Thanks to Spike Chunsoft for the review code
Title: BAKERU
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $39.99
Release Date: 09/03/2024
Story
In this charming, Japan-inspired 3D Platformer, you take control of Bakeru from the Tanuki clan, as he sets out with someone in need to explore Japan and free it from an evil Oracle!
This game is very inspired by old Japanese folklore, which gave me vibes to not just Goemon (being that some of the dev team worked on that IP), but even other stuff such as Far East of Eden and Momotaro, oddly enough. That mainly has to do with the game being incredibly goofy with the historical references, with lots of charming dialogue throughout the adventure, along with some wonderful localization work leading to a well-written adventure.
Presentation
BAKERU is by Good-Feel, a company famous for making some visually appealing collaborations with Nintendo, and you can definitely tell the game has a similar cartoony charm to their games just by looking at it. Sure, none of the characters in this old Japan setting are made of felt or yarn, but that doesn’t mean this game lacks visual creativity. From gorgeous 3D stages, cute enemy animations such as them trying to sell at a food stand or slide on a cruise ship, or the very expressive characters during the cutscenes, BAKERU is packed with charm, and looks great while docked.
However, I can’t say the same for the performance, though thankfully I didn’t find it to be as big of an issue here compared to a lot of other Switch ports. The game targets 60FPS and in smaller areas or spaces with not much going on, it hits that goal fairly well, but whenever bigger enemies or effects show up on screen, or you’re in a more spacious area, the frame rate dips. Thankfully, these dips didn’t impact the responsive controls for me whatsoever, and usually the worst dips that took place after blowing up a bunch of things would resolve themselves rather quickly.
I will note that in handheld mode, the sharp visuals take a hit and look a lot rougher, and the game is still bumpy with frame rate even here, so this ended up being a rare case where I preferred playing a game in Docked because at least the framerate dips were more tolerable for me with the game looking as good as it did, while I wasn’t really a fan of it still going on with the game looking crunchier in Handheld.
The audio here is fairly good too; nothing super memorable or anything, but a lot of cheerful compositions fitting of the setting and some solid Japanese voice acting sprinkled here and there lead to a pleasant sounding experience. No complaints here, just don’t expect to find your next favorite song here.
Gameplay
BAKERU is a 3D action platformer, where the main goal of each stage is to reach a tower at the end and free it from the Oracle’s dark influence. You mainly do this by smashing corrupted lanterns with your two drumsticks, while also beating up a bunch of enemies that stand in your way, using the L and R buttons to control each of your hands. You can even gain powers that let you charge the L or R button individually to pull off a special move, which helps further the damage Bakeru can do, and the controls in general are incredibly tight, with precise 3D movement.
Wanna spin through enemies like Sonic? Hold down L and just become a spinning wheel and shred through those grunts. Wanna do a cool dash move, not unlike how some of those Metal Heroes would pull off a finisher move? While Bakeru ain’t Spielban, he can still do a devastating forward strike by holding down R. The most helpful of these charge moves though come from holding both buttons together, which causes Bakeru to slam into the ground and wipe the floor with anything underneath him, and even helps discover hidden lanterns and other secrets buried underground.
Considering how most of the grunts are rather easy, it just feels super satisfying to chain combos into charge attacks and destroy enemies that stand in your way, almost giving me that Warriors-esque satisfaction without the hordes of framerate killing enemies. As I noted before, this game does have a fluctuating framerate, but thankfully I didn’t find it to impact the controls all that much, even if it can get visually distracting.
You also get the ability to transform into various forms thanks to the power of Henge licenses, which allow Bakeru to power up for as long as his meter can last. There aren’t many of these and you get them fairly early on, and I found the base form to be useful enough for the bulk of enemies, but these Henge abilities can help out in a pinch for tougher encounters, or by helping find a secret or two by letting you shrink down into small passageways. Truth be told, I found the two new moves added to this western release far more useful in combat than any of the Henge abilities, so I’d only pull them out if I needed to or if I was about to lose all my health.
While the stages largely follow the same concept, the game does try to shake things up now and then; whether they be from a racing stage, a boss fight, or other such things, BAKERU throws in the occasional diversion to keep the game from just being 3D platformer levels, and I feel that’s a smart choice since the stages do begin to feel rather samey if you binge them back to back in a short session. These levels are pretty long, especially if you’re looking at every corner for the collectibles, so this game definitely can get repetitive in long bursts.
Still, I couldn’t help but find myself having fun here. Good-Feel tends to produce games on the easier side of things, and BAKERU is no exception. Checkpoints are plentiful and dying will only decrease your coin total, akin to Super Mario Odyssey. You can keep trying trickier sections until you figure out how to get past them, and overall the game is very chill and just lets you mash away, which I honestly like quite a bit!
Like I noted earlier, unleashing the charge attacks is the more entertaining way of taking out enemies, and BAKERU shrines more as a casual game to make your way through without stress, while not being insultingly easy like some of Good-Feel’s earlier titles. (Looking at you, Kirby’s Epic Yarn) You might get defeated by tougher enemies who will counter your attacks if you just mash away, but luckily you also have the ability to dodge out of the way or put up your drum as a shield to deal with the tougher attacks, so all that manages to help Bakeru feel swift enough to control, and all in all just comes together to be a very fun 3D platforming experience.
Conclusion
BAKERU managed to come together for a very fun romp, even with some of that typical Switch behavior poking up at points. This definitely stood out as a fun 3D platformer to play, and while I would have liked the performance to have been a bit better, I think the gorgeous visuals in Docked mode more than make up for that minor setback. (that and the fact there’s a PC version, for those who absolutely cannot tolerate a single frame dip even if playability is fine like it is here)
Sure, you won’t get challenged all that much, but BAKERU is the fun kind of easy game, and not the sort of overcorrection they did with Kirby’s Epic Yarn back in the day. You feel like a powerful force from the very beginning, and only keep growing stronger as you gain new moves and Henge transformations to take advantage of, so it always feels good to charge up an attack and plow through a bunch of enemies.
Plus, there are plenty of collectibles, hidden trivia and lost Tanuki to keep you coming back to earlier stages, and I find the game to be the perfect way to chill if other games happen to be frustrating you. BAKERU is just plain ol fun, and we could always use another game like that. It also helps this is a good 3D platformer in a shrinking field of them, and one I’ll be looking forward to fully completing from top to bottom further down the line when my overall queue is knocked out; this was easily one of the most pleasant surprises of the year thus far, and is definitely one you should check out regardless of system!
I give BAKERU an 8 out of 10.