I usually stick to Monday posts, but I was so fired up about a few things that I posted something more philosophical than usual, about the nature of reality, on Saturday (11/8). That post took significantly more time and effort than I had expected when starting it up; perhaps I should have made it a formal Monday post—but I didn’t!
As such, I made today’s post (and 11/10‘s post) a bit on the lighter side. I still think The Promised Land and the following demos are worth sharing and reviewing—otherwise I wouldn’t take the time to discuss them at all—but they are also, conveniently, small enough topics to easily slot into my current workload without too much jostling.
With that out of the way… Who likes 3D platformers?
Overview of The Games
What Are They?
Bubsy 4D
The infamous, wise-cracking bobcat has returned to 3D in a new platforming adventure. Bubsy is back with new challenges, new moves, and even more purrsonality. Run, jump, glide, and roll across alien planets, battle robotic sheep, and collect tons and tons of yarn. What could possibly go wrong?
Demon Tides
Explore the open seas and uncover the kingdom’s dark secrets as you expressively platform your way across dozens of locales, upgrading your gear every step of the way!
Bubsy 4D and Demon Tides are both 3D platformers, the former level-based and the latter open world, featuring imaginative movement options. It would be remiss of me not to compare them to a certain Italian plumber—he being the king of platformers, and at times the only franchise carrying the genre forward—but please keep in mind that Bubsy 4D and Demon Tides can hold their own against the heavyweights, even in demo form. Comparison is simply the fastest way to get an idea across at times.
Bubsy 4D feels very Super Mario 3D World (granted, with splashes of Sonic-like momentum gameplay); the relatively straightforward levels, the item collection, the creative themes, it’s all there. Demon Tides feels very Bowser’s Fury, complete with a game world set in an archipelago; the open world, the nonlinear levels, and so forth can be very rewarding of exploration and experimentation.
Demon Tides is a fully independent project, to my knowledge; it’s also the sequel to Demon Turf, although you don’t need to play the first game to appreciate the sequel. Fabraz’s work with platformers inspired Atari (yes, that Atari)1 to approach Fabraz and request them to make a modern Bubsy game. I want to say that happened after Demon Tides‘ demo was released, and that said demo’s success was a big part of why Atari made the offer, but that seems too tight a window of time, given Bubsy 4D‘s demo release date; whether I’m right or wrong about the exact timeline, the two games are clearly related in art style and general design ethos.
Both games exist only in demo form at the moment, with Demon Tides being the larger demo by far. Projected release dates range from late 2025 to early 2026. That said, I got several hours of entertainment out of the two of the demos alone—and for a price tag of free, that’s significant!
Who Made Them?
Fabraz is the developer of both games; self-described as “an independent game development studio that prides its diversity both in design, and its developers.” Fabraz also produces and publishes games.
Content Warnings
These games are both clean as a whistle. Well, Demon Tides makes use of the word “hell” on occasion, but the main characters are demons.
The Demos in Review
To make a long story short: both demos are free on Steam and are a lot of fun. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, as far as a good time is concerned, by giving them a try. I happily recommend them.
All right, that out of the way, let’s get a little more into the meat of each.
Bubsy 4D
Ah, Bubsy. You remember Bubsy, right? That platformer mascot legend who stands side-by-side with Mario and Sonic? The bobcat who can glide, for some reason? Yeah, that Bubsy!
Oh, wait a minute… That Bubsy…
All right, I admit, Bubsy was well before my time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Bubsy was never on the radar of any of my readers. However, despite never having played an older Bubsy game before, Bubsy’s legacy of… well, to be polite, absolutely terrible games was enough that I’d at least heard of the bobcat prior to Bubsy 4D‘s announcement, which is part of what sparked my interest in the first place.
Infamy is its own reward, I suppose. I want to give Bubsy some credit for competing against the titan of gaming that is Super Mario 64… but Bubsy 3D is just bad all on its own, legendarily bad, even fully out of the context of its competition. But Fabraz thinks that reputation is great (for Bubsy 4D), because it guarantees eyes on the new game; to Fabraz’s logic, if they can deliver the goods of an actually fantastic gameplay experience, the free advertisement will be more than worth it.
And I think that gamble paid off. In the demo, at least.
For me, the most important part of a video game is the gameplay. Almost anything else can be forgiven if the gameplay is good enough, because that’s what a video game is for. And Bubsy is just fun. The controls are a little on the slick side, but I never felt like I’d lost control of the titular bobcat; in fact, I usually found him quite responsive. The variety of moves available to Bubsy out of the gate was enough to feel substantial without being overwhelming, and being able to unlock more moves over time was a joy both because it gave me more tools to play around with and gave me strong incentive to seek out every collectible in each level.
