Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back Resurrects '90s Platforming Darling

Since the games industry has depleted its pool of beloved gaming icons to bring back to life after decades of absence, it’s time for the not-so-beloved to make their returns as well. Such is life. Case in point – Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back. It is a revival of ’90s most irritating cat, complete with an even more irritating voice. There’s a short trailer to go with the announcement.

To be fair, the early titles weren’t as annoying, but the series will always be remembered by Bubsy 3D, which was what people usually call a crime against humanity. Several years back, it got an unofficial revival in the form of the Bubsy 3D: Bubsy Visits the James Turrell Retrospective, which is actually good. That should’ve been it, but somebody somewhere decided to go all necromancery and dig up Bubsy, along with its old publisher, Accolade.

The Woolies Strike Back is being developed by Black Forest Games, the studio that was also behind the Giana Sisters revival. They obviously know their stuff when it comes to necromancy. It’s going to be a 2D sidescrolling platformer in which you collect yarn balls of various colors. It makes sense, really. Why risk it with a new IP, when you can take one that everyone already knows and loves? Like Bubsy.

I’m sorry, I’m just baffled that somebody actually aproved this. Someone sat behind a desk and thought to themselves: “I know. What the world of 2017 needs is an unironic Bubsy game.” Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’ll end world hunger. Maybe it’ll even be a good game.

Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back is supposed to launch at some point during Fall 2017, on PC and Playstation 4. Xbox One and Nintendo Switch users seem to have dodged a bullet, but it’s to early to tell.