Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025 has come and gone, and if you tuned into the whole two-hour show, you may have been rewarded with roughly five minutes of actually interesting announcements. Onimusha looks great, Unbeatable finally has a release date, and, well, I’m sure something else notable happened in there. But as with all of the infinitely multiplying Geoff Keighley-hosted games showcases, it was more show than games. And in what seems to be turning into a pattern, more and more announcements are getting crammed into a lengthy pre-show — and it turns out that’s where they’re keeping most of the good stuff.
The first big announcement of the pre-show was also by far the most surprising: Bubsy 4D. Listen, I know. The original Bubsy games on the SNES and Sega Genesis and their PlayStation sequel are basically punchlines, seen as mediocre Sonic the Hedgehog ripoffs at best. The very idea of bringing Bubsy back sounds like a joke itself. But there’s a very good reason to give Bubsy 4D a fair shot — developer Fabraz. After releasing the phenomenal platformer Demon Turf in 2021, Fabraz has spent the past few years working on Demon Tides, a follow-up that could be even better, based on its excellent Steam demo. The name Bubsy may not inspire confidence, but Fabraz’s track record for making platformers that feel incredible to play, with some of the wildest movement you’ve ever seen, sure does.
