It stands to reason that you’ll get massive tie in games around the world. After all, Rugrats wasn’t as big in Japan as it was in America, but we still have a digital release of the latest adventure all the same. So, while Crayon Shin-Chan might only register for most Westerners as that weird cartoon that was on Adult Swim for a while, it’s a massively anticipated piece here. With a limited edition on with plenty of swag already sold out in pre-orders across Tokyo, I was surprised to receive a code for Shin Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town in my inbox. Even more surprising, I found out that this title isn’t some cash grab like many games are, but a massive storytelling event with real voice acting, complex mechanics and an expansive world that takes you the better part of a month to fully investigate.

For Shin-Chan’s latest adventure, we get to see the Noharas suddenly get uprooted and flung into the countryside of Akita, where life and personalities seem to be trapped in time. Eyeballing a potentially long and exploratory summer ahead, Shinnosuke is further intrigued when his faithful dog, Shiro, discovers a mystical train platform in the woods that transports them both to the Coal Town. This industrial hamlet is driven by technology and inventions, but also overseen by a mysterious and potentially menacing ruler, and these things would all be important if Shin-Chan wasn’t five years old and had the comprehension of a goldfish. Will we help out the Coal Town and free their people? Will Shin-Chan just catch bugs and grab his butt for hours? Why, both are very possible!

Plus, take a bath with your dad! It’s not weird!

Shiro and the Coal Town is a permanently open-ended game where the player really controls the how and when of the game’s trajectory. With a full day ahead, Shin-Chan is free to go almost anywhere he wants within the safe bounds of the town. As he meets more and more people, you’ll add abilities to your daily potential, like harvesting and planting vegetables, catching insects, and doing both small fishing (crayfish and such) and big fishing (full on trout). You can cash in some of these things for pocket change to buy arbitrary goods here and there, but you mostly get to catch them for your collection and for completing the quests that are bestowed upon you by the denizens of Akita. Your only limitations are the rising and setting of the sun, which you can actually control by having longer or shorter days in the configuration menu.

Additionally, Shin-Chan will quickly find his way into the Coal Town region, which is sort of an either/or situation. The train platform is a bit of a hike, and traveling there and back will eat up a good chunk of time: you’ll be hard pressed to do errands in both regions in the same day. In Coal Town, things are a bit more dynamic in what you get to do. Besides helping to invent things to assist in the robotic world of Coal Town, you’ll also be helping to design a menu for the local restaurant to keep it afloat, where you’ll often have to bring in goods from the Akita side of the game for cooking. And, most importantly, this is where trolley racing happens: a series of progressively more intricate races that are the most engaging parts of the game.

Failure to have fun will result in immediate termination, but in a fun way.

There are aspects of the game that are absolutely brilliant. For example, while I fell in love with Natsu-Mon this past summer, I had to confess that the open world approach could sometimes be very daunting. You really had the free reign of the region, which sometimes left me unsure of what to do and where to do it. That’s also because Satoru was an elementary schooler, and it was important to give the player the freedom and the responsibility that came with his station. Contrastingly, Shin-Chan is five years old: he doesn’t have summer homework, a clear sense of survival and, as such, cannot be allowed to go everywhere. For God’s sake, there’s rivers and train tracks, I’m glad the game doesn’t entertain what would happen if you could just wander into these regions.

Additionally, the time limitation is more flexible than Natsu-Mon, as Shiro and the Coal Town allows for this imaginary time stop where your dad is just working in Akita for seemingly forever and you’re able to do anything you’d like. It’s not like Shin-Chan has to get back to his own career or whatever, so it makes perfect sense to dedicate multiple days to catching fireflies, getting my plants to spout and farming chump change so I can eventually buy something from the convenient plot-store in Coal Town. I’m sure parents and players alike enjoy having a game that’s open-ended enough to allow for hours upon hours of play and multiple directions. It’s a great approach, and I can see the appeal taking hold quickly among the target audience.

Night fishing….deserrrrves a quiet night….

I also did appreciate the production value that went into Shiro and the Coal Town. Not only is the art styling similar to what you’d see in Crayon Shin-Chan movies, they also went the extra mile with the voice work. Even moreso than you’d expect, nearly every line is voiced by the real voice cast from the show, and the sheer script thickness means this was an endeavor for animators, editors and  actors/actresses alike. I could really enjoy the projection and silliness, and the concept created an atmosphere that perfectly captured what a long-form Shin-Chan story would be like.

