Bubsy Wants to Make a Comeback on Steam…

Just yesterday, I heard through the grapevine — the grapevine being Jim Sterling’s “Best of Steam Greenlight Trailers,” that is — of a most unusual title seeking to be greenlit on Steam (as one would expect, being featured there and all): Bubsy.

More specifically, the title is Bubsy Two-Fur, a seeming pun based on the fact that this is not one, but a collection of two of the games from The Next Sonic’s ill-fated video game career. The two games, Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind and the far more succinctly-titled Bubsy 2, both from the era of 16-bit consoles. Being an established franchise (of sorts), seeing them going through the Steam Greenlight approval process seems a little odd.

Here’s the Jim-free trailer, for those curious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8_ZnPVBYNo

Apparently, if these do well, it could pave the way to a full-blown revival for the bouncing bobcat. I’ve semi-joked about it before on the Power Button podcast, saying they should bring him back as an LOLcat, spouting internet memes, collecting cheeseburgers, and so on. Couldn’t be any worse than his first run, right?

Believe it or not, though, I’m actually behind this — at least conditionally. If all Retroism is doing is porting the originals straight to Steam? No thank you. Granted, I’ve never played them myself, save maybe the first one briefly — I remember a friend rented the first when it came out, but I don’t remember if I ever got to take advantage of that — but their reputation through countless reviews and analysis is such that I’m not particularly interested, either.

But if they were to take this seriously? If they gave this an updated treatment, adding things like widescreen options and tweaking the games to fix the issues that saw these games end up so maligned in the first place (even in a toggle-able form)? And then sold it at a good price that doesn’t feel like a major commitment*? Yeah, I’d be into it.

Heck, even Oddworld got an update for its revival, and it was better-liked in its original form than Bubsy. Elsewhere, Sonic the Hedgehog‘s Genesis games got touched up for mobile and Nintendo 3DS releases, so it can be done. If Bubsy is going to have a second chance, then the most needs to be made of it.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

* $50 = No way, $20 = Hrmm…, $15 = Maybe, $10 = Sure, I never wanted to live forever anyway.

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David Oxford is a freelance writer of many varied interests. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.