Bubsy 3D

Overview

One of the most popular titles from the days of the 16 bit machine has jumped into the 32 bit arena. Bubsy 3D takes our friend Bubsy and throws him into a huge, 3D world. Could this mean the end of 2D platform games that we all love?

For those of you unfamiliar with Bubsy, let's just say he is a cat with a major attitude. Bubsy always manages to get himself in some sort of a bind. Bubsy 3D is no exception. The story goes a little something like this. You play Bubsy and you're trapped on a strange alien world. Like any normal cat, all you want to do is go home. No problem. Just fight your way through 16 levels and collect all 32 pieces of your rocket ship and you are home free. To help you in your quest, a number of items lie scattered around just begging to be found.

Open up a can of catnip, sit back, relax and read on to see if Bubsy 3D will be responsible for a new level of platform games or if you should grab this one by the scruff of the neck and throw it out the front door.

Gameplay

Bubsy 3D is set in a huge, 3D, alien world. Your kitty talents include running, jumping, swimming, shooting and flying. Your job is to use these skills to guide Bubsy through the world, collecting atoms, extra lives and pieces of your rocketship.

Bubsy has 16 unique levels that get progressively more difficult. The first level is simple and is basically there to give you a chance to get used to the controls of the game. We will get into this a little later. This game has a very unique perspective that reminds me of Jumping Flash. A lot of the action takes place on platforms high in the air (as Bubsy says, "What would a platform game be without platforms?"). Bubsy has total freedom to explore any area of each level. There are direction arrows that point you to the exit, but you can still explore every nook, cranny, and platform.

Of course, we could not be allowed to just prance around the levels without any opposition, could we? Bubsy 3D has its fair share of baddies to keep you from reaching the end. The enemies are disposed of in different ways, depending on which enemy you are facing. Some can be jumped on while others must be shot, and there are some enemies best left alone.

Bubsy 3D also has a two-player mode which is best described as tag. The object of the two-player mode is for one player to control Bubsy and try to gather as many atoms as possible. The second player is armed with a tag gun and charged with the task of shooting Bubsy with the gun. Once this happens, player two takes over control of Bubsy and player one starts shooting. This is pretty fun and a nice touch to allow others to join in instead of sitting and watching the whole time.

Now, earlier, I mentioned the controls. This is the one disappointing aspect of Bubsy 3D. The controls are very awkward. It's difficult to do anything fast. If you want to go back, you must stop, turn 180 degrees, then go. You are probably thinking "Yeah, so?" Well, this takes about 1-2 seconds to do. When you have things being shot at you and enemies trying to get you, 1-2 seconds is a long time. This also makes shooting atoms at the enemies difficult. You are allowed only a short time to grab, aim and shoot. If the enemy is behind you, forget it. The atom will explode in your hands every time. Platform games require precise actions and split-second decisions. _Bubsy 3D's _controls are very prohibitive to this type of gameplay.

Graphics

The graphics of Bubsy are very bright and vivid. Instead of going for extensively detailed and texture-mapped backgrounds, Bubsy uses blocky, but very colorful backgrounds. Where the graphics shine is in the cartoon look that all of the characters have. At times, you almost feel like someone turned on the Cartoon Network when you weren't looking. All in all, the graphics are one of the high spots.

Audio

The audio is adequate but Bubsy's voice doesn't quite fit. After a while, I found that his sayings -- intended to be funny -- combined with a voice that doesn't match, started to get a bit annoying.

Bottom Line

Bubsy 3D had tremendous potential to give Crash Bandicoot a run for its money, but the tedious controls took care of any chance of this being a great game. The graphics are neat and the worlds are vast and take some time to explore, so the game is not bad. Once you get used to the controls, it is not quite as painful. I found myself getting into the game but doing something I didn't mean to once in a while because of the controls. One word of warning, if you have little ones that like to play this type of game, rent it first. They may become too frustrated with learning the controls and give up. So is this the end of 2D games? Not yet. I think that 3D platform games will get there, but for now, I'll stick to Rayman.

Bubsy. One of the more recognizable characters in the gaming biz will be jumping on the bandwagon of bringing two-dimensional platform games into a third dimension.