However, it should be noted that this is also a game of deliberate progression based on players following the story and targets, if that makes any sense. In spite of having a wonderful number of side missions and things to discover, you can’t always do everything you want unless you do what the game demands of you first. The game has multiple stop gaps where you need to find different items to keep the plot going, but at least one of those items will appear in the store in Coal Town or possibly at the community market in Akita. Unlike a majority of the collect-a-thon targets, these items have to be purchased with money, and you’re a five year old boy who can’t exactly take out a loan or get a part time job. As a result, you need to grind the fetch-quest targets established on the help wanted board.

Wow, all I have to give you is two hunks of pure iron ore, and you’ll give me a catfish??? Sold!

This is an aspect of Shiro and the Coal Town that felt too limiting, especially given how often it happened. Basically, the only way I can get further is to keep revisiting the same areas in a loop and hope the right vegetable, bug or fish will spawn and then be lucky enough to get it. Veggies aren’t a problem, but the bugs can sometimes appear out of bounds, much to my frustration. Furthermore, the fish catching mechanic is solid only with sound on: there’s almost no visual difference from sea life merely testing the hook and actually taking the bait. They can disappear quite quickly if you don’t reel them in immediately. Ergo, you spend a lot of time repeating yourself as you run between mountains and rivers, and suddenly the neverending days feel, well, neverending.

The cultural icon of Crayon Shin-Chan is a weird and wonderful trajectory to follow in Japanese media. Like Beavis and Butt-Head, the original Crayon Shin-Chan was animated for adults with tons of crass humor and lewd moments. Also like the MTV cartoon, Shin-Chan was watched by a ton of kids in spite of it clearly not being made for them because, hey, it’s a cartoon: let’s let kids have it. However, when some kid in Ohio set his bed on fire after seeing it on a cartoon, MTV moved Beavis and Butt-Head into the dead of night to try and prevent it from happening organically (as the producers forgot that VCRs existed). However, when parents complained about Shin-Chan and the rude behavior, the animators responded by…toning it down a little. Like Shinnosuke did community service and promised not to slash anymore tires.

His grandfather told him that women are objects first, mothers second, and people a distant third.

I bring this up because the tonality of Shiro and the Coal Town may not jive with a lot of Western players, and it definitely rubbed me wrong at some points. Shinnosuke looks up to his grandfather, Ginnosuke, who is this massive stereotype of an old man. He constantly objectifies every woman he meets, talks about earning their affection like you’re trying to win over a pet, and passes every bit of antiquated information to Shin-Chan, who takes it to heart. I can’t believe that a game made in 2024 actually talks about how a female character might be pretty if she ever takes off her glasses, like we’re going to add a She’s All That rub into this game. Moreover, Shin-Chan then parrots the same ideology and only agrees to help out the scientist initially because she’s beautiful.

Outside of Japan, Shiro and the Coal Town will almost certainly only fall onto anime fans who are at least teenagers if not adults, and so this ass-backwards level of male/female roles in society will fall on deaf ears. If you’re old enough to drive and change how you interact with people in your daily life because a cartoon kindergartener made a compelling case, I don’t know how you found your feet to get out of the house and buy this game in the first place. But this will go into the grubby hands of kids ages 4-12 in Japan, who may or may not take this stupid nonsense to heart. Shin-Chan likes to run by becoming a “butt alien,” and I’ve definitely seen kids run like that around here. Good to know we’re also going to keep the rampant misogyny going from a young age.

Ah, but look how innocent he is! Adorable. Stupid, and problematic, but adorable.

Soapboxing aside, Shiro and the Coal Town is legitimately interesting and has a pretty sizable tail for a game of this style. There’s tons to discover, the jokes that aren’t inherently problematic are funny (and the puns are even better if you know a touch of Japanese), and it runs wonderfully on the Switch. I can easily see this being an investable game for people looking for a marathon, not a sprint, and it’ll be more easily recognizable for younger players. Had I not played Natsu-Mon, I probably would have recommended this instantly. However, since I know a better mousetrap already exists, the choice to get Shiro and the Coal Town comes down to your connection to the characters and the world. For me, it’s a middling promotion, but, if you really love the franchise, then I think it’s an excellent representation and interaction.

Shin-Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is available now on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Shin-Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town was provided by the publisher.