Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back (2017)

I remember liking the Bubsy back on the SNES, although he's become kind of a joke with Bubsy 3D. I was hoping Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back would be like a poor man's Mario. Well, it's a 2D platformer at least. The game seems to be designed for completionists and speed runners. The levels themselves are fairly easy to get to get through. Collecting all the ball of yarn, keys, and finishing as fast as possible are difficult though.

Graphics are fine, music sub-par, and Bubsy cracks annoying one-liners over and over again. Not an awful game, not a great game. This is the Bubsy we expect.

Beat the game last night on PS4 (thanks PS Now!) and honestly, I enjoyed it. I don't really understand why people seem to despise the game. It's as basic as platformers come but there's still some fun to be had if you're a fan of the genre. Controls feel good once you get accustomed to Bubsy's abilities, I had a lot of fun blazing through stages where I had to finish them without dying once. I also enjoyed the search for Bubsy's shirts in every stage. Nothing ever really felt frustrating and the boss fights themselves, while easy to memorize their patterns, were fun as well.

All in all, the game doesn't deserve the hate it gets. Pretty much everything about it is run-of-the-mill average but I'd still recommend it for anyone who enjoys a casual run-and-jump platformer. I can see how people who spent over $30 may have felt burned, since the game is pretty short but I think on sale for $10 or under would be the sweet spot for ol' Bubsy here.

It's been a while that I've been negative. Probably because I've been looking out for games that I would like, but I felt like I wanted to play something that isn't good. And what could pawssibly go wrong with a game like Bubsy?

To start with, not everything went wrong. The controls are fine. Bubsy has a nice jump and the gliding is okay. The actor of Bubsy is the least grating of the bunch, but that isn't saying much. The voice actor acts. He does the job. There's one funny joke with the verbosity slider. I ironically love anything that Dunkey has joked about in his video. That's about it.

Out of everything, Bubsy Bobcat is the only thing that has some personality, even if he's annoying. The level design would fit in some flash game platformer; it's really forgettable and generic. The music is basically nothing. The boss music is barely boss music and just sounds like something you'd hear from any other level. There are moments where mechanics don't line up. Especially when it comes to pouncing. Platforms, enemies, gimmicks just exist because of the mindset that is, "it's just a platformer." Nothing's ever a threat. There's nothing cool going on. For an hour long game, it wasn't worth $30 at launch and it's not worth $20 right now.

Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back is one of the most generic, formulaic games that I have ever played. From what I've seen, Woolies Strike Back is the blandest piece of media that has ever come from the franchise. Thank God. I didn't have to spend my money on this game. If you ever give me the excuse that it's just a kids game, that's bullshit because if they played it they would be bored or content with this game, but give them something better and they'll be even more content with the product. Also, WHY DID A FUCKING RUNNER GAME OF THIS COME OUT IN 2019? WHAT HAS MEME CULTURE BECOME?

FINAL RATING: 2/10

Pros -

Decent Music

Game doesn't look terrible.

Controls are fine no real issues.

Best Bubsy game yet but that really isn't saying much.

Cons-

Terrible Amiga era level design, just big overly open 2D levels with a bunch of boring stuff to pick up.

Incredibly short even with picking up all the collectibles. It gets even shorter when you ignore them and go straight for the goal. (3 hrs with barely over an hour without)

Boss fights are incredibly lame with boring and overly repetitive attack patterns.

Enemy placement is lazy, there doesn't appear to be any thought put into it. In later levels instead of designing more complex and interesting levels with tricky enemy placement they just stick a bunch more of them all over the place.

Game may look okay but the visuals are still pretty dull, largely due to the art direction.

Music is decently catchy like I said but is still ultimately forgettable.

Bubsy is incredibly annoying spouting off obnoxious and unfunny one liners in an annoying voice. (never set him to Bubsy!) The story is nearly non existent with only two real cutscenes and even then the animation is super bare bones.

Verdict-

This game had no reason to exist at all which makes the fact that it ended up so bad even worse. True we have no one to blame but ourselves for making Bubsy into a meme but still this punishment seems harsh. I wouldn't even pick this game up on sale.

I bought this for $40. I got home, really excited, knowing they couldn't let me down. Bubsy HAD to be good.

An hour and a half later I had 100% completed the game and all it's levels.

And the worst part? It wasn't even that fun. The controls didn't even input right half the time and the whole thing felt clunky.

I cried. And returned the game to EB Games. They said "we'll give you $12 for it" (it was double price weekend) I said "whatever just get it out of my life" And used that credit towards pokemon.