“Furball Mode” ended up being an unexpected favorite of mine. With the press of a button Bubsy turns into a fat little ball that picks up speed as you roll around, allowing you to blast through levels at a ludicrous pace.
The levels were well-designed, too. I always had somewhere to go, an objective to move toward, and, most importantly, just moving around was fun.
Fortunately, despite having good gameplay, Bubsy 4D doesn’t need to rest on that alone to stand out. Bubsy’s glow-up is just incredible, for one.
I had mixed feelings about Bubsy’s attitude. I think it was AntDude who first described Bubsy as feeling along the lines of “a middle-aged dad who is both fully aware that he’s washed up and kinda trying to be cool anyway,” and I agree. Some of Bubsy’s self-aware (and often self-deprecating) jokes were quite amusing, as well as his observations of the strange world around him. I think I got just a little too much talking from Bubsy during each level, however—once I’d heard the same joke three or four times, it became annoying instead of worthy of a chuckle.
I also, on the lines of attitude and characterization, really appreciated Bubsy both not wanting to go on an adventure and having a wonderful time once out there; it felt pretty relatable to some of my own adventures as an adult.
Finally, the music was good, although it passed from my mind shortly after putting the game down. I really liked the art design—the cell shading is very attractive, the character designs are very distinctive, and the worlds made of yarn were whimsical and distinctive.
Demon Tides
Demon Tides has much less of a history than Bubsy 4D, but still an interesting one. Beebz’s (the protagonist) first outing was a well-received game called Demon Turf, where a demon girl set off on an adventure to become the Queen of Demons. Demon Turf featured platforming around various devilish environments, as well as collecting new platforming abilities to expand your movement options, which both make a return in Demon Tides; on the other hand, Beebz existed as a 2D character in a 3D world in her first game, for some reason, which I’m glad wasn’t carried over.
Anyway. In Demon Tides Beebz is now the Queen of Demons and she’s investigating an invitation to dinner by a mysterious figure who might be her father. En route to the meetup her ship crashes, stranding her in a mysterious and dangerous archipelago that she has to explore through in order to fix her ship up—while learning more and more of the dangerous and mysterious person she seeks.
As with Bubsy 4D, the gameplay of Demon Tides is strong—and the best reason to give it a try. Beebz’s move set is very different from Bubsy’s—I’d describe it as more technical. I think players who really like digging into a game’s mechanics and mastering them will have more to get out of Demon Tides than Bubsy 4D, but the controls and movement options are still approachable enough for me to have a great time on a relatively casual play through. I was also a huge fan of the open-ended levels: most of the forward push of the game is a need to collect gears to repair your boat, but once you know where the gears are you can hunt them down in any order of your choosing. This allows each area of the game to be tackled in vastly different ways, leading to each player having a pretty unique experience, which is always excellent when done well.
And if there is one thing that absolutely drips out of Demon Tides, it’s attitude. Beebz loves to stick out her tongue and throw out the devil’s horns; she’s often sassy or sarcastic (but still shows a soft side on occasion); oh, and you can spray graffiti just about anywhere you want in each level. What’s not to love?
Wrapping It Up
Have you ever heard of 1313 Mockingbird Lane? It was an attempted reboot for The Munsters—and I loved it. Unfortunately, only the pilot episode was ever made and released, and as a result it’s both really hard to get a copy of and people are often left disappointed after watching it even if they liked it, because they already know they’ll never see a new episode.
Fortunately, Bubsy 4D and Demon Tides aren’t going to be like that—and boy howdy I hope I don’t eat these words as the games’ release windows draw ever nearer. But whatever happens with the full game, at least the demos are easily accessible and low-commitment—and progress will carry over into the main game.
I would have a very hard time picking between the two games, if I had to—I enjoyed Bubsy’s movement options a little more, but I think I preferred the more open-ended ethos behind the level designs in Beebz’s games.
Ultimately, though, I enjoyed both, which is all that really matters in this sort of thing.
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In addition, I’m an indie author, and I think the books I’ve published are worth checking out. If you like science fiction, consider taking a look at The Failed Technomancer; if fantasy or found family are more your style, I’ve got Inner Demon.
- ET… Phone… Home… And have impossible to play video games that crash the market… ↩︎
Boo Ludlow 
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