Bubsy: Paws on Fire!

I have never been as pleased with a game of this score before as I am here. While Bubsy: Paws on Fire! isn't anything outstanding in the grand scheme of things, when looking at it in terms of the whole Bubsy series, Paws on Fire stands as the best entry to date thanks to interesting progression, a great soundtrack, and gameplay that is fun for a majority of the time. It will certainly be a bit odd as a Bubsy fan going forward as there is now actually one good game in the series, but for those who are sick and tired of the memes and insults, Bubsy: Paws on Fire! should be a welcome treat.

The developers of the fantastic BIT TRIP series took a shot at making Bubsy loveable so let's see if it worked out.

Visually, Paws on Fire is incredibly average. The animations in the opening cutscene are unpolished, but models look fine in gameplay for the most part. Stages feel fitting and don’t distract from gameplay, and enemies come in more varieties than just “woolies” this time, which is refreshing. The music can be surprisingly catchy, though the voice-acting is as agitating as ever. Though to be fair, it wouldn’t be a Bubsy game if the voice-acting was overly enjoyable.

All of the variation feels pretty hollow, for sure, but the design of the game compliments what that variation lacks. All in all, it’s a pretty standard auto-runner that also just happens to have Bubsy in it

Bubsy: Paws on Fire is a light arcade title that features fun visuals and great music. Played sporadically, it can provide a short dose of simplistic fun. Ultimately, however, the repetitive gameplay, bland presentation, and hollow world prevent players from immersing themselves in its optimistic spirit. The Bubsy experiment has ended. It’s time to let the bobcat go.

I think I speak for everyone when I say that nobody, absolutely nobody wanted Bubsy to make a comeback. Even though I didn’t grow up hating the Super Nintendo games (I avoided Bubsy 3D like the plague), I just never understood Bubsy‘s appeal. The gameplay was bland. The character design was uninspired. The one-liners made Gex sound like Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool. Yet they decided to bring that obnoxious feline back from the dead with the mediocre, but not quite terrible, Bubsy: The Wooli...

At its peak, Bubsy: Paws on Fire! is a generic runner that brings nothing new to the genre other than messed up hitboxes, poor controls, and awful padding. It also tries to be a boring SHMUP for some reason.