Review: Bakeru – Destructoid

I sometimes feel like I am missing the nutrients that are in the Ganbare Goemon series, but then I remember that I’m still playing it. New fan translations are still coming in. However, I want to ensure a future supply, and here Bakeru comes in.

At least that’s what I thought. To be honest, the inspiration is definitely there, Bakeru is also deficient in the type of nutrients found in Ganbare GoemonThis may not be as bad as it sounds, but it certainly means you need to check your expectations.

Bakeru (PC, Switch (tested))
Developer: Good-Feel
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Published: September 3, 2024
MSRP: $39.99

Bakeru comes to us from Good-Feel, the people behind Kirby and the Magic Yarn And Yoshi’s woolly world. More relevant to this discussion is the fact that they were founded by people who escaped from Konami. There are many on the team who are interested in developing a Ganbare Goemon game, including Etsunobu Ebisu, who helped program the second Famicom title in 1989 and whose appearance formed the basis for Ebisumaru, Goemon’s sidekick.

The core idea behind Bakeru was probably a spiritual successor of Ganbare Goemon. You have a blue-haired main character traveling through a crazy version of Japan, and the antagonist’s strategy is to hold an endless festival to enslave the population. The main character is a tanuki rather than a noble thief, and it’s modern Japan with traditional elements rather than Edo-era Japan full of anachronisms, but it gets pretty close.

From then on, the differences increase. Bakeru plays very well, while I can’t remember having played a 3D Goemon game that didn’t feel loose and shaky. The title character attacks with Taiko drumsticks (and included drum) used alternately with the left and right bumpers. You don’t necessarily have to have for turns, and the game is simple enough that you don’t need to know all the moves, but it might be more exciting than beating people up with a pipe.

Unfortunately, after about a dozen levels, I realized I wasn’t enjoying it. You travel from prefecture to prefecture, but the visuals are a little too simplistic. Of course, they’re weird abstractions of reality (I don’t know why Okinawa is an underwater resort), but they’re often wide, flat corridors filled with groups of enemies.

It gets better once you beat the first part of the game. It improves so much that while I was scared to slog through the remaining 50+ levels, that fear vanished after the first 16 levels. The gameplay changes so you clear regions one prefecture at a time, and more interesting level variations are added. After that, I wasn’t excited, but it got fun enough that I didn’t feel like I was slogging through it until I had to play through the last major part of the game for this review. You’re better off not doing that. Play it bit by bit.

The level design never gets fantastic, but it does get more playful. The visual variety between prefectures can be quite large, and new obstacles are constantly popping up, sometimes for a single level. For every two that feel like tokens, there’s usually one that’s more surprising. It wasn’t enough to completely hook me, but it’s fun.

It can be difficult to find the reason for this Bakeru will be the (admittedly often rough) Ganbare Goemon series, but I think the main reason might surprise you: There are no hotels. There are no hot springs to bathe in (although there are levels set there), nor are there silly, pointless mini-games to waste your time on. There is no selection of restaurants that all serve the same function. There are no towns at all.

This may sound like an inappropriate comparison. Bakeru does not have to follow the (very malleable) formula of Goemonit can be its own thing. Many of the side activities in Goemon may seem superfluous. But upon closer inspection, they are necessary to connect the journeys and break up the levels. They are a vector that draws you into the game’s world, however bizarre it may be.

Without them, you have over 50 separate levels. Since you never see a citizen of Japan in these prefectures (unless they’ve become those masked people), the world feels empty. As gorgeous as it is, there’s a certain desolation when no one tells you that Oracle Saitaro may be a madman, but at least he doesn’t have to work for today because of the invasion. Instead, all you hear is conversations between Bakeru and the circle of friends he’s gathered around him. It’s pretty lonely.

But even if you the mood, Bakerus The moment-to-moment gameplay isn’t spectacular. There are platforming elements and new mechanics keep being added, but nothing profound. At the end of the first act, you get four transformations, but again, these aren’t profound. There were many levels where I didn’t use them at all. They’re entirely combat-focused, except for one, so a transformation is rarely necessary. I feel like it’s a mixed bag to not add a unique ability to everyone.

While it’s not exciting, the gameplay is pretty polished. The framerate would drop on the Switch version, but that’s the only major flaw I saw. The graphics are clean and colorful, the controls are precise, and the combat is responsive and flows well. But I think that’s part of the problem. It’s so smoothly polished that there are no edges. Bakerus Ambition never goes very far, so it doesn’t really stumble. Banal but well-executed is rarely better than ambitious and shaky.

At least the soundtrack is pretty good. Some of the tracks feel like they were written by a Ganbare Goemon game. It’s a nice mix of traditional Japanese instrumentation and video game-specific melodies.

Bakeru is a love letter to the country of Japan, that much is clear. When I traveled around the country, I was always interested in seeing how the prefectures I visited were represented. I can only imagine how exciting it is for the people who actually live there. One of the collectibles you collect in each level is trivia, a mix of facts about the area and just plain weird and interesting stuff. If there is an area that Bakeru is extremely effective, it is the way it portrays Japan.

Everywhere else it’s less successful. It’s not bad. I’d even say it’s very solid. It’s just a bit boring. In its effort to provide a smooth interface, it’s sanded off a lot of personality. Although it’s over 50 (rather long) levels long, I probably won’t remember much about it in a few months Bakeru. It offers a loving depiction of Japan, but doesn’t let you live in it. You can visit the resort, but you can’t leave. All I’m saying is: a fight between a teapot robot and a giant onigiri is much more effective if you know the people you’re stepping on.

_{(This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.)}