Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town review

A little over two years ago, I was introduced to Shin chan thanks to a video game. I’ll admit I vaguely recognised the odd looking five year old from random internet memes, but after playing Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation I learned all about the sassy little fella. This star of manga and anime is a household name in Japan, and thanks to his daft behaviour and bottom shaking he’s been featured in all sorts of media for almost as long as I’ve been alive. Now after the wonderful cosy game of 2022 comes a fairly similar sequel, Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town.

After once again being dragged around Japan by his family, Shin-chan finds himself in a village in Akita living his usual innocent kid life. With nothing better to do than odd jobs for his neighbours and catching bugs, it seems like it’ll be a normal few months for our hero until a mysterious tram pulls up on an abandoned track and takes him to Coal Town. This rusty old mining town is on its last legs, and most of the locals are expecting it to shut down entirely until Shiro (your dog) appears and fills them with hope. Much like his last outing, Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is a laid back gaming experience with just enough silliness mixed in to keep things interesting.

Before you reach the titular industrial town, you’ll find yourself doing all the familiar activities of the previous Shin chan game. This begins with bug catching, which is as simple as wandering up to a tiny bug you’ll spot flying through the air or resting on a log and swinging your net. There are dozens of bugs lurking in different corners of the village, and with a crazy bug lady in town desperate to see them all you’ll even be rewarded with a bit of pocket money for doing so.

She’s equally interested in fish, which means that your trusty fishing rod will get plenty of us. Fishing with Shin chan is exactly what you’d expect from video game fishing, involving little more than a press of a button to reel in a big one once your bobber is pulled down. You’ll get a little cash for showing off your catches too, and similarly to the bugs you can work towards filling a notebook full of the scaly friends which features all sorts of trivia on the critters.

As if these sleepy activities weren’t enough, there is also a bit of basic farming to jump into in Shin Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town. With four little plots outside the house (and maybe a few more to unlock later) if you plop seeds in the ground and wait a few days you’ll be greeted with tasty veggies the villagers might like. Watering the crops will increase the yield, but you don’t even have to do that if it’s too much effort for your liking.

As you’re watching the days go by catching various animals and farming, all manner of events will start happening in the village. This consistently leads to you coming to the aid of someone in need to progress the story, usually by collecting some specific creatures or materials from around the countryside. Although you only have limited time each day before bedtime to get these little quests done, there’s never any actual time pressure to worry about so stress levels are kept incredibly low throughout.

Eventually after an hour or two of this laid back loop you’ll find yourself in Coal Town, where the environment changes entirely. There are a few things to do in Coal Town, but the most important ones centre around collecting materials for a lady professor who is making inventions to improve the town. This generally involves wandering around the streets looking for randomly spawning rocks and minerals, or sometimes you’ll need to spend your hard earned yen to buy them at a shop.

A few other varied activities await you in Coal Town too, like helping the chef in the village restaurant (bringing her fruit and vegetables), mine cart racing (which admittedly is probably the most hands-on part of the whole game) or relaxing in the hot springs and listening to gossip. You’ll be required to do all of these a little to progress the story, but again the pressure is never allowed to become even noticeable as you play.

The relaxing vibes of the recent Shin chan games really are infectious. It’s just so easy to sit for thirty minutes and watch the child protagonist run around shaking his ass and mishear people in amusing ways. The visuals help the charm of the game reach peak levels too, bringing the signature style of the anime to life in a truly gorgeous and unique way.

Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is another easy-going hit, but it does have a couple of things that I think means it’s a little worse than the last game. The loss of Shin chan’s diary is a big one of these, as filling this with all the silly activities you do at the end of a day was just so much fun. Coal Town itself is just a bit less charming than the countryside, and I didn’t particularly appreciate having to spend so much time wandering its dusty streets. The pacing will be too slow for some as well, although in a game like this there’s not a whole lot of avoiding that.

Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is a lovely cosy experience that’s easy to get lost in. Just performing day to day tasks like bug catching and fishing is oddly engaging, and the charm of the characters and their misadventures adds to this hugely. I do think it’s a little bit less special an experience than the last game, but if you’re looking for something laid back to play you could do much worse.