Bakeru could pass as a remaster of a game from 2002, but in all the best ways. This is a collectathon platformer with the PS2 era’s penchant for wacky settings and crazy enemy designs. It feels like a big budget Astro Bot-style release with its huge number of levels and how frequently it introduces a ton of content that’s only used in one level, but it’s an AA-priced game from a smaller publisher. It also deserves way more attention than it has received so far.
Bakeru sees you traveling to every prefecture in Japan and playing through at least one level representing each of them. The levels are all cartoonish versions of something famous about that place, such as the hot spring resorts of Gunma or Kumamoto Castle. Many of them won’t be familiar to Western players, but the levels have collectable trivia scoops that usually clear up the reference once you find them. Most levels are expansive maps full of platforming and combat sequences in the way you’d expect from a PS2-style game, but there are also plenty that shake up the gameplay with racing, shoot-em-up, boss fights, and more. I can honestly say that this is as good as Astro Bot when it comes to creative levels. Most of them are so distinct that you could recognize them from a single random screenshot, and all of them are a joy to explore. They knocked it out of the park on level design.
Unfortunately, as great as the levels are, it also inherits janky combat from its PS2 ancestors. Combat revolves around using L1 and R1 to attack with your two drumsticks, and you can perform a whole host of different combos and moves based on mixing buttons and holding for charge attacks. You can also block or parry with R2, and you unlock transformations that give you temporarily different movesets as you progress through the story. It all sounds great, but it never really comes together. The biggest issue is that there’s no animation canceling, so parrying moves usually doesn’t work unless you’re just standing around waiting for an attack. That’s fine against one enemy, but if you’re fighting a crowd or an enemy that can’t be staggered, then there’s not much to do except mash buttons until you win. That problem is only exacerbated by the large number of sword-wielding enemies that block most attacks and are most easily dealt with by pressing L1 and R1 as quickly as you can until you win. There are merchants throughout the levels that sell powerful healing items, instant revives, and even items that fully block damage for 30 seconds, so it feels like the devs knew this was a mess and compensated for it with power ups.
Outside of the world design and combat, Bakeru is competent in a way that’s not likely to change your opinion beyond how you feel about those two main systems. The story is fine, but not memorable, and the soundtrack is decent but not particularly long. If you like the game, everything is good enough to support that. If you don’t, none of it is good enough to change your mind.
Conclusion
Still, I really can’t emphasize enough just how good the levels are. It’s frustrating to have to deal with clunky combat sometimes, yes, but all is forgiven when you’re 30 minutes into an already excellent level and it pulls yet another silly surprise on you at the end. That’s really what this comes down to. Do you want a tight combat experience to hold you over until you can play Elden Ring 2? Run away and don’t look back. Do you want 64 varied and creative levels that take you on a journey to places you’re likely to never go? Can you look past the occasional cheap death? Then you really can’t do much better than this.
Rating: 85%
Time to beat: 14 hours to complete all levels while doing my best to find secrets. Probably another 5-10 if I went back and collected everything.
Price: $40
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