#bubsy 2

What video game will you defend forever?

Feed your dashboard by answering my question, blogger.

See every time you look for worst Sega games somehow Bubsy ends on top. I got both Bubsy and Bubsy 2 and disagree. Is it really a good game? No. Is it the worst? Also no. I have really enjoyed playing both and have also replayed them more then enough times.

Name: Lamb-Bo

Debut: Bubsy 2

I have been tied to my chair, and forced to cover a Bubsy enemy. I am not doing this because I want to. I am doing this out of legal obligation. I wish I didn’t have to do this, but what I’ve learned is that no one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful. Therefore, I am writing about a Bubsy enemy. Save me.

But at least the enemy in question is pretty dang weird! This is a sheep named Lamb-Bo with bullets strapped around its waist. I figure this enemy will try to shoot me with a gun, right? Well, they better make it count! Better make it hurt! Better kill me in one shot!

But nope! Lamb-Bo has no gun at all, instead they just bleat at you, firing soundwaves from a distance. Think of this more-or-less as Bubsy’s equivalent to the Boomboxer! I like sound-based long-range attackers, it’s a trope I see fairly frequently, and you know what? It’s not one that disappoints me much. And in that regard, I like Lamb-Bo!

What confuses me about Lamb-Bo, though, is the weird, haphazard Rambo reference. Why does this sheep have a round of bullets around its waist if it’s never gonna fire them? Why is this enemy associated with Rambo at all? Does Rambo have some famous war cry that knocks out all his enemies? I don’t know! I’ve never watched First Blood at all and know nothing about Rambo lore.

Everyone loves Nerf. Safe, brightly colored weaponry, that allows you to shoot at your friends and family without doing harm (unless you aim for the eyes). 

Back in 1994, Nerf dropped one of their mightiest guns ever seen at that time. The Ballzooka

Pump-action, rotating turret capable of firing up to 10 balls. Even describing it like that makes it sound beastly. The commercial  does a great job of selling it. Cool kid with a blonde bowl-cut, shooting balls at an AT-ST Walker, until it collapses. The Ballzooka should’ve been called the Ballpocalypse.

Nerf wanted to push the marketing just a bit further, and what better way to reach the 8 to15 year old demographic than to stick your product in a video game!?

Enter Bubsy 2, the sequel to the critically-acclaimed Bubsy: Claws Encounters of The Furred Kind. Nerf and Accolade reached an agreement to allow Bubsy to use the Ballzooka as one of his main weapons. 

Regardless of your feelings on Bubsy. You got to admit, that’s pretty friggin’ cool. Personally, I’m a fan of any game that allows you to use toys as weponry. 

Just in case you think it’s a coincidence, the Bubsy 2 box proudly displays the Nerf and Ballzooka name on the back of the box. 

Also, here’s a poster featuring Bubsy and a line-up of Accolade SNES titles next to a collection of Nerf products.

The relationship ended after Bubsy 2 and the Nerf gun was absent in Bubsy 3D. 

Bubsy 2 wasn’t the last time gamers would see the Ballzooka. Five years after Bubsy 2, Hasbro Interactive released Nerf Arena Blast for PC. A Quake-like FPS, designed for a younger audience that uses a variety of Nerf products to blast opponents with.