bubsy

I think I was 20 years younger the last time I need a SNES gamepad to press start on Bubsy title screen. After a month of training, I was able to reach world 4 and found a few 2″continues”. I couldn’t beat the level 3 last week-end, but at least I got the confirmation that Bubsy “claws encounters” is a fun game.

It might be the only fun thing made with that character (I do not expect much of Black Forrest’s “woolies strike back”), it may have arguable pixel art, the tunes are catchy, the atmosphere is playful, the character is fun, and there is enough variety in the level design to keep us entertained.

It is clearly difficult and sometimes even frustrating without becoming utterly unfair or boring. As far as I’ve played it, it is challenging.

It is far from being a masterpiece in terms of game mechanics, though. The air control is sometimes a bit awkward, Packing precision, – and the “GLIDE” mechanics isn’t always sufficient to save the day, But what really seem broken is what happen when you jump off a slope. First, you don’t move purely upwards (if standing), but slightly backwards on a climbing slope. You’ll have to compensate that with more air control. I’ve never seen that happening to any mammal in the real world, presumably because we feel the slope and compensate when jumping. But I can accept it: it makes sense from a pure physics perspective, and it echoes a similar mechanics in Sonic. What is broken is that if you then release the directions pad, you will find yourself pushed backwards again!