Bubsy 4D Screenshot
Image: Fabaz & Atari

There are few mascot platformer protagonists more maligned than Bubsy the Bobcat - largely because everything he's been in until recently has been bad at best, almost unbearable at worst. That all changed recently with the release of Bubsy 4D, from indie developer Fabraz, fresh from the release of the excellent Demon Tides. Sharing an engine (and much of its movement tech) with Demon Tides made it a great little platformer, if a little short. I'm very happy to say that problem has been eliminated, thanks to a surprisingly beefy free expansion.

The Black Hole Update adds an extensive endgame to Bubsy 4D - something that I'm surprised isn't paid DLC. Once the regular fifteen levels are wrapped up, you unlock a second set of tougher, heavily remixed stages. Effectively another fifteen to play through. There are new enemies and hazards, new outfits to unlock, more story and dialogue, and apparently a special reward for players who 100% the game for a second time.

Considering that the game's brevity was my only real complaint, Bubsy 4D just gets my wholehearted recommendation now. It's a bright, bouncy 3D collect-a-thon platformer that portrays Bubsy as an ageing, slightly sad past-his-prime character trying desperately to reclaim his relevancy. Between some decent writing and good voice performances, it mostly sticks the landing. I never thought I'd say it, but I like Bubsy as a character now, not just the game he's in.

But narrative is far from the focus of Bubsy 4D. The running, jumping and air-dashing here just feels great, clearly inspired by the likes of Mario Odyssey. While not really a combat-centric character, Bubsy is able to blow himself up into a spherical form for rolling through tubes and half-pipes, and scramble up sheer walls for a distance before needing to spring clear. Getting around works well enough, but once you really get a handle on the quirks of the game's movement, you can start skipping huge chunks of levels, which the game fully encourages with its time-trial challenges.

Unfortunately, there's no discount accompanying this free expansion, but I guess that would be a little greedy. Bubsy 4D is £16.75/$20 on Steam, with discounts if you own Yooka-Replaylee, Demon Tides, Beastro or the recently-released Teeto.