BAKERU Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

BAKERU Review, Oracle Saitaro, and his Festival Troops are using a bizarre festival to take over Japan. Bakeru travels to 47 Japanese prefectures to free Japan from the grip of evil spirits! By obtaining a Henge License, Bakeru can transform into whoever gave him the license. Transform into famous Japanese heroes like Kintaro and Momotaro to use their skills and abilities.

BAKERU Review Pros:

• Decent graphics.
• 3.1GB download size.
• 3 save slots.
• Japanese voice with English subtitles.
• Character action gameplay.
• Opening and ongoing tutorials.
• 3D game World with 360 camera control.
• Hidden Collectibles in each level, you can see how many you have in the level and on the map screen.
• You can replay levels.
• Hack and slash controls, you have two weapons, and each button is assigned to a hand.
• World map level select.
• Collect trivia logs and then read them on the map screen.
• The journey log shows your progress and completion rates whilst highlighting locations on the map of Japan.
• Two controller layout choices.
• You can Invert the axis and set the camera speed.
• Uriko is the traveling salesman who you can buy items from him with coins.
• Coins drop from enemies, are found in the level, and so much more.
• Two types of items – instant and stock. Stock can be assigned to shortcuts on the d-pad whilst instant is self-explanatory and the item is used immediately.
• Henge is your special ability and need music notes to fill up the henge bar.
• One ability you get early with hinge is shrinking, you go small and then enter a dungeon where you have to get out as fast as possible because your henge bar empties you revert to full size and die.
• Health bar system mechanic.
• The levels are very open and full of secrets.
• Beautiful looking locations.
• You can grab onto ledges and climb up or drop down.
• Cool little animations like killing a melon enemy have them splitting up into slices.
• You can do combos, charged attacks, dodges perfect dodges, and counters that open up the enemy to attack.
• Upbeat and catchy soundtrack.
• You can still run around when charging your attack.
• In-game cutscenes that transition in and out of the gameplay.
• Levels will have an enemy that runs away from you and chasing him down and taking him out grants huge amounts of coins and musical notes.
• Constant checkpoints.
• A lot of fun to play.
• Find warp points to go off to a seperate self-contained instance.
• Many breakable objects in the world.
• A really fun bright game world.
• Combat is very fluid, you can get quite a combo or flow to it as you get more confident.
• Aside from cutscenes you also get character portrait interactions, both can be skipped.
• Your ultimate goal in each level is to find and break a set amount of paper lanterns that then unlock the exit.
• At the exit of the level you have to smash the drum as hard as you can, very reminiscent of that Donkey Kong drum game.
• Fun levels like a racing one, you can drift, do tricks, hit speed boosts, and avoid enemies and bombs.
• Worth noting that for the western release, they added – two new attacks, Spinning Top and Hurricane, along with a new Lantern boss.
• Henge powers have you changing into some amazing characters from the lore with unique attacks and abilities.

BAKERU Review Cons:

• You cannot remap the controls yourself.
• A lot to take in initially.
• Perfecting the dodge and counters takes some time.
• The performance either docked or handheld is not perfect, slowdown and juddering is very common.
• A lot of game world stuff like beach balls etc can be mistaken for enemies just as vendors and interactive characters can look like enemies.
• Drops from enemies don’t always come to you and instead spread right out making it a pain to collect.
• The camera is not ideal when in tight spots like tunnels or small rooms.
• No English voice.
• It would have been a good idea to have a central menu containing all the tutorials and mechanics you have discovered.
• No center camera button.
• Loading times are up and down.

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BAKERU:

Official Website:

Developer: Good-Feel

Publisher: Spike Chunsoft

Store Links –

Nintendo