Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind

I guess that Bubsy the Bobcat was supposed to be Accolade’s version of Sonic the Hedgehog. Bubsy is a bobcat with attitude, evidenced by the white shirt with the giant red exclamation point on it that he always wears.

The only Bubsy game that I ever played was the debut game for the Super NES, and it was clearly inspired by the Sonic series. Bubsy runs fast, collects things, and has an evil mastermind to defeat.

The story was pretty typical for a video game: aliens have invaded and are stealing the world’s supply of yarn. Bubsy’s a cat, cats love yarn. Bubsy goes out to save the day. Unfortunately, this game suffered from some pretty serious design flaws that made it ridiculously frustrating.

The levels in this game are freaking enormous. You have to go in the general direction of ‘to the right’ collecting the insane amount of yarn on the way (hundreds per level). Problems become apparent once you dive in. Since Bubsy runs real fast, he gets KOd a lot by things that he can’t see. Or rather, things you can’t see fast enough to react to. Add in the jumps where you’re essentially jumping off a multi-screen high platform to an unseen destination with only the trail of pickups to guide you. You’re going to die. A lot.

You’ll notice that at the beginning of each stage, ol’ Bubs will say some snarky phrase. For the first few levels he says, “What could possibly go wrong?” You’re going to hear this phrase no less than two hundred times as you muddle your way through the game, dieing at every opportunity. It’ll drive you to the brink of madness.

And, what do you get if you suffer through the entire game, memorizing stage layouts and sacrificing several thousand bobcats to defeat the invading aliens? You get the most unsatisfying ending I’ve ever seen for the amount of effort involved.

Do. Not. Bother.

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