DaRmaZat Against all odds, gaming’s most notoriously talkative bobcat is making a return to the third dimension. Developed by Fabraz and published by Atari, Bubsy 4D attempts to resurrect the long-running platforming franchise by thrusting our feline protagonist into a brand-new, space-faring adventure. Promising an expressive new moveset designed to cater to both casual players and speedrunners alike, the game tasks you with navigating craft-themed alien planets, battling robotic sheep, and collecting endless piles of yarn. Or, as the marketing campaign cheekily puts it: “What could possibly go wrong?”
The journey kicks off with a completely surreal, fully voiced cinematic. Bubsy and Terri are casually shooting the breeze about a camcorder and joking about just how old Bubsy has gotten. Suddenly, Virgil bursts into the room in a total panic, screaming that the Woolies have returned, while Oblivia barely even knows who these Woolies are – which is hardly surprising, considering she can’t even remember Bubsy’s name. At first, absolutely nobody cares that the Woolies are back spreading terror – not even when they look out the window and witness a Woolie UFO literally vacuuming up Earth’s sheep. It turns out these sheep have overthrown their captors and transformed into deadly BaaBots. To put it another way, our favorite bobcat finally decides to spring into action purely because it is simply too pathetic to sit by and watch such ridiculous crimes unfold.
Before attempting the main levels, the game offers you a virtual reality session that serves as a highly practical tutorial. Here, you learn the ropes of Bubsy’s moveset, which includes Flutterstep, Glide, and Pounce, allowing you to briefly scale vertical walls. You also get to experiment with his signature Hairball form – a move that blows Bubsy up into a giant, hilariously rotund ball, allowing him to roll around and bounce by timing your jumps.
From the get-go, the game establishes a chaotic, jazzy soundtrack that feels just as cluttered and jumbled as the narrative itself. The core gameplay loop requires you to navigate a series of levels via an overworld map, beginning with the planet Wooltopia. Each stage boils down to reaching a specific end goal, and at the end of the world, there’s a multi-phased boss battle.
Throughout the worlds, you will hunt down floating balls of yarn to spend in the in-game shop on new outfits, alongside hidden blueprints that unlock moveset and gameplay upgrades. Visually, the animations and character acting look intentionally clunky, awkward, and decidedly old-school. For the most part, this aesthetic actually works because it’s entirely by design. Bubsy is portrayed as a grumpy, aging curmudgeon who completely fails to comprehend the modern gaming landscape. He still suffers from a severe water phobia, meaning a three-strike dip into any liquid results in instant death, which leads to some genuinely funny moments.
However, the elephant in the room is the platforming itself, which is anything but smooth. The controls are incredibly cumbersome, bogged down by an excessive number of context-dependent buttons. Depending on the scenario, you frequently have to juggle a standard roll with an accelerated roll just to build up required momentum. Other times, you are forced to chain double-jumps and glides together, where your only point of orientation is a pixelated drop-shadow that isn’t always clearly visible. On top of this, there’s the poorly optimized 3D camera and Bubsy’s notoriously slippery momentum. The bobcat’s paws constantly feel like they lack sharp nails or proper traction, making precise movement a nightmare.
The game also throws several time-trial missions at you, where the clunky controls actively fight against you as you race against the clock, with a high potential of resulting in pure frustration because of the slippery controls again. On the bright side, if you fail one of these timed objectives, the pause menu conveniently offers an option to immediately retry from your last checkpoint. Occasionally, you also need to hunt down hidden switches first before being able to proceed. However, where to finding them isn’t always straightforward in this semi-open 3D world and will likely cause younger players to struggle significantly.
Where Bubsy 4D sometimes shines is in its humor. Bubsy remains a genuinely funny character, constantly spouting witty commentary during gameplay and relentlessly criticizing you through the pause menu if you dare to step away from the controller. Sadly, the humor does not always land, and the charm is repeatedly overshadowed by an abundance of technical oversight and bugs. It is entirely common to get struck by enemies while locked in dialogue sequences. Conversely, you will sometimes become inexplicably immortal for no apparent reason, and I also noticed a performance issue where the framerate can suddenly plummet into a sluggish slow-motion state of the entire game, forcing a complete restart of the application.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, Bubsy 4D is not a perfectly polished experience, but its technical faults aren’t even its biggest issue. This game fails to capture any of the charm or success of the classic 2D retro formula. The meta-humor doesn’t always land, the erratic jazz music quickly becomes grating, and the gameplay is remarkably tedious, strictly repeating the exact same loop from level to level. Furthermore, the combat is completely sabotaged by a disorienting camera that regularly unfairly robs you of all depth perception. While I consider the boss fights to be a highlight due to the decent challenge they offer, they aren’t enough to save the experience. When all is said and done, unfortunately, this feline adventure lands flat on its nose.
Additional Information
Release Date: May 22, 2026
Reviewed On: PC. Download code provided by the publisher and PR agency.
Developer: Fabraz
Publisher: Atari
Relevant links: Available on PC via Steam.
