BAKERU Reviews

I love all of Good-Feel's games so far and Bakeru does not disappoint! Levels are designed in a way similar to Mario 3D World. Some with fixed camera angles and others with a free camera. Each level takes place in a different part of Japan, so you get quite a tour of the country. You attack with drum sticks which are set to the shoulder buttons by default when playing with a controller. Most enemies can be defeated by mashing or with charged attacks. You gain different outfits you can toggle to change how you attack. Along with platforming levels, there are shoot em up levels, racing and boss battles. In usual Good-Feel fashion, each stage is chock full of collectibles to find if you aim to go for 100%. I tend to take my time in games and it took me around 27 hours to get everything minus some achievements.

[h1]Bakeru is a wonderful action platformer game filled with adventure that scratches that old Goemon itch[/h1] If you're like me then you've been wanting a modern Goemon adventure for many many years. I was skeptical when I saw Bakeru but decided to bite the bullet and gave it a shot, and I'm so glad that I did. In my review I'm going to go into various aspects of Bakeru, so I'll definitely have some spoilers in my review so I can properly talk about the game without restrictions. Bakeru is a collectathon game that hits all the right notes, with the only real flaw being the extremely easy difficulty. I'll try to briefly touch on the positives and negatives of the game. Bakeru does nearly everything right in terms of execution. The game is an action platformer, with more emphasis on action and combat. Every enemy is inspired by some facet of Japanese culture. The enemies are incredibly charming and cute, but there isn't really much to them other than smacking them with your bachi drum sticks. Every level has 5 pieces of interesting trivia (usually related to Japanese culture) unlocked by finding a tiny, cute little character named Scoop, who wears a yellow beanie and a yellow puffy jacket. Every level also has 3 souvenirs that are found in the map by breaking an object that resembles a Gachapon capsule. Later on certain levels have a hidden tanuki that transforms themselves into an object in the map, and the player has to identify those objects. This is accomplished by observing objects as you explore the map. They'll have a hint...for example, like a Soda Machine but it'll have tanuki logo on it. I found this mechanic really fun, but the game does little to explain how to find these hidden tanukis... I thought this was a dropped ball, as I searched my first map for an extremely long time and didn't know where to look. Early on you're able to use a power called Henge! Every Henge gives Bakeru different abilities that are helpful during battles, or useful for discovering items in a map. I personally felt that the Henge's weren't balanced well and were extremely strong, with the Fishing Rod Henge being significantly stronger than all of the other abilities. I also felt that the Henge resource meter depleted too quickly, but there's a way to adjust that much much later in the game. Every level is a unique, handcrafted experience, and you can really feel the love that went into the game. It's so fun to see what the next stage is going to be. I never really got bored because the levels kept everything fresh and exciting. Later on in the game there are giant kaiju boss battles in the form of a boxing match. This was so refreshing to see...I really feel as if Bakeru celebrates everything Japanese, and it's such a celebration of Japanese folk-lore, and culture. I think the level design was top notch. Sometimes you're on a beach level, or a lava level...other times you're on a construction site. Some levels are similar thematically, but almost every single level introduces something new and beautiful to look at. The enemies in the game are based on Japanese folklore creatures. It was super interesting to see what creatures would come next. I think every enemy feels extremely polished, and interesting but there definitely could have been variety in the enemies. There are tons of enemies, but by the end of the game I felt as if I've seen every enemy hundreds of times each and really felt some repetition. The game also mixes it up with interesting but short shmup levels, and racing-type levels. Every boss fight was such a cool experience. I personally enjoyed the kaiju fights the most, and Bakeru really tapped into the power fantasy of piloting a giant robot. The music in the game is absolutely glorious. I can't stress how perfect the music is. The music of the game makes use of Japanese instruments, and really sets the stage for exploring a beautiful reimagining of Japan. I'll definitely be listening to the soundtrack for a long time. Towards the end of the game, I did start to also feel like I've heard every song multiple times, along with enemy repetition...but yeah the music brings me right back to playing Goemon on the N64. There really isn't much more I can say about it Bakeru is an extremely polished game. I honestly felt it was Nintendo-levels of polished, and when I looked up Good Feel's other games, I was surprised to see that they worked on actual first party Nintendo games like "Princess Peach: Showtime!", but it honestly wasn't that big of a shock considering how great Bakeru feels. The movement, the level design, the music...the everything feels great. To wrap things up, Bakeru is absolutely a game worth playing, but the game is extremely easy. Bakeru absolutely scratches that Goemon itch, and I'm not really sure why people would say otherwise. I'm not really a list guy, but I'll list some of the pros and cons of the game [h3]Pros[/h3] Unforgettable soundtrack Great level design Interesting enemies and boss fights Collectathon reminiscent of old GameCube games [h3]Cons[/h3] As great as the music is, it gets a bit repetitive towards the end of the game Enemy variety - I don't think there were enough enemies to keep the game going Difficulty - this is actually my number 1 issue of the game. The game is just way too easy as it was probably intended for a younger audience.

Bakeru is a fantastic little platformer that anyone with love for old-school platformers should take a swing at. Bakeru, a game where you attempt to beat every boss hitless, is a little less fantastic, especially towards the end. I think I spent a good hour trying to do the final boss hitless and failing to hitboxes. Other than that though, real good.

