[Interesting Trope] Attempts at fanservice/virality that failed not because they were hated, but because nobody noticed them or cared at all.

[u/mp3help]

1) Hoopy the Hoop, Portal (2007) When you defeat GLaDOS and her room is destroyed at the end of the game, debris rains down in the final cutscene, including a big metal hoop that bounces around a bit. Developer Erik Wolpaw said the team dubbed it "Hoopy the Hoop" and expected it to become the big meme of Portal. Of course, none of the fans paid much attention to the hoop since "The Cake is a Lie" became the biggest meme of the game, and overall one of the biggest video game memes of all time.

2) Burgh, Pokemon Black and White (2010) When designing Burgh, developer Yusuke Ohmura said Gamefreak had many of their female employees give input on his design to create their ideal handsome man. However, as someone who's been in the Pokemon fandom for almost 3 decades, in the 15+ years since Pokemon Black and White released, I have personally never seen any fans swoon over Burgh, or even mention him in general. If anything, characters like N and Colress are far more well-known within the fandom as the most handsome and beloved male characters of Pokemon Gen 5.

[u/BoulderCreature]

Bubsy is the epitome of this to me and I’m always surprised when I hear they’re making another game with him. There’s one very average Bubsy game and a ton of dogshit ones and yet people keep deciding to make more

[u/SavageNorth → u/BoulderCreature]

Bubsy was straight up the worst offender, all three of his original games were considered atrocious with the third one being widely considered a contender for worst PS1 game ever made

The character himself was so exgriegiously annoying, so steeped in out of touch design by executive committee that he was widely reviled on release, a completely unironically pinnacle of the character archetype.

Anyway, fast forward 20 years and his terrible games start popping up as content for game reviewers looking for an easy target, in the internet era this naturally is developed into something of an ironic fandom and led to new games being developed as they knew people would buy it just to rip on it.

By all accounts the new ones aren't much better but what did people really expect

[u/BoulderCreature → u/SavageNorth]

Bubsy 3D was the first game I got for PlayStation and I still kinda marvel that I stuck with video games after playing that slop. Still haven’t experienced a worse game than that

[u/Nerevarine91 → u/BoulderCreature]

It’s literally not finished. Even calling it a game feels like a stretch. It’s barely a modeling demo

[u/Lohenngram → u/BoulderCreature]

Still haven’t experienced a worse game than that

That was the reason you stuck with gaming! Because after starting with Bubsy 3D, literally everything was a step up from it.

[u/BubsyFanboy → u/SavageNorth]

Four games.

And yet you remember him. Because unlike the other mascots of the era, he's not some edgelord, but a dork.

You'd be surprised by both the quality of the new games and the unironic fanbase.

[u/SavageNorth → u/BubsyFanboy]

Eh the new games are at best mid

They're a step up from the originals but let's be real, the bar is a trip hazard in hell

[u/BubsyFanboy → u/SavageNorth]

Except the first game (Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind) is genuinely really good and either 2 or FFT is fun too depending who you ask. Only 3D is the one that is unfinished, but even it has interesting ideas (Bubsy 3D camera > Mario 64 camera; tank controls would be fitting if the game doubled down on being a puzzle game)

But the new games are easier if you're into that and Bubsy 4D is genuinely fun.

[u/SavageNorth → u/BubsyFanboy]

I've played the originals dude

None of them are particularly good, they have fall damage in a platformer FFS

3D was a hot mess but it's also clearly unfinished so it's hard to really judge it as a game

New ones are fine, inoffensive but forgettable given the modern competition

[u/BubsyFanboy → u/SavageNorth]

Fall damage is not a problem at all if you know how to glide. If anything it's more intuitive than Mario 64's ground pound cancelling the fall.

And Bubsy 4D doesn't really have much competition atm aside from the devs themselves (Demon Tides).

[u/NoCry8625 → u/BubsyFanboy]

I was gonna accuse you of ragebaiting but then I saw your username.

I guess I too have been a fan boy of bad games and refused to accept their problems lmao.

[u/BubsyFanboy → u/NoCry8625]

Oh, I am aware of their faults. I just think people often place them in the wrong areas. The most heavily memed and repeated criticisms are often the dumbest ones.

[u/tinyrottedpig → u/BoulderCreature]

I think the funniest part is that for some reason the most recent game (Bubsy 4D) was actually really good, I really loved that they leaned into the idea that he's past his "prime", but his prime was actually just him being an annoying weird mascot no one liked.

Him being this older guy going through a mid life crisis made his antics and nonstop talking actually charming rather than irritating, because the game knows he's lame and plays into that fact, so it integer overloads back into genuinely being endearing with how much he tries to be relatable.

[u/BoulderCreature → u/tinyrottedpig]

Huh, that’s pretty interesting, but I’m still not going to try it

[u/Sea-Writer-6961 → u/BoulderCreature]

Also whoever is in charge of the art has a furry paw fetish

[u/Commercial-Paint-319 → u/Sea-Writer-6961]

I had not noticed that but now that you mention it uhhhhhh🥶

[u/ConcerningThirst → u/BoulderCreature]

They made one that came out this year after a very long hiatus, looked good and got decent reviews.

[u/BubsyFanboy → u/BoulderCreature]

Sooooo is it just one game or multiple?

Pedantics aside, nah, most Bubsy games are just average or actually good.