When my teenage years were coming to an end, I thought it’d be a good (or at least funny) idea to buy a selection of famously terrible video games. This cost me far more money than it should’ve, but now I could play Bomberman: Act Zero any time I wanted. Of all the terrible games I purchased, one was the most miserable – Bubsy 3D. This 3D platformer was almost impossible to play, thanks to its abysmal controls and the constant barrage of terrible one liners that made you want to tear your hair out. Now, thirty years later, this steaming pile of misery is getting a sequel, and against all odds… Bubsy 4D is fantastic.
Now older and more pathetic, Bubsy lives with family who clearly don’t want him around. When his old enemies the Woolies show up, Bubsy is more than happy to ignore them and hope somebody else deals with this intergalactic threat. Fate has other plans though, and his big mouthed nephews upset these foes and force Bubsy into action. The story is daft and mainly focused on upsetting the main character as he breaks the fourth wall, which is all you could ever want.
It took all of a minute for me to be sold on Bubsy 4D, because Bubsy controls like an absolute dream. The presence of Fabraz (the developers of this year’s Demon Tides) is immediately felt, as this washed up kitty has been given a moveset that frankly feels amazing to use. Bubsy can double jump, glide, and pounce any time he launches into the air, and combining these moves will allow you to cross massive gaps and avoid deadly obstacles in the process. Using this moveset becomes very intuitive very quickly, and before you know it you’ll feel like a platforming god.
As if jumping around wasn’t fun enough, you can also roll into a ball in Bubsy 4D and blast off at breakneck speed. Regular half pipes and tubes encourage this, but really any time you fancy rushing through a section the ball is an option. I didn’t have Bubsy emulating Super Monkey Ball on my 2026 Bingo card, but this unlikely combination really works.
Bubsy 4D is broken up into individual stages, which offer a little exploration but are for the most part pretty linear. Each stage features loads of yarn balls to collect, alongside a blueprint and a time trial for those speed freaks among us. I ended up playing every single level in the game at least twice, ensuring I found all the shiny shit and then got to master stages to beat the target time. It takes a special game to encourage this level of completion in me, but Bubsy 4D is just that.
These collectibles aren’t just for show either, unlocking either cool new outfits (including one with blurred out nudity I simply had to use) and new abilities. These extra ways to move about are never required but makes overcoming obstacles feel even better, granting skills like a Mario style spin jump or the ability to float on air for a few seconds like a Looney Toon before falling. I’m sure speed runners will use these in some ridiculous ways, and that’s pretty exciting.
There’s so much more creativity in the stages than I was expecting, with so many ideas stuffed into this fairly bite sized platformer. Each of the three worlds feature stages made of different crafting materials, and full of unique mechanics. One stage switches you to 2D for a portion, another has Donkey Kong-style barrel blasting, and there’s even a wild low gravity stage that allows for some ridiculous new heights to be reached. I was always excited to see what Bubsy would have to tackle next, and of course hear him complain about it.
Bubsy 4D is better than it has any right to be, but there are still a few issues with this comeback story. Boss fights feel a bit drawn out, and having to retry them over and over was the worst part of the game for me. The ball mode, while fun to use, is also a little unwieldy. Often when rolling about I’d have to switch back to regular cat mode to save myself from flying into oblivion, even on simple piped paths. It’s at least pretty easy to do this, but you probably shouldn’t really have to. Some will probably find Bubsy’s quips annoying too I suppose, but that’s sort of the point.
The fact that Bubsy 4D is one of the best platformers of 2026 just feels wrong to say, but it’s the truth. With fantastic controls and creative stages, Bubsy is both incredibly hard to put down and fun from start to finish. I’m glad Bubsy is still clinging on to a couple of his nine lives, because against all odds, Bubsy 4D is a phenomenal platformer.