This game is awesome, it's a fun collectathon with some pretty interesting trivia that you'll at least find something new from. Overall, very much recommended for someone who is into more laid back platformers and likes to collect things, such as myself.

Creative action platformer that takes you across the prefectures of Japan. There are so many unique ideas and different gameplay mechanics thrown in throughout the game, along with some fun collectibles. Starts to drag towards the end and the camera control gets taken away from you far too often but still easy to recommend for any 3D platforming fan.

I really wanted to like Bakeru. The vibe, visuals, and genre are right up my alley. I know nothing of the original game Bakeru is the spiritual successor of, so my opinion is based on this game only. The platforming leaves a lot to be desired. It's very rudimentary, and the level design that's supposed to make it shine is really bare bones. The best way to describe the entire game is an action adventure platformer for kids and pre-teens. I remember playing Super Mario Odyssey, and marveling at how each level's environment was like a puzzle to solve, as you weave through the obstacles and enemies. Same goes for Sony's Astro Bot, or even Spyro. Bakeru is too simple, linear, and lacks inventiveness to justify the full price. And it's sad, because the story is cute, the monster designs as well. It has all the building blocks of a really fun platformer, but instead of building a castle, the devs have built a boring jenga tower.

This game is wonderful. It's colorful, it's cartoony, and it's just plain fun to play. It's the spiritual successor to Goemon but it really feels like a 3D Mario. The levels are all big and very fun to explore and the movement is great. The game is also not that hard so anyone from kid to adult can enjoy it. I actually found myself going back to get every collectible in each level just because it was so fun to do. I will say one downside is the transformations, while cool, are under utilized. In an effort to make them not totally necessary to proceed, you basically never need to do any of them outside of the first one you get. They're really cool and give you neat moves but ultimately you don't need them. I wish there had been more challenges that required them so you could get used to them and use them more. But overall this feels like a good throwback to PS2/Gamecube days. I had so much fun playing this game and the music is fully stuck in my head. I highly recommend it.

Are you a bad enough Taiko Drummer to save Japan from Festival Fever!? This is a nice 3D character action platform-ey game that's charming in it's goofyness. The music's nice, the controls are kinda crisp and it's fun. Why are there two dogs that are boxes and one can pseudo-transform himself into a car/jetski? I don't know but I'm glad he's there. For fans/people who played Mystical Ninja starring [strike]Goemon[/strike] Fernandez back on the N64 there's a lot of similarities and comparisons to be made to Bakeru here. This is both a good and a bad thing. What I liked: The game's fairly easy but still has some bits in it that provide a challenge. One of the collectables is literally just fun facts, usually related to the level in question but not always. That's neat, why haven't more games done that? You can button mash your way to victory but the game rewards rhythmic play. Like, you can string individual hits together but if you do it a bit slower you get a combo that does more hits and finishes with a giant knock up that does more damage faster. And the game doesn't really tell you that either which made me feel clever when I found it out and started to consistently execute it. What I didn't like: The game sort of straddles the line between animation-focused and action-focused in an annoying way. Namely that Bakeru's quick in everything he does but attacks are still committed to so you can't dodge at will. Speaking of attacks, the charge up glowy specials feel slow, clunky and I had several accidents where I used a single baton special instead of the double because I released one shoulder button quicker than the other. There's a lack of music tracks for how much of the game there is. The music that is there is fine, dandy and enjoyable and the tracks are mixed up enough that it never gets stale. I just wish there was more of it. The various Henge transformations are kind of a mixed bag for how much hype the game puts on them. More could have been done with them (requiring for puzzles etc.) but finding niche uses for them was kinda fun. That was more than offset by one transformation's dang electric skates though. Killed me so many times because of how you move (and don't move) with them. What I found unfortunate (because of Mystical Ninja): The characterization is kind of weak. On one hand this means that they don't get in the way of the game or trip over themselves, on the other hand there's not a lot to really make them memorable. Except the Box Dogs. And the Buddha Baby. The giant robot transformation sequence. It reminds me of I Am Impact so it's great. However I Am Impact is so good that this game's sequence is just sad by comparison. At least those bosses were fun. A good comparison to make between the games is their respective plots. Namely that I came into Bakeru expecting a simple plot with simple explanations for what's going on (even if they are rediculous) and I was 100% not disappointed. And I'm glad the game doesn't go out of the way to explain itself because it doesn't really need to.

Bakeru is a solid 3D platformer that could be compared to Super Mario 3D Land/World or Kirby and the Forgotten Land. The game never gets too difficult even at the later levels. However, I do enjoy the variety of environments across the game's 60 levels. I do enjoy the fact that the combat is beating the enemies with Taiko sticks. As a fan of Taiko no Tatsujin, I certainly get a kick out of that.

Pros: - Old school platforming at its best - Very easy at early stage, but platforming getting harder at mid to late game - Love the Japanese theme and music - Each stage design different enough to make this engaging Cons: - Fighting feel repetitive mid to late game - Not much character progression after get all power at 1/3 of game - Not much character costume - Story barely there 7.5/10 but recommended if you got interest in Japanese culture