Crayon Shin Chan has been around since 1990, and I’ve been aware of his existence for nearly that long. However, being honest, I’ve largely steered clear of his adventures, mostly because the pitch here is for a younger audience that will appreciate his mix of youthful naivety mixed with a meant-to-be-comical-but-could-be-creepy friskiness.
Shin Chan’s been the subject of a lot of video games for everything from the Game Boy through to a number of Nintendo Switch titles – being around as a manga and anime character in production for 34 years will do that – and in Shiro and the Coal Town, he more or less takes on the Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon style gameplay aesthetic with a deliberate focus on how he is something of a fish out of water.
It’s very much a stylistic follow-up to the last Shin Chan game, Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation… Which again, in honesty, I’d not played.
You start in the mostly idyllic setting of Unbent Village, where Shin Chan and his family are visiting his grandparents, and for quite some time you’re just tasked with simple collection activities, gathering up insects, growing crops, fishing and managing a very simple task list that’s never much more than finding enough of a given resource (or enough types of it) to allow a character to let you explore a new part of the map.
The stylistic tone changes when Shin Chan makes his way to Coal Town, switching his rural idyll for one that’s clearly meant to reminisce about a post-war industralised Japan, albeit one that’s seen better days. Here you’re busy helping an inventor make new gadgets to open up Coal Town to you, taking part in some challenging (but not too challenging) trolley races, helping a local kitchen grow as you learn the stories of the town’s residents and dealing with the game’s big bad… though the pace never makes this all that much of an issue in any case.
Shin Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town works on a simple daily timing mechanism that sees Shin Chan return home after a period of time, no matter where you are; if you’re in Coal Town you’ll fall asleep and magically return home, while in Unbent Village a family member will always find you in time to return home for dinner.
In either setting, the very light, very slow gameplay loop persists, and whether or not you’ll get on with Shin Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town does depend on how much you’re willing to relax into its gentle vibes matched up with the rather more jarring personality of Shin Chan himself. He’s perpetually chasing the adult ladies in both Unbent Village and Coal Town – to no avail, he’s a five-year-old, let’s be serious here – but the dialogue he’s got won’t sit quite as comfortably with everyone who plays the game.
One small benefit here for anyone studying Japanese is that because Shin Chan is only five, the actual spoken language is presented at quite a simple level, and at a moderate pace, so it could (at a stretch) count as a little Japanese dialogue practice while you play. For those without the necessary Nihongo skills or interest, the subtitles are available in a variety of other languages, including English.
That’s particularly important because while there is a narrative to Shin Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town, it’s not a particularly compelling one, and it’s not one that will unfold quickly. If you’re not down for a simpler collecting gameplay aesthetic, you’ll simply never last long enough to get into what meat there is of the story. It’s really one of those situations where the journey to get there is the hook, rather than huge storyline twists, or characters that you’ll gain a lot of appreciation for to speak of.
To conclude, I’d like to tell you a little story, dear reader. You see, when I pitched reviewing Shiro and the Coal Town to DDNet Editor Matt, he replied stating (and I quote)
“Only on the condition that your review includes a note about how I hate everything to do with Shin Chan and I’m furious that you’re making me actually edit a review about it. Little turd creeps me the hell out.”
I am nothing if not obedient, but also, the opportunity to get under Matt’s skin about something other than the absolute superiority of Bubble Bobble over Snow Bros.?
I felt like I was morally obliged to review Shiro and the Coal Town after that!
Has it turned me into a fan of all things Shin Chan, determined to track down and collect every last Shin Chan game, from the easily found Super Famicom games to the rather more obscure Sega Pico, Nuon or 3DO ones?
No.
I don’t quite think Shin Chan is that bad as Matt makes out, but the tone is jarring, and I do kind of feel that I’d get on just a little better with the core game that’s here without him present – though I’ve little doubt that his presence probably helped shift more than a few copies when Shin Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town first debuted in Japan earlier this year.
