[14] Eventually burning out on the genre, he came across the original Sonic the Hedgehog and ended up playing it 14 hours a day, for a whole week, in order to find inspiration to do his own take on it.

The Genesis version, which was the first one being worked on, was to be released in September 1992, but Accolade's legal troubles with Sega caused the game to be delayed.

[16] Director John Skeel said in an interview that they wanted to create a game "as fast as Sonic and as deep as Mario" that would be easy to play but hard to master.

[18] In December 1992, some children who resided near Accolade's office in San Jose, California, were invited to have pizza, soda, and to test play the game.

Their suggestion to add more secret paths was picked up, resulting in the inclusion of some underground tube ways in the first level.

[9] In January 1993 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a Bubsy mascot leaped out of a sack to greet spectators.

Winners of the lottery would win a 6-day trip to tourist locations in California, receive $500 in cash, and meet the game's developers.

[22] In Spain, a contest of drawing Bubsy fanart was put up where the winners would receive a cap, a hairpin, a shirt, a cup, and a rain coat.

[4] It contained completely redrawn graphics, and, if the player collects all 20 hidden TVs, this unlocks the Bubsy cartoon pilot that was never picked up for further episodes.

[72] Andy Eddy highly praised the game's nonlinear level designs in VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, but criticized that Bubsy suffers from uncontrollable momentum.

However, she praised the graphics and judged Bubsy to have more personality than Sonic the Hedgehog thanks to his charming animations and voice clips.