Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind (Super Nintendo, 1992)

Reason for buying:
I've been familiar with the Genesis version of this game (over 3000 hours (!) logged since 1994) and I've always wondered what the SNES version looked like and what differences/bugs there were.

Gameplay:
Bubsy is a fairly challenging game (4-star difficulty, for a beginner in the genre). It's only challenging because of one thing - touch any hazard or any enemy while going up, Bubsy dies. There are no extra hits - one hit and you're out. Fortunately, there's plenty of extra lives lying around, about 120 (I've had 82 by level 10 - you start with 9), and several checkpoints (in the form of large exclamation points).

Along the way are several enemies (mostly as woolies, space aliens that stole the world's yarn supply), hazards (spikes and water - water is deadly in this game - touch it and Bubsy dies), and, very commonly, yarn balls.

There's a 10-minute time limit to complete the level (there's tricks to boost it, indirectly), but is plenty of time. Levels take about 7 minutes on the clock, except the desert ones which take 9 minutes (can be troublesome).

The game's faulty collision detection (it randomly fails for a frame) is troublesome too, causing cheap deaths. Fall faster than 16 pixels per frame (easy to do with enough height (especially the forest world)) and you risk falling through the land (this is rarely useful).

There are plenty of bugs around though, mostly minor and a few moderate ones. There's a crasher (no time and land on self-rising platform in level 9) that I have yet to test. One known severe bug exists - a checkpoint in level 8 near a cheese-wheel-forming woolie - you'll die until you use a continue.

Sound:
The sound effects are decent, though yarn-collecting could be a bit better. The music is yet another reason for trying out the SNES version. I've loved the Genesis versions - 2 music tracks hold records that boggle the mind. The music during levels 10 to 12 (the river world) is the main one, with a million plays so far (and counting as I type this). The music in this game is more "crisp", though it seems to have anomalies, particularly in looping. Take the river world again, after 2 normal loops, there's an odd "extension" of 4 measures that doesn't seem to fit (as if unfinished).

Graphics:
Beauty and funny. The eyes of the flying chickens go around in circles, as if dizzy. Bop a cheese wheel and the woolie that made it freaks out. The scenery is gorgeous. I particularly like the desert world and river world's scenery the most. The fair is close behind. The water in the river world is too dark and too opaque, looking quite bad (where's the waves at, like some other pools have?).

Fun stuff:
The one thing that keeps me at Bubsy is the extreme scrolling speed that's possible. It's the fastest scrolling speed I've seen to date. If you thought 24 pixels per frame was fast (from Sonic 3), that's slow compared to what I can get - 40+ (my record is 95 (taking 3 days to get)). This is done by using the eggs in certain areas (easiest with level 4). Objects like cheese wheels, fish, frogs, and a few others are also good for boosts in height (allowing for shortcuts), for extreme speed, though not as effective as the eggs are. Past 32 pixels per frame scrolling, drawing errors occur (textures are copied, deleted, and other such things).