator out there but I'm sure limited run would have to pay for using it. Or at least that's my understanding. Well I'll still get this but I am bummed about the Jag game for sure. I do own the original but it would be great to have it included with all the other games!
You know, at the time I really did enjoy the original Bubsy game. It was a solid rental, imo. Bubsy 3D is an abomination though.
Question of the Day: Hah! Hahaha! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!
Also, GamePro gave *anything* a 1? Ever? Wow!
The only review of Bubsy that matters is Ulillillia's!!!!!!!!
The Bubsy games are mediocre to outright bad. With so many classics worthy of rerelease, I have to scratch my head sometimes at Limited Run's choices.
I mean, they are literally doing remasters of infamously bad titles like Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, so in that way this is on-brand. I bet they are anxiously sitting on Superman 64, waiting to release it to accompany the new film.
Bubsy is so mid Retro Pals uses it as the baseline for ranking 2D platform games. The absolutely average. The king of the bell curve.
I fu***ng hate Bubsy 3D!🤬
Yeah Me too! As bubsy fan i admit, but bubsy 1 Is the best bubsy game!