Bubsy 3D has been a long time in the waiting. It was one of the first mascot games that was announced for the 32-Bit systems. At that time, the industry was abuzz with xcitement over three-dimen-ional play. Now that the project is nearing completion, Bubsy 3D is preparing to be released into a sea of hot competition, like Mario 64, Sonic Extreme and Crash Bandicoot. Luckily, Bubsy has a bit of name recognition (thanks to its original 16-Bit little brother) that can help it stand out in the masses.

So what is the bobcat up to? It seems that the evil aliens, Woolies, want to take over Earth. Bubsy is the only thing standing in their way. So the Woolies fly to Earth and capture Bubsy as part of their grand plan to invade an obstacle-free planet.

On the way back home, the Woolies crash land on their planet Rayon, freeing Bubsy in the process. The game starts here, as he tries to find a way home. Bubsy's goal is to find enough pieces of a rocket ship and enough fuel (represented by atom symbols) so that he may build his interstellar ride home.

The levels are as varied as they are colorful, though texture mapping was sacrificed in favor of larger 3-D worlds. You can even find a couple of underwater levels, something that seems almost required for a game of this genre, but looks nice anyway.

The game's animation and sounds are reminiscent of a Warner Bros, cartoon. In fact, a news release by Accolade flat-out compares the two. Accolade also boasts that, "...Bubsy 3D's creative design and high level of technical innovation will lead the industry." That's a pretty big call to make considering the stiff competition. Will Bubsy 3D retain its popularity and pleasant disposition while facing cute plumbers and hedgehogs? We'll see this fall.

In this day and age of 32- and 64-Bit systems, characters from the past are making the jump from 2-D to 3-D. Accolade's third Bubsy game puts the infamous defender of yarn into a new dimension, with stunning results.

If you've played Accolade's previous Bubsy games, then you know what to expect from this one. The mischievous Woolies are back, and they have been scheming to get Bubsy for a while. He was captured, and while on the way to the Woolies' home planet of Rayon the ship crashed, Bubsy escaped. Loose on the Woolies home turf, Bubsy smashes onto the scene to kick some yarn.

Eidetic, the developers of this third installment of the series, have created a game which incorporates both flat-shaded and texture-mapped polygons. Hand-drawn graphics complement the look and feel of the game.

Gamers familiar with Jumping Flash! on the PlayStation will recognize much of Bubsy 3D's control. When Bubsy walks around the game environment, the view is from behind our furry pal. When Bubsy jumps, the view switches to top-down, which takes some getting used to, but becomes natural with practice.

The view is somewhat inhibiting, because sometimes polygon obstacles get in the way. There is a way to make Bubsy look up or down, and look around the huge worlds, but often portions of the levels will be out of view. This adds to the challenge of exploring the huge game.

Bubsy's level design is original, with enough variation from level to level to keep the game interesting. The themed levels have names like "Bright Lights Big Woolies" (a play on a Michael J. Fox movie title), and other, more obscure movie references like "Das Bobcat." The levels are big, each with its own goals and enemies. Checkpoints will break up the action, so that if you die three-fourths of the way through a level, you won't have to start at the beginning of the level each time.

Added to the mix in his new environment are underwater-based levels, very reminiscent of those that can be found in Mario 64. Without analog control, buttons must be used to control the up and down swimming motions necessary, but those too, come with practice.

What would a Bubsy game be without elaborate death scenes? Ever since the first game, Bubsy's death sequences have always been original. This time around, the ways he dies include being melted, being chomped up by a treasure chest and being broken into several hundred pieces. Plus, at the end of each level, you'll get a cool Ending Cinema Screen that uses rendered artwork just like in the game's intro. The scenes usually star the Woolies beating up poor Bubsy. The rendered sequences show off more of the Bubsy/Woolie conflict

The music in Bubsy's third adventure sounds as if it came right out of a Saturday-morning cartoon. Then again, Bubsy's no stranger to the world of animation, having had a Thanksgiving special a few years back when his 16-Bit adventures were on the market. Bubsy's voice accompanies much of the gameplay, with sarcastic remarks, hints, tips and other quips that are fun to listen to. although the option to turn them off will serve some gamers well.

