IS ‘MYSTICAL NINJA’ BACK-ERU?
That’s what I thought when I saw the original Japanese trailer shared by a fellow Mystical Ninja fan. In fact, I imported it when the title was much longer and in Japanese, as was the entire game. The game had too much text to translate (with Google Translate) for me to really get far into the game, but I was happy with my purchase and put it on my backlog. Of course, I knew now that I had acquired a physical Japanese copy the inevitable English release was coming and now this is a review of that release.
Honestly, going in with those preconceptions now that I can read what’s being said I can say I’m impressed with how fun it was to play, but outside of its great visual style I felt the story and characters lacked the charm found in Mystical Ninja. It is somewhat unfair to judge a game on how much it isn’t like another series but outside of what seem to be very clear design choices to mimic Mystical Ninja’s style the producer Etsunobu Ebisu and director Tadanori Tsukawaki worked on plenty of Mystical Ninja/Ganbare Gormon titles. There’s a direct lineage here so I expected more oddball humor I guess, but what I got was a very palatable, inoffensive light comedy adventure story.
MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: Switch (reviewed), PC
Price I’d Pay: $39.99
The gameplay is what really shines in Bakeru. The level-based 3D platformer feels a lot like GoodFeel’s (Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Woolly/Crafted World) take on Super Mario 3D World with basic combat using Bakeru’s bachi (taiko drumsticks). The feedback in the rumble and having Bakeru attack enemy to enemy when in rhythm with the bumpers (attack buttons) is really satisfying in a way I haven’t felt since Wind Waker’s musical cues timed to Link’s attacks. Stages are large and have hidden collectibles not dissimilar to the aforementioned 3D World including three souvenirs, five facts handed out by a character purposely made to look like a comical poop, and in some stages a hidden tanuki. I think the hidden tanuki is one of the coolest ideas for a collectible as they disguise themselves as a random object in the stage with small giveaways as to it being the tanuki (with an obvious movement occasionally to help). Unfortunately, it’s introduced early on in the game and is only a dozen or so despite there being over 60 stages so outside of returning to three or four stages to get the tanuki after it is unlocked, a careful eye can get through most stages collecting every item on the first go killing replayability. Part of this is because all the items are hidden behind observation rather than the skill-based platforming for certain collectibles in Mario games.
But this is a complaint in such a way that there is not a good reason to return to some of these levels despite them having unique gimmicks only seen in one or two stages. In fact, I was impressed how it was still introducing new ways to use abilities I’ve had the entire game until the very end. I also played most of this game without using the different abilities that each grant Bakeru different attacks because outside of making some sections easier the game never requires three of the forms for puzzles and the fourth form is only used in some minor gameplay sections usually to wall off different areas of the level. There are shops throughout levels where I frequently had to buy health and cookies to revive me at death because I stubbornly refused to use the abilities to their full potential. At the end of the game, I expedited my gameplay with power and speed up candies I purchased as well as finally using my abilities because I had a bunch of coins that I couldn’t use for anything else and I wanted this review done before release day. It made the final sections of the game very easy.
Even then when I was done with the game, I bought every optional mask just to say I had done everything because I had that many coins. There’s a lot of ideas that seem great but don’t really go anywhere. After the first section of the game the world opens up and players get a few stages to tackle in any order they choose which is neat except the movement on the map no longer snaps to locations so a small flying ship has to be flown around the map which makes revisiting old stages more difficult than it should be and despite having a list of all the stages in one of the menus those cannot be used to quick travel to an area, quick travel is only for those who know Japan’s geography and can read the level and know where to find it on an unmarked map. This is the only positive to the tanukis mostly being hidden in stages after that feature is unlocked. The airship can be entered to look at souvenirs and buy masks and talk to other passengers, but the masks are just cosmetic, the passengers have nothing important to say, and the souvenirs are neat but not a good enough reason to enter when a menu would have sufficed.
Then there is the slowdown. I can’t tell if it’s purely from high activity areas or the game running too long because I did notice some of the framerate return when I closed the game and restarted it, but certain levels definitely chugged and it’s those moments where the polish found in GoodFeel’s Nintendo work seems to be missing. That being said the game was never unplayable and would happen most frequently when attacking large groups of enemies which is that really good rhythmic action I mentioned previously so the slowdown doesn’t feel as bad as it could have. One particular level dense with fog however was minorly unpleasant regardless so people sensitive to framerates know that this game does have major dips and that comes from someone not sensitive to minor framerate drops so this is somewhat significant if I noticed.
Wow that was a lot of complaining.
Despite my kvetching Bakeru is a really good and for $40 it’s a must have for any 3D platformer fan, just don’t expect the prestige of a Nintendo first party game. Bakeru is definitely GoodFeel’s best 2024 release (sorry Princess Peach Showtime) and I would have absolutely double dipped had I not gotten it for review. The main 3D platformer gameplay was fantastic, and combat was just enough to warrant more thought than a three-hit combo but not so much as to stop the flow of gameplay which is a feat most games that try to juggle combat and platforming fail at. The shooter, racing, and mech sections were welcome additions and in fact I really wish there were more mech sections as that felt underused. I mean 100%’d the game, I think that speaks volumes. I wanted more at the end of it and I hope GoodFeel gets to make a sequel because my complaints outside of framerate issues are still truly unimportant because the gameplay is so fun. Each stage is its own treat and without spoiling levels there’s not much to say other than it plays really well. I never doubted GoodFeel’s talent because I’ve seen their work; this was clearly a passion project as they published this themselves in Japan, so I imagine the budget wasn’t huge, yet they still produced a high-quality game. I had a lot of fun.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
