Nintendo fans may be familiar with Good-Feel, a Japanese developer that collaborated with the Big N to produce titles such as Wario Land: Shake It!, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, and Yoshi’s Woolly and Crafted Worlds. Yet despite its work 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 Switch-exclusive Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru: Oracle Saitarou no Sainan!!.
Taking strongly after the Ganbare Goemon games (Etsunobu Ebisu worked at Konami before founding Good-Feel in 2005 and was a key figure behind the Mystical Ninja series), this new release mixes 3D platforming with some light beat-'em-up elements to make for an impressively enjoyable experience. The only catch is that it’s exclusively available in Japan at the time of writing, but don’t let that deter you from trying this worthwhile platformer.
The story of Mameda no Bakeru is… well, we don’t actually 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’s been unleashed upon the land. Or something like that. The plot is primarily told through a series of nicely animated, comic book-esque cutscenes, and while these story bits 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 the cutscenes and just jump straight into the action.
Gameplay takes the shape of a wide linear 3D platformer, sort of like Super Mario 3D Land or Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Levels are accessed one after another on the world map and each one tasks you with finding and breaking three rainbow lamps so that you can unlock the end-of-level drum. These lamps are usually conspicuously placed along the path, and there are often more than three of them in a level to account for players who may miss one along the way, so clearing a stage is typically a straightforward endeavor.
Along the way, there are a host of enemies and obstacles that stand in your way, and this is where the beat-‘em-up elements come in. Bakeru has two drumsticks he can use to beat his foes just as hard as his drums, and combat is surprisingly snappy. He will typically lock on to the nearest enemy, and has a small variety of combos and charge attacks he can rely on to dispatch the hordes. If enemies are getting too aggressive, you have a dodge roll and a block, the latter of which can be triggered at the last moment for a parry that negates all damage and stuns the attacker. Skirmishes are usually only a few seconds long and most foes go down in one or two hits, but there’s a deeply satisfying Dynasty Warriors-esque feeling to mowing down groups of enemies and collecting their spoils.
To keep combat from getting too stale, you’re also granted a series of transformations as you defeat bosses through normal progress. These are governed on a cooldown by an energy meter you refill via pickups and defeating enemies, and each one substantially powers up Bakeru in combat while altering his moveset in some key ways. Our favorite transformation gives him a magical fishing rod—Bakeru can use the lure to defeat enemies from afar and it utterly shreds large groups. Our only complaint here is that the transformations can feel like overkill; this is already a very easy game clearly aimed at young players and the alternate forms eliminate the barest trace of difficulty.
If you somehow feel you’re still struggling too much, most levels feature a cute character with an item shop where you can spend the coins that are scattered generously throughout each stage. Most of the items on offer here are consumables that’ll do things like top up your health or bolster your damage output, and while these, too, feel like they make an easy game even easier, it can still be fun to just let ‘er rip every now and then by rushing a stage with a totally juiced Bakeru.
For completionists, each stage also hides a small series of collectibles to encourage you to scour every corner and teleporter. The main collectibles are the three gachapon containers holding various snacks and trinkets, while there are also five little critters you can find who will give you some kind of journal entry. Obviously, this latter class of collectible was less enticing to us given that all the text is in Japanese, but it’s still fun to ferret them out in each stage and some of them prove to be impressively well hidden.
We also appreciated how Good-Feel completely mixes up the gameplay every now and then with a level centered around a new minigame. You can participate in levels that task you with things like a waterski race or a Space Harrier-style 3D shooter. None of these overstay their welcome, and they offer up some fun palate cleansers every few levels.
Visually, Mameda no Bakeru adheres to an impressively sharp and ultra-colorful art style that makes every stage a treat to take in. Whether you’re scaling an autumnal-themed mountain rife with crisp leaves and warm colors or rocketing down a water slide on a massive cruise ship bursting with beach balls and dance performances, each stage features unique theming and just the right amount of graphical spectacle to remain consistently engaging.
