Mate, I don’t know what’s going on in the world. Have you seen? Have you heard? Did you wake up, rub your eyes, and say “Nahhh” then “Wuhhh?” followed by “Ohhh?” It’s real, it really is real: Bubsy the bobcat is back, baby! The rubbish platformer series will return this autumn with the all-new Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back [official site], because 2017 is the year we deserve. I’m being a mite over-dramatic. Bubsy was of course perfected by the Arcane Kids with Bubsy 3D: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective but I suppose someone thinks they can live up to that golden standard.

That someone is Gianna Sisters: Twisted Dreams developers Black Forest Games, who can at least make solid platformers.

Bubsy, which started on the SNES, is a 2D platformer known for tedious collecting, instant death, bad level design, fun death animations, and rubbish puns (all puns are rubbish, of course). But every game finds fans, and Bubsy has his – even if the game’s surge in profile over recent years was driving by sarky streamers and ‘Tubers playing them for giggles.

What’s going on with this new one? Peep the trailer:



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And today’s announcement blurb:

“Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back is an all new Bubsy adventure featuring Bubsy in a bevy of exotic locations as he travels the planet looking for the beloved Golden Fleece. Bubsy must use all of his classic moves and a few new ones to dodge and out bobcat a battalion of Woolies, sharks and bess, not mention the gnarliest UFO bosses to ever grace a Bubsy adventure. The wisecracking lynx also adds over a 100 new one liners to his lexicon to keep fans guessing what he’ll say next.”

Also revived is Accolade, the brand of the developers who made it. It’s very much the brand rather than the studio, being worn as a glove by Billion Soft. Accolade say to also expect the return of Hardball, Slave Zero, Deadlock, Eradicator, Redline, “and more!”

I wonder what tone Woolies Strike Back will strike. Bubsy does have fans but is more widely known as a joke game, one of those gag gifts passed around on Steam and laughed at on streams. Do you press that “ho ho isn’t this bad!” angle, try to make an actually good Bubsy game, or perhaps try to make a decent modern game poking fun at Bubsy’s past?