You may already know Good Feel for their work on some of the modern Yoshi titles and the recent Princess Peach Showtime. Today, they bring a wholly original work in the form of BAKERU, a sort of spiritual successor to Mystical Ninja Goemon. With rhythm and whimsy on full display, just what does it bring to the table?
A Jaunt Across Japan
In BAKERU, you play as the eponymous character as you hop around in a 3D platformer styled somewhat after Mystical Ninja Goemon. Bakeru is equipped with all sorts of moves to help him on his quest. Rather than attack with his fists, Bakeru instead uses a wadaiko drum and drumsticks. The left and right drumsticks are assigned to their respective shoulder buttons, and the order and tempo you hit them with will affect exactly how Bakeru strikes his opponents. But to be honest, this little nuance matters very little. It highlights a problem I have with BAKERU as a whole, it feels like there are a lot of mechanics, but they aren’t very interesting to use a lot of the time.
On top of his melee attacks, you can perform a parry attack, able to knock enemies off balance and reflect projectiles. However, I never once bothered with this because mindlessly mashing the attack button squared away most enemies relatively easily. The same applies to his dodge roll, where you can phase through any attack with good timing. Once the difficulty ramped up to a point that I wanted to use these abilities, the credits were rolling soon after.
This unfortunately also applies to Bakeru’s “Henge” ability, where he’ll transform into various different shapes and sizes to help overcome certain stage obstacles. A fine idea by itself, but its utilization leaves something to be desired. If I see a hole I can’t fit in or a gap I can’t cross, I’ll shrink so I can enter those holes or float across those gaps. It’s very much a “fit the square in the square hole” design mentality that unfortunately applies to all transformations. It’s still a decent enough inclusion, but I never really needed to think about when and where to use them.
As a result of this, I also never bothered with the game’s shop system outside of a speedup item. With each enemy defeated, you gather coins to collect upgrades such as food to recover health, permanent health upgrades, and items that would take one hit for you. But not getting hit is easy if you know what you’re doing, so it was faster to just plow through the game rather than save for items I didn’t really need.
Lots of Levels and Rhythmic Rumbles
Where BAKERU primarily shines is in its strong level variety. Taking place across Japan’s various prefectures, the locales are highly cartoonish reinterpretations of the country’s scenery and famous locations. Much of the time this results in some fairly standard platforming levels, like running through forest mazes or beachside jogs where you’re harassed by giant turtles. But others will have you climb across the hills of Kanagawa in the midst of autumn, jumping over logs barreling downhill and fighting samurai along the way. Another early one has you jumping across scaffolding scattered all about Aichi’s rooftop. It’s a good mixture of ideas that are comfortable and familiar, plus ones that are more inspired and out-there.
Other times, BAKERU throws out all pretenses and suddenly has you competing in go-karting and other weird games. It’s even complete with doing tricks off of ramps and getting items based on good lap times. This doesn’t happen too often, but often enough to make me feel like things never got overly formulaic.
These are further interspersed by the game’s boss battles, which are usually entirely combat-focused. These have all of the same issues I mentioned with combat earlier, in that they’re too easy and button mashing is rewarded heavily. Thankfully, they’re saved by fun presentation, good music, and generally being somewhat more resilient than regular enemies. If anything, they’re fun to cut loose on and beat down.
Scholars and Souvenirs
I think it’s good that some level of education is included in games meant to be played by kids. Brain candy is nice and all, but that sort of enrichment can go a long way. This is why I’m a big fan of BAKERU’s collectibles, which are almost all educational or fun facts. Breaking gashapon capsules will net you souvenirs, 3D items that are, well, souvenirs from the current prefecture you’re exploring. They don’t do anything in terms of gameplay, but they’re fun to collect thanks to clever placement. It’s always a treat to fully comb through all of a level’s nooks and crannies, and these do a good job in encouraging that.
Next up are Scoop’s pieces of trivia. These are much smaller collectibles shaped like piles of… you-know-what. These are more direct in that you’re not given items, but instead are given historical trivia about Japan and some tips on everyday affairs. One tip can be about the history of an old castle, and another can be about how to deal with airplane pressure. These often aren’t found far off the main path, but are instead hidden through clever camera tricks and obstacles that you might not think twice about. They left me appropriately paranoid as I was left looking for things hiding in plain sight.
BAKERU is far from being full-blown edutainment, but by the end of the game, I was almost left wishing that more kids games worked like this. I didn’t know a solid 90% of the facts the game told me about, so I came away from it feeling a bit more educated and curious than before. In a way, I find that more meaningful than if the collectibles had been conventional power-ups.
Framerate Frustrations
BAKERU’s biggest sin by far is in its framerate, at least in my experience on Nintendo Switch. While it’s uncapped and can go as high as 60FPS, don’t ever expect such smoothness outside of a few niche scenarios. It fluctuates like mad, going as far down as what feels like single-digit frames. On top of this, it adds an unpleasant layer of input latency whenever these framerate issues get particularly ugly. In one moment, Bakuru may be reasonably responsive, but in another it feels as if all of my inputs are going through waist-high water.
I mentioned earlier that I didn’t get much use out of Bakeru’s parry ability, and this input latency issue is a big reason why. Parrying requires consistent timing and readability, which is all but an impossibility when timing is at the mercy of a jittery framerate. It’s hard to get in the zone and really show off when it works like this. The game is mercifully not very difficult to me, but I imagine this will be a big point of frustration for players who are less experienced.
It’s a shame, because the game has a strong presentation outside of that. It uses a colorful cel-shaded with lots of pomp and pizzazz. Many characters, enemies, and level aesthetics are cartoonish interpretations of Japanese myths and landmarks. It works to excellent effect and gives BAKERU a very distinct flair. This is further enhanced by the game’s music, which is primarily arranged using Asian instruments. It’s good stuff, and although there isn’t an English dub for this game, a Japanese voiceover feels right for it anyway.
Verdict
BAKERU is a charming, inspired game that’s unfortunately dragged pretty far down by its framerate issues. When working at its best, it’s an especially fun integration of culture and fun platforming mechanics. While it’s let down somewhat by a number of gameplay features feeling underutilized, I ultimately thought what I played was a fun time… But it bears repeating that this is mainly when its technical issues aren’t getting in the way of that enjoyment. I would definitely recommend this game, but maybe wait for a patch or two first.
BAKERU IS RECOMMENDED
If you are interested in another adventure game, consider checking out Umbraclaw.
Thank you to Spike Chunsoft for providing a Nintendo Switch review code for BAKERU.
A hobbyist who took up the pen to write about their favorite pastime: games. While a lover of many genres, Isaiah Parker specializes in Platformers, RPGs, and competitive multiplayer titles. The easiest way into his heart is to have great core gameplay mechanics. Self-proclaimed world’s biggest Sonic fan. Follow him @ZinogreVolt
