Editor’s note: The text below was originally published in January 2024 as an import overview Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru: Oracle Saitarou no Sainan!!which launched in Japan in 2023. To coincide with Bakeru’s Western release on September 3, 2024, we’re republishing our review with added impressions of the localized version and an updated conclusion. You can only find our updated thoughts above conclusion.
Nintendo fans may be familiar with Good-Feel, a Japanese developer that has worked with the Big N on titles such as Wario Land: Shake It!, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, and Yoshi’s Woolly and Crafted Worlds. However, despite working with Nintendo, Good Feel is still an independent company and occasionally produces new games with its own IP, and at the very end of November 2023, the studio released the Switch-exclusive Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru: Oracle Saitarou no Sainan!! .
Drawing heavily from the Ganbara Goemon games (Etsunobu Ebisu worked at Konami before founding Good-Feel in 2005 and was a key figure behind the Istical Ninja series), this new release mixes 3D platforming with some light beat-’em-up elements to for an impressively pleasant experience. The only catch is that it was exclusively available in Japan at the time of writing, but don’t let that deter you from trying out this valuable platform.
The story of Mameda no Baker is… well, we don’t really know because we don’t speak Japanese either. From what we can gather, the titular hero sets out to save Japan from some sort of demonic Yokai force that has been unleashed on the earth. Or something like that. The plot is primarily told through a series of beautifully animated comic book-like cutscenes, and while those parts of the story are literally incomprehensible to non-Japanese speakers, the art is still nice to look at. Plus, once you’ve had enough, you can easily skip cutscenes and just jump right into the action.
Gameplay takes the form of a broad linear 3D platformer, something like Super Mario 3D Land or Kirby and the Forgotten Land. The levels are accessed one after the other on the world map, and each one tasks you with finding and breaking three rainbow lamps to unlock the drum at the end of the level. These lamps are usually prominently placed along the path, and there are often more than three in a level for players to miss along the way, so clearing the stage is usually a simple endeavor.
Along the way, there are plenty of enemies and obstacles standing in your way, and that’s where the beat-’em-up elements come in. Bakeru has two drumsticks with which he can beat his enemies as hard as his drums, and the fight is surprisingly fast. He will usually latch on to the nearest enemy and has a small selection of combos and melee attacks to rely on to break through the hordes. If enemies get too aggressive, you have an dodge roll and a block, the latter of which can be triggered at the last minute for a parry that negates all damage and stuns the attacker. Skirmishes tend to last only a few seconds and most enemies are killed in one or two hits, but there is a deep sense of satisfaction Dynasty warriors-esque feeling of mowing down groups of enemies and collecting their loot.
To keep combat from getting too stale, you’re also given a series of transformations as you defeat bosses through normal progression. They’re governed by an energy meter on cooldown that you refill through pickups and defeating enemies, and each signifi cantly buffs Bakeru in combat while changing his moveset in some key ways. Our favorite transformation gives him a magical fishing rod—Baker can use the lure to take down enemies from afar and completely break up large groups. Our only complaint here is that the transformations may seem excessive; this is already a very easy game that is clearly aimed at young players, and the alternate forms remove the slightest trace of difficulty.
If you somehow feel like you’re still struggling too much, most levels have a lovable character with an item shop where you can spend the coins that are liberally scattered throughout each stage. Most of the items on offer here are consumables that will boost your health or increase your damage output, and while these too make the easier game even easier, it can still be fun to let ‘er rip every now and then by dashing around the stage with a fully charged Bakeru.
For completionists, each stage also hides a small batch of collectibles to encourage you to search every nook and cranny and teleport away. The main collectibles are three gachapon containers that hold various snacks and trinkets, while you can also find five small creatures that will give you some sort of journal entry. Obviously, this last class of collectibles was less enticing to us given that all the text is in Japanese, but it’s still fun to look for them in each stage, and some of them turn out to be impressively well hidden.
We also appreciated how Good-Feel completely mixes up the gameplay at times with a level focused on a new minigame. You can take part in levels that task you with things like a water ski race or a Space Harrier-style 3D shooter. None of them overstay their welcome, and every few levels offer some fun palate cleansers.
Visually, Mameda no Bakeru adheres to an impressively sharp and ultra colorful art style that makes every stage a real treat. Whether you’re climbing autumn-themed mountains with crisp leaves and warm colors or sliding down a waterslide on a massive cruise ship bursting with beach balls and dance performances, each stage has a unique theme and just the right amount of graphical spectacle to keep it consistently engaging.
The downside to these excellent visuals, however, is that it comes at the cost of consistent performance. There are fleeting moments where Mameda no Baker manages to hit the 60fps it’s aiming for and those moments are beautiful when they happen, but most of the time the framerate will pretty much hover around the 30fps mark. The difficulty is low enough that it doesn’t really lead to any unfair mistakes, but it can still be rough when you’re panning your camera across a more open part of the level and watching everything get cut off instantly.
We’d like to point out that despite being entirely in Japanese, Mameda no Bakeru is still a perfect gaming experience for the average English-speaking gamer if you want to import or download it on the Japanese Switch eShop. Obviously, you lose out on the story completely and the menus can be a little difficult to navigate at first, but overall, this is the first gaming experience that takes you right into the action. We’re betting this game has a very slim chance of getting a full official English localization (fan translation efforts are underway, however), but regardless, we encourage you not to be intimidated by the lack of English support because this is really enjoyable even without it .
UPDATE [Sat 24th Aug, 2024 01:00 BST]
Fortunately, Good-Feel saw fit to finally release this game in English, which makes the simpler title ‘BAKERU’ even easier to recommend to Western players.
The voice acting may still be in Japanese, but the subtitles clearly do the story understandable now, and while the plot isn’t anything particularly gripping, being able to bond with charming characters like Bakeru and Sun go a long way in making this stylized version of Japan that much more fun to explore. We also appreciated the little things about this localization that give the game a fun and mischievous tone. The confirmation command you click when talking to a recurring character who shares random little factoids isn’t a simple “OK,” but an emphatic “I see!”
For the English release, Good-Feel also saw fit to make some (relatively minor) changes to the overall gameplay, mostly quality-of-life updates and a few small content tweaks. For example, Bakeru had an attack in his moveset that the developers noticed wasn’t used much by players in the initial release, so it was replaced with some new moves that have more utility in fights. There are also other minor tweaks such as Baker running faster and the position of enemies changing in some levels to little more challenging gameplay.
Language barriers aside, the adjustments made for this English release don’t change things enough to win you over if you didn’t like the original release. Still, we’re glad to see that Good-Feel wanted to give the foreign version something more than a simple translation job; the changes made here are all for the better and make Baker feel a tad faster.
Conclusion
Bakeru is a sweet, fast and satisfying linear 3D platformer that feels like a wonderful callback to a genre that doesn’t have much representation these days. it is really easy (although the western version ups the difficulty a bit) and has some performance issues, but the gameplay variety, fast-paced combat, tons of collectibles, and beautiful art style combine to make for an adventure you don’t want to miss.