The downside to these great visuals, however, is that it comes at the cost of consistent performance. There are fleeting moments where Mameda no Bakeru manages to muster the 60fps target it aims for and these moments are wonderful when they occur, but most of the time the frame rate will be oscillating quite a bit around the 30fps mark. The difficulty is low enough that this doesn’t really lead to unfair errors, but it can still be rough when you pan the camera over a more open part of a level and watch everything get instantly choppy.
We’d like to highlight that, despite being entirely in Japanese, Mameda no Bakeru is still a perfectly playable experience for the average English-speaking player if you're looking to import or download on the Japanese Switch eShop. Obviously, you’re completely losing out on the story, and it can be initially a bit tough to navigate the menus, but overall this is a very gameplay-first experience that’s all about getting you right into the action. We’d wager that this game has a very low chance of receiving a full official English localization (there is, however, an ongoing fan translation effort), but all the same, we’d encourage you not to be scared off by the lack of English language support, as this is really enjoyable even without it.
Conclusion
Mameda no Bakeru is a sweet, snappy, and satisfying linear 3D platformer that feels like a wonderful callback to a genre that doesn’t get a ton of representation these days. Although it’s really easy and has some performance problems, the gameplay variety, snappy combat, oodles of collectibles, and gorgeous art style all come together to make for an adventure that you won’t want to miss out on. As long as you don’t mind trawling through a bit of Japanese, we’d recommend you give this one a shot if you're willing to import it.
Comments 41
Going to Japan in two months. Certainly gonna try to get this!
Also for those who want to read the dialogue but do not understand Japanese, just use google translate app on your phone and use the camera function to directly translate text.
easy side... :/
I still continue my search for a 3D plataformer more on the hard side..
I understand it's first and foremost an action adventure game but I really like knowing what's written. If it ever gets translated, count me in. I miss Goemon so badly
This game looks so much fun to me and while I could try to "import" it, I'd appreciate it more if it was localized somehow.
It’s a real bummer if you don’t know Japanese playing this, because the little guy that intentionally looks like a turd will give you fun facts about Japanese history or about the prefecture the level is set in, things like that (if one cared).
Will probably pick it up once it’s discounted a little bit. Got enough games to wait until then.
yeah too easy is not fun. im really sorry to see it.
@StephenYap3 As I mentioned in the review, there is a fan patch that's made a lot of progress! I think they translated about the first half of it already. But you'll need a hacked Switch to apply the patch.
This game is amazing. I recommend it to all Goemon fans. It's basically the first Goemon game in 18 years.
2023 was an amazing year for video games, but Mameda no Bakeru is easily my GOTY.
But yea it's easy. But that's fine, at least it's super fun.
Link to the localisation petition please.
Thank you for the review! I wasn't expecting to see one for this game, being that it's Japan exclusive at the moment. Fingers crossed for a Western release!
Love the Goemon games so will pick this up if/when it gets an English translation added, or even better a full Western physical release (fingers crossed).
@SwitchVogel
The fan translation is actually 100% done, but the wrinkle is that it can only be applied to the v1.1.0 update of the game.
The latest available update is v1.1.1, which improves the performance of the game but isn't compatible with the fan translation patch and would require the translation team to build a whole new patch.
It's annoying because if you're playing 100% legally, there's no way to get the v1.1.0 update legally. I've got an import copy of the game and I've enjoyed playing it either way.
I wish we would get another side scrolling Goemon. In my opinion those were the best.
Lovely to see a review. I am having a blast with this game. I hope Good Feel doesn’t make this a one and done.
Also the plot is hilarious Bakeru is a tanuki who was enlisted by Issun to get the help of other mythical heroes (who are brainwashed and why the game open with issun trying to escape.) to save Japan from the evil Matsuri Gang. The taiko (and matsuri theme) make my taikoka heart proud.
Looks like a back to form for Good Feel. Really hope it comes to the west! Looks gorgeous.
