Funny, Exciting, Quality Cultural Tour Around Japan!
I wish I could bottle up that feeling of being pleasantly surprised. As I can’t though, discovering new, wonderful games like Bakeru comes a close second. I wasn’t really sure what to expect when firing up this game. What I got though, blew me away with its content, quality, and production values. Not only that, it’s a game that can appeal to a wide audience, both young and old, so it can be enjoyed on many levels by all.
You play a character named Bakeru, a weird, raccoon/human-like being who finds out that the whole of Japan is under threat from Festival Troops. These troops are using a bizarre festival to shake the entire country. Bakeru, with his sidekick, Sun, has to bring peace to Japan with only his drumsticks as his weapons. And so, you embark to free all 47 prefectures of Japan from the grip of these evil spirits.
Okay. So, the story is not about to win any prizes for its narrative, but it does do a great job of giving you, the player, an excuse to experience a cultural tour of Japan. And what a tour it is! One of the game’s highlights, if not the best thing about it, is that each of the levels has such a diverse and eclectic mix of locations, and it was always exciting and such a draw to see what you would find next. Having just played a game with very few locations (Stellar Blade), this game felt like the polar opposite, and by that point alone, it pushed me on to keep playing.
Within the first ten levels alone, you will go from beaches to building sites, mountain passes to motor racing circuits, it’s an incredible journey. What makes this even more exciting are the wonderful graphics and detail in the artwork. Unlike many sparse JRPG games I’ve played, this world is filled with interest things, even though it’s only on the small but mighty Switch.
There is a cartoon vibe in the artwork and movement that reeks of quality. Interest and detail are found everywhere. It’s not graphical fidelity but clarity. For example, one level has piles of leaves around the field. The leaves are all different shades of orange. When you hit them, some of them spray around the floor. The point here is that each level is packed with little details like this that make them feel different from the last.
The character designs and movements are also excellently drawn and animated. The highlight here would be when Bakeru launches an attack, small watered-down stills of his movements string together from where he has been, like Neo dodging bullets or fists in the film The Matrix.
Bakeru is essentially a third-person beat ’em up, action/platforming game. It’s similar in its style of gameplay to something like Ratchet & Clank. Bakeru uses his drumsticks/batons as melee weapons and has a drum as a shield, but he can also use power moves when holding buttons down and a dodge/counterstrike mechanic too. It was very easy to express how I wanted to fight with a tight control system that felt very well laid out.
Other gameplay quirks are the ability to jump, climb, or shrink in size (called Henge Action) to find items in small tunnels; that is just Bakeru himself. Where the game surprised me was that there were many levels of doing other activities, like racing cars, shooting, or mech battles!
Fighting was a little on the easier side, but even so, there were a few times I had to redo a boss fight or two due to being a little too attack-heavy. There is a welcomed nuance to the game, being that sometimes countering was the best way to fight enemies.
When fighting enemies, they would drop coins that you can use at shops to buy items/consumables to use, like speed boosts or bombs. There are also many collectibles to be found at each level called Scoops Trivia. Finding these gives you a little nugget of information about Japan. For example, Cafe au Lait (Coffee with Milk) Day is observed on August the 1st in Japan every year!
So, the basic design of each level is that there are three huge drums to locate and destroy that reveal a last drum to beat on, and then the level is complete. There are different ways in which these drums are located, either through puzzles, fights, or exploration around the fairly linear levels. Each level will also display how many collectibles are in it, so each level is a mixture of exploration, platforming, puzzles, and fighting. Each aspect is executed very well, which again, adds a quality feel to the entire game.
The fonts are all well-presented and easy to read, with excellent backgrounds and interesting little movements to them. However, it’s the jaunty, traditional but funky music and gameplay audio that really propel this game higher than its contemporaries. The sound effects of Bakeru jumping or moving alongside enemies to land hits or blow them up are really fun, as are the soundtracks for the different levels that set the mood for each.
There is just one big “BUT” to all this. Frankly, if I’m honest, this game was set to be a resounding 9/10 if it could only have sorted one issue. With so much going for the game, it came at a cost, that being the game engine really struggles to keep up.
The frame rate was consistently changing during gameplay. Most of the time, I would guess it was averaging 30fps, but at times it quite clearly dipped lower than that, but it conversely also at times pleasantly shot right up to around 60fps too!
Let me be clear. The issue is in no way game-breaking or makes the game unplayable. It’s just really off-putting that the frame rate fluctuates so much and so often. If the game could just nail 30fps, it wouldn’t be so bad. When the game hits 60fps, you see glimpses of just how amazing this game could be. If they patch the game to hit and keep 60fps, it would then earn its otherwise deserved 9/10 score from me.
Be that as it may, this is such a fun game to play. I was amazed at the quality and variety of the gameplay. I was again amazed at the variety of locations and the constant changing of what it was you needed to do in each level. I learnt something about Japan during each level, as well as being impressed with the gorgeous visuals and art style. The combat is fun because you don’t just mash buttons, at times you have to think about how to play due to the strengths and weaknesses of the enemies.
There is also a huge amount of content included in the game to make the price of it (currently £31.49 on the UK Nintendo Store) excellent value for money. This is a fantastic game that is simply let down a little bit by an in-game engine struggling to run it. Bakeru is one patch away from greatness!
Summary
Bakeru is a beautiful, fun, hugely entertaining, well-presented, and interesting game to play. You never know what to expect from level to level. It’s just a shame the engine struggled to maintain the flow of gameplay at a steady rate, but even so, it’s still a wonderful experience.
Developer: Good-Feel
Publisher: Spike Chunsoft
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC
Release Date: 3rd September 2024
