Bubsy: Paws on Fire!
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 If the previous game had little to some amount of charm despite it's faults, this game however, makes Bubsy even blander and more forgettable than before!
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Bubsy: Paws on Fire! is a platform video game developed by Choice Provisions and published by Accolade, Inc. UFO Interactive Games published the console ports. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 on May 16, 2019. The Nintendo Switch port was released on August 29, 2019.
Plot
Bubsy and his friends are celebrating the 14th Annual Yarn Ball when the Woolies' twin queens Poly and Esther warn him about the return of the corrupt entrepreneur Oinker P. Hamm, who is capturing animals across the universe for his own personal zoo, the Amazootorium. With the help of his sidekick Arnold, scientist Virgil Reality, Poly and Esther's finest Woolie soldier, and a new pair of sneakers (a gift from Bubsy's nephew and niece Terry and Terri, called "El Gato's Zapatos"), Bubsy treks across three worlds to find Oinker and end his business.
Qualities That Should Be Set On Fire
- Bubsy has always been an action platformer, making it an automatic shooter makes this game seem more worthy of a mobile game than a game on a home console.
- Because of the pointer above, the levels are incredibly boring, bland, and have too many obstacles to dodge in a timely fashion.
- It also has some bad/cheap enemy placement like before, except it's taken up to eleven.
- The graphics range from passable to downright ugly. The worse offender being the lair stage with green lava & chemicals.
- Some of the character designs look completely cheesy. Like a dog face on a fishes body and a green enemy that looks like a blob and Shrek combined.
- The soundtrack gets really repetitive.
- The story is very straightforward, generic and a lot more forgettable than the previous game's plot. Where Bubsy had to get his wool back from the Woolies, this game has a formulaic way to drive home its plot.
- Extremely unfunny puns (even more than the original games) and the humor got even more weak, stale, and unremarkable.
- While yes, Bubsy always had a cocky, narcissistic, and sassy demeanor, he is still not endearing to watch in the slightest. In fact, in the cutscenes, he is way more unfunny and annoying than in the previous title The Woolies Strike Back, which is saying something.
- There is little to no effort put into the game, much to the point of being a cash-grab sequel.
Extinguished Qualities
- The controls are decent most of the time.
- Being able to play as Arnold, Virgil, and Woolie herself as one of the Woolies in the game, which sounds interesting for a Bubsy game.
- Bringing back old characters from the past can be viewed as a form of nostalgia.
- It had the potential to make it a actually good Bubsy game with playing as multiple characters, but it was poorly executed.
Trivia
- Characters from the cancelled pilot episode of the bobcat himself appear in the game, these include Virgil Reality, Bubsy's nephews' Terence and Teresa, and Arnold (who the three mentioned were also seen in Bubsy 2).
- The bonus round is a HD rendition of Arnold's stage in Bubsy 2.
Reception
It got mainly average scores from reviewers. Destructoid ranked the game 5/10 and regarded it as a light arcade title, highlighting its visuals and music, but criticizing the repetition and blandness. Nintendo Life described the game as the foundation of a decent runner, praising the flow and additions to the gameplay, while turning down the performance and repetition. Nintendo Times stated that the game was fun for a short time, but that there were better platformers to play on Switch. TechRaptor gave a negative review and hoped another Bubsy game would not come in the future. Push Square gave the game a poor review expressing how frustrating it was with no redeeming quality. GamingTrend, however, ranked the game 80/100, and stated "It took a little over 25 years, but Bubsy: Paws on Fire! is the bobcat's first truly great outing."