Accolade's third Bubsy installment should prove to be a worthy contender in days where original games are few and far between. Combining elements seen in both 2-D and 3-D play, Bubsy 3D climbs back to the top of the yarn ball. Gamers looking for 3-D action should check it out!

Accolade's award-winning mascot cat, Bubsy, takes a trip into the third dimension on the Sony PlayStation with the company's latest debut at the Winter CES.

Bubsy uses his swagger and wisecracking humor while blasting through space world of tongue-in-cheek antics and cartoon pitfalls.

The technical aspects of Bubsy 3D feature true 3-D hand-rendered animations with thousands of frames of animation per character, all set in computer-generated environments. Bubsy can move in full 360-degree rotation, allowing a full range of vision and directional movement.

Five worlds await exploration, not to mention the number of secret scenes, hidden jokes and surprises. Some of the stages allow you to fight underwater in the Major Domo sunken cities, spin through jet tube subways and journey through the SpectaKill countryside.

The game also features two-player alternating and cooperative play. Bubsy 3D has the option whereby the first player can fight his way through the stage then give way to player two to see how he or she can do in terms of time and collecting all of the game-related goodies you find along the way. The backgrounds are astounding and new foes are ready to greet you or beat you at every turn. The music is incredible, too.

Bubsy 3D pulls out all the stops in this latest release for the PlayStation, using all of the system's power to bring players a complex game. Could we see Bubsy on the Ultra 64 next year? Who knows?

That wiseguy 16-bit bobcat is making an impressive jump to both 32-bit systems. Mike Berlyn, the designer of the first Bubsy (not the lamentable sequel) has created an interactive 3D world that looks and sounds like colorful "Road Runnerr" cartoons and plays a little like Jumping Flash. The two-player platform-jumping action covers 16 levels, 14 bonus rounds, and tons of imaginative warps to hidden areas. Bubsy jumps across elevated platforms, swims, flies a nifty jet, and spouts over 150 of his trademark wisecracks. The Saturn version, due in December, will be compatible with Sega's analog controller (see "GamePro Labs," October) for sharper 3D motion.

Bubsy, a longtime veteran of 16-bit, jumps into 32-bit action with Bubsy 3D. Stranded on an alien planet, you must run, swim, jump, and shoot your way through 16 bizarre levels of 3D terrain, while trying to find pieces of a rocket ship to build a ride back to Earth. In the era of Crash Bandicoot, however, Bubsy's 3D environment doesn't seem as fast moving or as lushly rendered. The graphics are rather stiff, and each level seems simplistic and barren, Bubsy fans should rent this game to see him in 3D, but action fans may find Crash more their speed.

Graphics

Despite creating a working 3D environment, the color palette used for characters and level renderings is rather flat. An uncontrollable camera perspective sometimes hinders gameplay.

Sound

The fully orchestrated soundtrack isn't adequately reinforced by entertaining sound or voice effects. Though the "Bubsyisms" are clever, his squeaky voice quickly becomes annoying.

Control

Except for the lack of control over the camera perspective in the 3D evironment, the controls are smooth and easy to learn.

Fun Factor

Although Bubsy features 16 levels, its gameplay becomes repetitive and predictable due to the stiff graphics. The two-player tag mode is innovative and worth a look.

Frantic fishy fun for our freaky feline friend.That's enough "f"s for now.

Remember that feisty little furball Bubsy? That mascot wannabe for the Genesis has finally found a home on 32-bit.This smartlooking platform game for the PlayStation incorporates many elements that the much-anticipated Ultra Mario will have on the Ultra 64.

Not having played the game, it's unclear to me whether or not the developers of this game have learned anything from Bug!, the firsc of the 3-D platform games, which had little merit or play value. What is clear, by looking at the screen shots, is that Bubsy has enough graphic pizzazz and mirth to keep even the orneriest of gamers happy.

Rumor has it that one scene in the game has Bubsy captured by Mary K cosmetic scientists, who then test an assortment of new eye-liners on our fuzzy friend. Don't worry though kids, because the boys at Accolade insist that no Bubsies were hurt in the making of this game. It's good to see that some companies don't take part in experimental testing on mascots, unlike others in the industry.