Review: Bubsy 4D (PS5) – The Best of a Bad Bunch

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Honestly, it’s wild how Bubsy keeps popping up in new games! You’d think after all the… let’s just say less-than-stellar titles, he’d have faded into obscurity, but somehow he always finds a way to come back. It’s pretty surprising, actually.

Cats are famously said to have nine lives, and with Bubsy 4D – the seventh game in the series – it seems Bubsy might have finally gotten things right.

Okay, so it’s a bit tricky to explain. I honestly think this is the best game featuring that chatty bobcat we’ve seen so far, but it’s still not a truly amazing game when you compare it to everything else out there.

What developer Fabraz has nailed is how manoeuvrable Bubsy himself is.

He has a much wider range of moves now, going beyond what players are used to. Besides his standard jump and glide, he can now double jump like Yoshi, perform a powerful horizontal leap, and curl into a ball that gains significant speed.

The game is designed to be played quickly, encouraging players to try and beat their best times on each of its 15 levels. This is highlighted by the inclusion of a timer and leaderboards after completing a level for the first time.

The game offers a wide range of movement options right from the start, and you can discover even more through blueprints. These unlock abilities like wall-grabbing (instead of sliding), crouch jumping, and twirl jumping, all designed to give you greater freedom and control as you explore each level.

Controlling Bubsy feels good overall. He’s responsive, and once you get the hang of his abilities, moving him around each level is actually quite enjoyable.

Unfortunately, I find the levels themselves are rather dull places to be.

Stages often seem expansive and full of options, but they’re actually pretty straightforward paths with repetitive challenges. They don’t offer much variety or excitement.

I’m really digging how each planet feels totally different in this game. They’ve got some clever ideas too – like on Craftus, there are these giant tape measures you have to quickly run along before they snap back. It’s a really cool mechanic!

Each level has yarn and blueprints to collect, but after you gather everything, the levels themselves feel fairly empty and unchanging.

The enemies in the game aren’t very challenging and don’t really pose a threat. It makes you question why they included any at all, since you can usually just avoid them without issue.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, the game becomes about completing levels quickly and skillfully, as there aren’t many puzzles or secrets to discover.

It’s satisfying to get the hang of how to control Bubsy, especially since his movements can be tricky at first. However, if you don’t aim to collect everything, Bubsy 4D is a quick and fairly unremarkable platforming experience.

The game is visually appealing with its cartoon style and bright colors, and it performs smoothly on the PlayStation 5.

The game makes good use of the DualSense controller’s features. While not overly noticeable, the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers add a nice feel to actions like gliding and pouncing.

I didn’t really connect with the characters who helped Bubsy. They weren’t particularly appealing, and I mostly just used them to buy new abilities in the shop.

Overall, the game plays pretty well. Although I didn’t find the levels very interesting at first, it’s clear they’re designed to be replayed quickly, focusing on speed. That’s a valid approach, but it means there’s not much reward for actually exploring, and that left me feeling a little unsatisfied.

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2026-05-21 16:07