Hi DairyLice. As they say, "one person's trash is another person's treasure". Treating this as a serious question rather than someone trolling, I'll give why I came to like the Bubsy character for your curiousity.
For me I've been an Atari gamer since I was a kid. I learned of the Atari Jaguar after it's hey-day of like ... three years... and decided to try out some games on that system. When visiting a used game store that was more this family owned local store I mentioned I was looking for a good game on the Jaguar and the teen working there (this was around 1999) recommended Bubsy as he "had always enjoyed the Genesis game as a kid". I did not know about a Bubsy game on the Genesis. I barely knew of the Atari Jaguar as I spent most of the 90s in college and was a broke college kid then. Now I was out of college, had a career, and a little money to spend.
So picked up "Bubsy: Fractured Furry Tales" which is a frustrating game to learn, but as I was going through a bit of a funk at the time (long story) I just thought I sucked, rather than the game being "incredibly 90s level powa-gamer difficult". The character, the colors and music of the game, and the reactions of my friend's kids who enjoyed watching me play Bubsy as animated bobcat would knock on the glass when waiting and other animations were a great time.
By the time I was good at Fractured Furry Tales about two years later I was out of my funk. It was then I found Bubsy on the internet and learned 1) the game I played was known to be very hard. Well that was a relief 2) That there were other Bubsy games on the Genesis, Super Nintendo, Playstation along with other ports to other systems. 3) that people did not like Bubsy. That was a shock because like the guy at the game store I'd come to like the character.
Fast forwarding from that time till now, what I've really enjoyed about Bubsy is it has just been fascinating what I've come to learn about the video game industry, developers, creators, and other fans through this bobcat. Since Bubsy is not overwhelmingly popular, I've been able to track down a large majority of the merchandising that was released for this character and collect it. Also I've had the great fortune to run across Michael Berlyn, creator of the Bubsy character, interviewed him, and had him as a Facebook friend till he passed away last year. Really cool guy. And as mentioned above I was first a fan of the Bubsy game on the Atari Jaguar, so I've also met Faran Thomason, producer/director of that game at Atari during that time, and Andrew Seed, the programmer of the game. Both also awesome people who have shared on numerous occasions their experiences and knowledge.
I've beaten the other Bubsy games with the exception of Bubsy 3D which is just a long game but interesting game. I'm mostly an Atari gamer so the other platforms are not played as much. But I appreciate other Bubsy fan's appreciation of all the games, which is why the Bubsy Wiki is here! To collectively find out all the information and details of the Bubsy franchise.
What was said by the developers of Fractured Furry Tales (FFT) seem to echo through the other Bubsy games, mostly in part to the FFT game using the original Bubsy in Claws Encounters code of the Genesis as starting source code for the FFT game. The aspect that Bubsy was play tested by 90s power gamers to challenge those people would seem to be why the Bubsy games are so difficult. With a character that can move faster than Sonic and have a one hit death like the early Mario games you have a character that is a glass bullet. People rank Bubsy for also having falling damage which was probably modeled after earliest Mario games, especially Donkey Kong, where the slightest drop would lead to death. However, while Bubsy might not have rings to collect to save him, much like Sonic, he does have his own gimicks, at least in the early 2D games 1) marker points 2) enemies stay dead 3) level codes 4) Bubsy is semi-invicible while flying, and gliding saves him from falling damage. Later games like Woolies Strike Back and Paws on Fire eliminate falling damage and give him a pounce abiliity.
A simple but fun character. A cat with an exclamation point on the shirt, though the latest game of "Paws on Fire" actually made it where Bubsy could buy different clothes to switch out between levels. And with Atari acquiring Accolade which was the company that made Bubsy, and mentioning Bubsy fondly, hopefully we'll see more Bubsy games in the future.
Maybe with a few more tries you'll see the charm of the Bubsy games that already exist or Atari will produce the Bubsy game that others find "finally gets it right". Or maybe none of the above. But this is to say why I've come to like the character and it all started with one guy at a video game store who liked the Genesis game. Ran into quite a few like him over the years, specially the Super Nintendo gamers. For a while the SNES gamers did not have a Sonic-like game and Bubsy filled that niche for a time and provided one of the first game mascots with voice tracks!
So the love for the Bubster is out there. Thanks for your curiousity and may you find what you love out there as enjoyable and find like minded fans to enjoy that passion with!
