Switch to: German
In Shin chan’s latest adventure, a paradisiacal family vacation turns into a dramatic journey through time.
Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is the sequel to Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation ~The Endless Seven-Day Journey~. Neos published the Millenium Kitchen- and Star Factory- developed adventure on February 22nd, 2024 in Japan for the Nintendo Switch and tomorrow it will also be released in Western territories exclusively digitally for PC on Steam and in the Switch eShop for €39.99/£33.99/$39.99.
The Nohara family treats themselves to a vacation in the always sunny, tranquil village of Akita. On his expeditions with his loyal four-legged companion Shiro, the five-year-old son Shinnosuke Nohara, better known as snotlout Shin chan from the manga and anime of the same name, doesn’t only meet a colorful ensemble of characters, but also a driverless train that takes him to Coal Town which is eternally bathed in the orange light of a passing sun – Studio Ghibli’s animated film classic My Neighbor Totoro comes to mind. The smoke-filled industrial city seems to be trapped in the Shōwa period and it’s ruled autocratically by a mysterious sorcerer. Shinnosuke’s job is to breathe life back into the place.
In and around Akita, Shin chan collects numerous plants, catches insects with his landing net and fishes for fish and crabs. He grows vegetables such as tomatoes, corn, carrots, chili peppers and (Chinese) cabbage that require daily watering in front of his grandparents’ house and on the nearby mountain. Luckily, you can quickly unlock a sprinkler system and save yourself a few button presses from now on. On notice boards in both locations you can trade agricultural products, collected plants and animals for money or other resources. Shin chan can shop at the general store in Coal Town and at the vegetable stand in Akita. He can travel to the two locations by train at any time, but he’s got to keep track of the day/night cycle. Time advances once you pass to the next screen, and once night falls, Shin chan is reset home and can only explore a small area for the remaining minutes, collecting fireflies or listening to the melodies of the curry café owner’s guitar. Although there is a nice selection of hand-drawn transitions, it becomes repetitive over time. Most of these sequences can be skipped and the loading times are pleasantly short, at least on a PC with an SSD.
After you have collected the ingredients for the favorite dishes of the people of Coal Town, you can relax in the steam bath and talk to the local people to get to know the area. In mine cart races you score points by collecting crystals and whoever scores more points before time runs out wins. You have to overcome obstacles such as boulders and pass intersections with the right timing, but above all, don’t fall out of the steep curves. Similar to slot car racing, initially you can only accelerate. For the corresponding fee, you can unlock new carts with different properties and upgrades such as increased cornering stability, the ability to brake, boost and defend yourself with firearms. Wins provide you with new race tracks and resources that you can use in the numerous main and side missions. Once you get the hang of the tricky controls, the races provide a nice change in pace from the classic adventure routine. Especially in later stages, the game forces you to either brute-force trading or complete every races with flying colors, which lets the story come to a stand still for a while. However, if you have already completed every side mission and own a lot of resources, this is not a major problem. However, the final race isn’t really one and is disappointing after the at times exciting race earlier in the game.
As with the anime, the dialogue is often coarse, seems sometimes out of place, but is at other times heartfelt and funny. As in the previous game, only the text was localized and the Japanese dub is still in place. While dialogue corresponding to the main plot was voiced, most of the side content was not. The localization is quite decent and conveys the charm of the original well. The play time is similar to that of its predecessor: If you want to collect everything, complete all the side missions and win the mine cart races, you will be busy for around 15 hours, but if you concentrate on the main story you will spend ten to twelve hours.
The backgrounds were drawn by hand with great attention to detail, but the game only supports a maximum screen resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (Full HD), which means they can appear a bit washed out on larger screens. As we already complained about in the last game, the lines around the cel shading-style characters are again full of jagged edges, which we couldn’t adjust using the game’s options or the graphics card driver. After a while of playing, you get used to it and you no longer notice the flickering as much. The game runs smoothly even on older hardware. However, in the next title at the latest it will finally be time for better anti-aliasing and support for higher screen resolutions. On the Nintendo Switch, the game supposedly only runs at 30 frames per second for aesthetic reasons. As the PC version proves, contrary to what the developers said, a smooth frame rate over 30 or even 60 fps doesn’t detract from the experience, on the contrary.
Conclusion
Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is a decent sequel to Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation ~The Endless Seven-Day Journey~ and offers a very similar experience: a beautifully drawn game world, entertaining dialogue, some farming, collecting insects, cooking and the entertaining mine cart races, but nothing overly challenging. If you’re looking for a classic point & click adventure with tricky puzzles, this game may not be it for you. However, Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is ideal for a pleasant, stress-free holiday at the countryside during a long weekend.
Publisher Neos provided us with a PC copy of Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town which we used to capture the screenshots.
