Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection review

If you grew up in the 90s, there’s a good chance you’ve played a Bubsy game. Like many other video game characters of the time, he first appeared in 2D platformers then later made the jump to 3D. And while the games he starred in all those years ago were somewhat entertaining, there’s a reason he’s not a household name like Mario and Sonic. You’ll discover that if you pick up Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection, available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch and PC.

Put basically, in the cold light of modern day, the Bubsy games were bad. Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection bundles up all four of the so-called ‘classics’, released between 1993 and 1996. There’s Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind, Bubsy II, Bubsy in Fractured Furry Tales, and Bubsy 3D. Chances are, whichever one you jump into, you’ll soon be having a bad time to varying degrees.

Still, the 2D games are the best here by far. I had somewhat fond memories of playing Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind in my head, but revisiting it in 2025 shattered them. Being a cat, you’d think Bubsy would be a treat to take control of: nimble and precise. Instead, he feels awkward and floaty, making collecting balls of wool and jumping on the heads of enemies a chore. Level design is pretty awful, too, with enemies placed so that you can easily jump or run into them without time to react, instantly losing you one of your lives and taking you back to your last checkpoint.

Bubsy II is a little bit better – it at least tries to do something a little different with its level design, which is less linear, and you can take more than one hit before being sent off to your last checkpoint. It’s still not exactly fun to play today, though, but it is one thousand times more entertaining than the final 2D game in the collection, Bubsy in Fractured Furry Tales. Even back in the day it was criticised for its unresponsive controls and bad collision detection. Now they stick out even more, making it even more torturous to play.

Then you have Bubsy 3D, a game that’s terrible in just about every way. It’s so bad that it frequently appears in lists of the worst games of all time. You can play it with improved controls, which makes it a little more bearable, but it’s still downright bad with its empty levels that feel incomplete. What’s truly shocking is that it came out the same year as Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot, with the likes of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos following shortly after.

None of the games in Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection are particularly worth your time, then, unless you somehow have a strange affinity for one or more of them. But that might quickly disappear once you play them again. The saving grace of this collection is that it’s relatively cheap, priced at just £15.99/$19.99. On top of that, it has some pretty nice extras, too.

There’s a museum where you look at things like promotional materials, for example, and a music player so you can listen to each game’s soundtrack. Multiple versions of some of the games are included, as well, so you can experience the differences between the Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES versions of Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind if you wish.

So, if you’re a Bubsy fan, chances are you’ll appreciate the extras in Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection and might even have some fun with one or two of the titles included. Some with fond memories of the bobcat might have them ruined when they revisit these titles, though, and it’s really not likely to win over any newcomers. There may be a new Bubsy game on the way, but this collection isn’t going to help make the anthropomorphic creature any more popular in the meantime.