Good-Feel’s Ganbare Goemon successor Bakeru is being localized in September

As a fan of Konami’s classic Ganbare Goemon series, the fact that Good-Feel’s spiritual successor didn’t seem to be coming West was leaving me with bad feels. However, an English release has popped up on Nintendo’s US eShop, as well as Steam. Now simply titled Bakeru, it will be published by Spike Chunsoft on Switch and PC September 3.

Bakeru was first released last year in Japan under the title Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru: Oracle Saitarō no Sainan!! While the developer hasn’t referred to it as a spiritual successor to Ganbare Goemon, it’s hard to ignore the similarities. It takes place in a wacky version of Japan mixing modernity with folklore, with the title character traveling across the country’s 47 prefectures. What’s more, Good-Feel was founded by alumni from Konami, some of which had worked on the Goemon series. Its co-founder was Etsunobu Ebisu, who the character of Ebisumaru was somewhat based upon.

Konami hasn’t really shown any interest in reintroducing what was once a pillar franchise for them. The last Ganbare Goemon game was released over 20 years ago, unless you count the Pachislot grave markers.

Bakeru is a 3D action game. It would be difficult to say what actual gameplay it borrows from its progenitor series, mostly because Ganbare Goemon never stuck to a single formula and instead struck out in all directions. However, it features transformations and a character who fights using a pair of drumsticks.

I’m jazzed. I wasn’t certain it would be localized. Good-Feel has had a hand with Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Yoshi’s Crafted World, but I’m interested to see them return to their Konami Kobe heritage.

Bakeru will release for Switch and PC on September 3. A demo is now available on Switch.