A new Bubsy is freakin' genius!

No, I swear, that title is not sarcastic. Bubsy is back, and it's actually a really cool thing. Holy fudge-nuggets, this was a crazy announcement, yet I am entirely in love with. Partially because the internet is melting, and it's hilarious to read the comments, but the other part... because this is absolutely insane enough to just work. Still... I can't believe it's actually coming back! This... is... real.

Okay, let's take a step back here for a second, and pretend you've never heard of Bubsy. He ain't exactly up there, competing with COD, WOW, or LOL (man these popular games have some stupid acronyms). So maybe you haven't heard of him. Well, he's sort of infamous for just how terrible of an old "mascot" he was. He's one of those classic games that are a ton of fun to simply beat up on, because of how his consistently bad design, cheesy humor, and even the lengths at which they went to sell him on, all combined for the perfect storm to make him simultaneously memorable and hateable. This ain't another cheetah-men or Action 52 where a in-the-know crowd tells you how terrible it is, it's more like a reject that fell out of the same school as Sonic and Mario, where you just kinda know him as soon as a part of the gaming culture ride. His career ended in 1996, upon his third attempt at a video game: Bubsy 3D, which is essentially argued as one of the worst games to ever exist in the history of... ever. It's so bad, there's been one or two guys I've seen name their lowest score "Bubsy". I'm serious. ...and after decades of just being reflected on as a classic horror (where people actually challenge themselves to play his games), he's actually coming back! The "What can possibly go wrong" memes borrowed from a pilot of his own failed TV show, could not be better placed.

However here's the thing, I am in full support of Bubsy happening again. I'm not one of those guys who have an attachment to just hate him on sight. Furthermore, as I thought of it some more, I realized it was actually hidden genius buried in absolute stupidity. If you just made a random 2D platformer now, that's just it. Nothing else, maybe 8 or so people would spot and talk about it, then forget it's happening. You bring back this crazy bullshit absolutely nobody asked for unironically, parade it's infamous corpse around as a new game, people will all be talking about it. Bubsy is coming back to town, no warning, reason, or logic, it's just happening. Bam! Instant marketing access. Say what you want about infamy, but this is just at it's absolute best! It's even still loudly cheesy, with the one-liner spewing cat going as far as to even say the title and company name. It's almost like he's egging you on to hate him, while still truly just wanting to sell you a brand new game like anybody else. It's... stupid crazy genius! Everyone is truly talking about it!

As a matter of fact, I'll just stop for a bit and quote some of my favorite comments:

"That's one way to exploit nostalgia I guess"
"We move further from God's light everyday."
"E3 is saved!"
"You see internet this is what happens when you misuse the word irony"
"Half-Life hasn't made a comeback but Bubsy has"

Finally, I guess I'll address the real skepticism that's surely present. On top of that, some people seem almost genuinely mad that Bubsy is getting a new game when ___ doesn't. I get the weirdness of that, but it's not like Accolade Games had access to Spyro, Gex, Beyond Good & Evil, etc. ...though that Half-life one kind of cracks me up. I know Bubsy's name means about as much as dirt to most people, and it's not what you had your money waiting for, but at the same time... it ain't really that hard to forgive a bad franchise. It's actually much worse if a good one gets mediocre. A bad one always has a chance to do better somewhere down the line, and the only people that should be worried are the ones making it, or some weird minority that loves it and craves a sequel. It's been 20+ years since the last Bubsy, and I think that's plenty of time to have it communicated that we DO NOT like the weird mistakes of the former games. With a responsible dev in hand, I think they're more than capable to make a solid and cheesy return for Bubsy.

...and if not, well hey, that's just another bad Bubsy game and we can all look back and laugh at this event. I'm actually strangely excited to see how this turns out. I kind of have a soft spot for colorful, crazy, and humorous games. I'd rather have a new Gex, but heck, I'll keep an eye on Bubsy here.