A complaint I heard often about this game is that it's hard. (among other fairly irrational complaints that it sucks because Bubsy just sucks.)

I remember as a kid, my Auntie (a late teen/young adult at the time) was an absolute boss at this game on the family SNES and the only person we knew who was any good at it.
We had a modest SNES game collection yet nobody else gave this game the time of day. But my auntie loved it and moved about as Bubsy fast and effortlessly while the rest of my fam could barely complete the early levels briskly despite a number of attempts to pick it up.
So yes, it's pretty challenging and mainly frustrating, but the game looked pretty fun when I could watch her breeze through it.

That being said, to me it seemed like the levels were packed with hazards and tricky traps and because of the faster pace of the game at times, you fall prey to them very often.

While I've only heard and not witnessed the failures of follow-up Bubsy titles, all I can say is that I think people are too caught up in believing that Bubsy sucks in its entirety and neglect this pretty whimsical albeit hard-to-maneuver series debut.
I think it's senselessly overhated, worth trying, a unique experience, but not exactly a great platformer in any sense.