Goemon spiritual successor Bakeru is coming to the west

Bakeru, the game considered the spiritual successor to the Goemon series of games, is coming to the west.

The game was released on the Switch last year under the title Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru, but only in Japan.

Now Spike Chunsoft has announced that it will be releasing the game on Switch and PC in the west on September 3, where it will simply be called Bakeru.

A free demo for the game has also been added to the Nintendo Switch eShop.

“In this 3D action game, take on the role of Bakeru on an adventure through Japan’s 47 prefectures to defeat the diabolical Festival Troops and restore peace,” the game’s description reads.

“There will be battles featuring fairy tale heroes and giant robots. You can fight back using your taiko drum and use the Tanuki’s Henge Power to transform into different forms.”

Bakeru is developed by Good-Feel, the Japanese studio behind such titles as Yoshi’s Woolly World, Yoshi’s Crafted World and Kirby’s Epic Yarn.

Good-Feel was founded in 2005 by Etsunobu Ebisu, who had previously been a programmer and game designer at Konami, working on games in franchises such as Castlevania.

However, he’s best known for directing the majority of games in the classic Goemon series, including Goemon 2, 3 and 4 for Super Nintendo, and 1997’s Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon on N64, which was the last title he directed before taking on a long-time producer role.

Ebisu, who is the producer for Bakeru, returned to the director role for the first time in more than 25 years for Good-Feel’s most recent game, Princess Peach: Showtime.