Throwback Thursday: Bubsy

Happy Thursday gamers! I was going through my old video games when I came across Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind. I haven't played this game in a while, so I decided it would be perfect for this week's Throwback Thursday.

Bubsy: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind (or Bubsy for short) was a platform game released by Accolade in the early 1990s for Sega Genesis, SNES and Windows. As the first title in the Bubsy series, the game features Bubsy (the protagonist Bobcat) who must defend the Earth's supply of yarnballs from alien invaders. It's played as a 2-dimensional side scroller that allows the player to start with 9 lives. The controls were fairly simple, and the objective of the game is to jump, pounce and glide your way through 16 levels to eventually reach the alien spaceship. Once there, Bubsy must put up one last fight to stop the alien abduction of yarn.

The game was marketed very well and was very anticipated. It received good reviews from Electronic Gaming Monthly and Nintendo Power. Unfortunately, other critics weren't impressed. About a year after its release, IGN and Hardcore Gaming 101 labeled the game as "mediocre" and a "pale Sonic rip-off". These reviews didn't stop Accolade though. Bubsy carried enough made enough sales to promote 3 additional games in the series. It's success finally ended when Bubsy 3D was released. The final installment game featured confusing controls and lacked the full capability of the Playstation.

Bubsy may have been short-lived, but it taught other developers to capture the full potential of a console's capabilities. As for this gamer, it was a staple of early gaming - and for that, we welcome it into the vault!