I'm a little over half way through with the game so far and I love it! As others have said, the game is easy, but it's still a lot of fun. The level designs are all very creative and there's a lot of hidden collectables to find. Here's hoping that Good Feel will continue with Bakeru. Since Goemon games ranged from platformers to Zelda-like action adventure, it would be cool to see Bakeru do the same.
I hope that in the future games like this get English (and other languages) releases as a matter of course. That is one possible upside of AI. It will be easy to get at least a basic localization and they can release it on the eshop.
Great review as usual, started playing this not that long ago and couldn't agree more with everything mentioned here so I also definitely recommend trying it as long as you don't particularly mind the cons mentioned!
@SwitchVogel Yeah, I saw that in your review, but I don't want to "risk" my Switch for anything, especially since I've pretty much moved on to digital these days.
I'm not a fan of this, but I would take a "direct digital import" of this game on the overseas eShops (similarly to the launch version of Suika Game).
I thought they had announced an English version for a sec. Lame.
@Citano This does not actually work in a practical sense, I've done it but it is a very bad option.
Looking forward to when the rom hacking/fan translation scene digs themselves into switch games. They're the true heroes of game conservation, a task publishers aren't capable of.
@rex_rex Try Demon Turf. It's a 3D platformer that has intentionally "slippery" controls, which make it more difficult.
Definitely gonna get this, it looks fantastic. Still waiting if we get a localization (as Good-Feel had a tweet about a month ago that was kind of hinting at it), but even if it remains a Japanese exclusive, it's a must get for me.
The good-feel yoshi games, specifically woolly world, are some of my favorites of all time even over Mario games. I rarely get Japanese language games but I’m almost certainly going to import this
@Bobb Same. Part of the charm of Goemon is the writing, which they oddly really did not do much to westernize with the few games we got really. Some of the more adult stuff, yes, like they say the Wise Old Man collects 'Car Magazines' instead of something more risque, but a lot of the very Japanese stuff is just still there, and it so wonderful for it.
Though, I never understand calling them Kid Ying and Dr. Yang in the first Snes game. That does not sound massively more western than Goemon and Ebisumaru!
@Poodlestargenerica it is far from perfect, but atleast it's an option
@Krisi "Kind of hinting at" a localization?
I miss Goemon so badly. That world and the characters are so endearing and funny.
The unheard of games you guys review while totally skipping way more note worthy titles is always confusing.
Games releasing only in Japan has gotten to a point where it feels weird.
@FlyingBeardedLizard this game is worthy of a review
Hope we get this translated and released in NA territory.
I would definitely pick this up if it gets localised. Also, I really hope we get the Goemon 64 games on NSO at some point. I still have the second game lying somewhere but I never bought the first.
@PikaPhantom They said something like "They will work hard on getting the game to as many people as possible".
@FlyingBeardedLizard How is this game not noteworthy? It's made by Good-Feel, a company that has worked close to Nintendo many times before (developers of games like Wario Land: Shake It, Yoshi's Woolly World and Crafted World, Kirby's Epic Yarn, and some of the best StreetPass games), and it's a spiritual successor to a classic Konami franchise with around 30 games, most of which were made for Nintendo consoles. Basically some of the people behind the original games revived a beloved franchise that was dormant for almost 20 years (the last real game was in 2005 for the DS). Again, what's not noteworthy about this?
After TOTK, this was my favourite game of 2023 for Switch. If any game should get a translation it should definitely be this, however it really doesn't matter as it's perfectly playable as-is.
When was the last time we got a review for an untranslated game? (That wasn't a shmups game.)
@TrainerX493 There aren't many Japanese text light action games which don't receive a worldwide release these days. Probably why NL have little need to review import titles.
I made my living selling easy to play Japanese exclusives, but due to virtualy simultaneous worldwide release its far more difficult now.
[We’d wager that this game has a very low chance of receiving a full official English localization]
Why do you say that?
@Krisi I hope they meant that. This game deserves a global audience. Hopefully this game isn't held back from us by some outdated idea that the game is "too Japanese" for Western audiences.
Trying saying that 5 times fast (or even just once)
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