Bubsy (series)

Bubsy
Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind SNES Gameplay
Developers	Accolade, Eidetic
Publishers	Accolade
Creators	Michael Berlyn
First release	Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind 1993
Latest release	Bubsy 3D 1996

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. Though the games were platform games similar to Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog, the eponymous anthropomorphic bobcat never came close to the popularity level of the two bigger name mascots.

The games were released for the SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis, Atari Jaguar, the PC and PlayStation in the early and mid-1990s.

History

Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind

The first Bubsy game was released in May 1992 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 II was released on October 28, 1994 and features five zones (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). It also features three levels of difficulty, corresponding to easy, medium, and hard.

In this game, a new historical theme park, the Amazatorium, has been made. Though impressive, the park's sinister technology is stealing away actual history and placing it on exhibit. Having taken his niece and nephew to the park, Bubsy loses them and is soon caught up in the evil plans of Oinker P. Hamm, who runs the Amazatorium and wants to extort money from his unwitting customers who'll "pay anything to see their own history". Now, Bubsy needs to "humble" Oinker and close the fascinating-but-deadly Amazatorium before anyone faces a hairy ending.

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 menu), a diver's suit, a Nerf gun, screen-clearing smart bombs, a slingshot 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 II is 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 in: Fractured Furry Tales

Bubsy in: Fractured Furry Tales was released December 15, 1994 for the Atari Jaguar.

This title sets Bubsy in a string of fairy tales. It is up to him to help the children of the world by "humbling" 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 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Hansel and Gretel in Candyland. After defeating all those opponents, a captured Mother Goose is set free, making all right again at storytime.

While Bubsy does not have any of the gadgets or band aids of Bubsy 2, he was graced with level codes for each level.

Bubsy 3D: Furbitten Planet

Bubsy 3D is the first and only Bubsy game in 3D and 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. Accolade planned to release the game for the Sega Saturn.^[2]

Bubsy 3D was panned by both critics and fans alike 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^[3] as well as in eighth place on GameTrailers' 2006 Top 10 Best And Worst Games list, where it was described as "A horrible, horrible clone of Super Mario 64."^[4]

Voice actors

In the first game, Bubsy was voiced by Brian Silva. Bubsy's voice was dubbed over in the Japanese release of the game. In the cartoon, Bubsy II and Fractured Furry Tales, he was voiced by Rob Paulsen. In Bubsy 3D, he was voiced by Lani Minella.

Abilities

Bubsy has two key abilities, jumping and gliding. Later games allowed Bubsy to use various other objects as well, such as the Nerf Ballzooka in Bubsy 2, and "atoms" in Bubsy 3D.

Reception

Bubsy was awarded Most Hype for a Character of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.^[5] GamesRadar included Bubsy in a list of the 13 most hateful video game mascot characters of the '90s.^[6]

Television pilot

Bubsy also had a pilot episode for an animated series in 1993, produced by Calico Creations. Rob Paulsen reprised his role of voicing Bubsy, alongside voices from Tress MacNeille, Jim Cummings, Pat Fraley, B.J. Ward and Neil Ross.

The episode was aired with the Battletoads cartoon pilot, but received very low ratings and poor reviews, leading to the show not being picked up for a series.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bubsy (series)

• Bubsy series at MobyGames
• Bubsy Pilot at the Internet Movie Database
• ScrewAttack's Top Ten Big Names That Fell Off
• Sega-16 interview with Bubsy creator Mike Berlyn
• Sega-16 retrospective on the entire Bubsy series
• Playing Catch-Up: Bubsy's Michael Berlyn – Gamasutra