Screenshot by Bonus Action
The older I get, the more summers I spent as a kid playing in the gardens of my own home feel like full-blown adventures. In the first three days of Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town, that’s exactly what I realized the game brings to life, and it makes the entire experience engrossing from the very beginning.
How it Was in my Day
The game starts with protagonist Shinnosuke spending a day with his grandpa catching bugs. It’s incredibly wholesome, even if Shinnosuke is picking up a couple of bad habits from his elder. For the first two days, this is the entire game. You’re a kid just doing kid stuff in a small village in the middle of nowhere. Everybody knows each other, so it’s as safe as can be. A different time.
It’s here that Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town introduces you to the basic mechanics that are essential throughout the rest of the story. Using a net and a keen eye, you’ll catch bugs all over the tiny opening village. Once you’ve been shown the basics, you’ll also be able to fish in specific spots around the game world.
These creatures are the game’s collectibles, and there are dozens of them. My impression is that they’re not as challenging to collect as something like Animal Well‘s Eggs, making for an achievable goal you’ll hit if you pay attention over the course of an entire playthrough.
If you’re a completionist, this is going to take much of your time. Each creepy crawly or slimy specimen gets shown off to an NPC who marks them in her book. She’ll also pay you for specific critters, but you need to be careful about how many you sell.
By day three, things start to take a turn for the adventurous. Shinnosuke’s dog turns up covered in coal, and after doing a mad bum-wiggle run (a reference to the show), he ends up on a rickety old carriage to Coal Town. This is, of course, the location that gives the game its name. It’s down to Shinnosuke to save it.
I can’t talk more about the story because this is where my preview, and the third day, ends. But rest assured, there’s a lot for you to do in such a short space of time, and it’s from day three that the game really starts to pile it on.
A Routine to Keep You Sane
I’ll get this one out of the way for the farming fans, including our very own Laura: Yes, there appears to be a farming mechanic in Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town. I saw plants growing in the garden of Shinnosuk’s house, but the game didn’t explain how it worked in the first three days. I imagine the mechanic is pretty complex and will come into play in future days.
While I didn’t get to play around with growing my own vegetables, there are hints as to how you’ll use them and everything else you can gather in the game. As you move between the picturesque screens that make up the game’s world, you can pick up objects and plants from the floor that are used for crafting.
In Coal Town, I got to see how minerals and parts can be used to craft tools, and how fish and vegetables are turned into delicious meals by the local restaurant. There’s also a curry van in the main village that I sadly didn’t get to see open up shop, but I hope it does at some point.
You’ll quickly develop a little routine of checking every screen for bugs and items before you move on with a quest. These tasks start out easy enough, but quickly become so complicated that you must complete them over a couple of days. One I really enjoyed requires you to find certain insects for three NPCs so you can access new areas and get passwords from each for a girl guarding yet another area of the village.
It’s in Coal Town that you get an overarching goal that’ll take you through to the end of the game, but the entire world will evolve as you progress and complete more quests.
Don’t Forget to Breathe
At its heart, Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is also a cozy life simulator, so it’s not all stress and dealing with big kids or saving a fantasy town going through some sort of energy crisis. You get to take in your surroundings each day and do whatever you want with the time you have.
Each day has three phases, morning, noon, and evening. Time moves on as you walk around the world and complete tasks. Story elements play out between these phases of the day, provided you hit the required goals, making it feel like normal life is moving around you while you have this grand adventure all the adults humor.
While my preview time was short, I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw. Every night when you save, you get a new stunning piece of artwork to stare at as the day moves on. This art style is present everywhere in the game and is just gorgeous.
The developer did a great job of blending some extremely well-done cel-shading on the game’s 3D characters to make them almost feel like they’re part of the 2D background. It’s not a visual style I’ve seen much of before – But one that’s incredibly effective for this type of game.
During my preview on the Switch, I had no issues with visual glitches or bugs, other than the ones I caught. The title is solid and perfect when played on a handheld device. I think the only thing that might hold someone back from buying it is understanding what the heck the source material is.
Who or What is Shin chan?
You can absolutely be forgiven for never having heard of Shin chan prior to reading this preview. He’s the protagonist of Shin chan: Crayon, a manga that was then made into an anime that’s still running today. I first encountered him as a kid on one of the many now-defunct Saturday morning children’s shows.
For me and many others, Shin chan: Crayon might have been the first introduction to anime or cartoons very obviously made based on cultures outside of The West. It’s fantastic, and I still love watching the odd episode, but games like Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town bring the IP to a format that’s far more accessible to me as a father of two, soon to be three, kids.
If you’re anything like me and the literal dozens of us who adore Shin chan, then this game is almost certainly going to be for you. I’ll have a full review out around the game’s release date with a complete verdict to help you decide if it’s one you’ve absolutely got to own on your Switch.
Before you go
Thank you so so much for checking out this preview of Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town. If you’re looking for another game that might not be on your radar but could be in your wheelhouse, read our review of Europa.
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