Bubsy in : Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind

Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind for Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 1993 side-scrolling platform game published by Accolade. It introduces Bubsy, the wisecracking bobcat who became the centerpiece of the Bubsy series, in an adventure that sends him after the alien Woolies. The story begins when the yarn-obsessed invaders descend on Earth to steal its supply of yarn, including Bubsy’s prized collection. Developed for the SNES by Solid Software under the Accolade banner, the game combines fast horizontal movement, cartoon-styled animation, and a succession of hazard-filled stages.

Bubsy’s main goal is to cross each timed chapter, collect yarn balls, and survive the Woolies and their assorted henchmen. He can run in either direction, brake by pressing against his momentum, and use a pounce to defeat enemies from above. Holding the pounce button changes the jump’s height and the rebound after a successful hit, so movement can carry Bubsy across ledges, over hazards, or onward from one enemy to another. A separate glide lets him float through the air and steer his descent; combining it with a pounce produces a higher, longer leap. The SNES options screen allows the pounce and glide buttons to be reassigned, along with audio settings.

Yarn balls are the central collectible, appearing in ordinary, colored, changing, and crate-packed varieties that add to Bubsy’s score. Stages also contain checkpoint markers, which set the point where he returns after losing a life, while continues and numbered T-shirts can increase his chances of pressing on. Other T-shirt power-ups give Bubsy temporary invisibility to enemies or temporary invincibility against enemies, though environmental dangers such as water and spikes still matter. Each chapter has a countdown clock, and leftover time contributes to the score at its end, making quick, careful route-finding part of the challenge.

The adventure moves through a deliberately varied set of cartoon environments rather than a single alien world. The instruction book describes routes through a village, carnival, canyon train, river, and forest, with travel devices such as roller coasters, water slides, rafts, rocket cars, and warp caves. Some caves reposition Bubsy within a stage or lead to hidden yarn stores, encouraging exploration beyond the most direct path. Woolies come from the planet Bayon, and the manual’s comic-book framing gives their royal leaders, Rayon, Poly, and Ester, a comically grand place in the invasion plot. The game supports one player or two players taking turns, and it uses passcodes awarded after groups of chapters to resume progress later.

Michael Berlyn designed Bubsy, with Ken Macklin credited for the character’s design and animation; John A. S. Skeel and Cynthia Kirkpatrick produced the SNES version. The Super NES release arrived in 1993, alongside a Sega Genesis edition, while the Japanese Super Famicom version was titled Yamaneko Bubsy no Daibouken. Although the title is often shortened simply to Bubsy, this is the series’ first game and establishes the bobcat’s yarn fixation, airborne glide, and comic dialogue-driven personality. Its combination of rapid platforming, branching detours, collectables, and eccentric set pieces makes Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind a defining early entry in Accolade’s mascot-platform era.