Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is the latest game in the long-running Shin Chan franchises, where this time he explores a mining town and saves it from its downfall. Here is our Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town Review.
The game was developed by h.a.n.d. and published by Neos Corporation. It was released on 23 October 2024 for PC and the Nintendo Switch.
Shin Chan and his family go on a business trip with his father to the town where he grew up, here you will meet new friends and explore new areas. The game starts off teaching you the basics like catching bugs, fishing, and how the collectible book works, it really eases you in and shows the majority of the mechanics that the game has. You do some tasks, meet some of the other kids (who turn out to be a cool collector group) and really get to know the town.
After a few in-game days, Shiro, Shin Chan’s dog, comes back home all dirty seemingly from some coals. He takes you with him to a hidden away train stop and suddenly a train arrives that takes you to a brand new place, Coal Town. If this is a real place? the game doesn’t 100% say, but it really implies that this is just a dream world Shin Chan made up, but either way, he got summoned for a reason.
White dogs are seen as lucky there, and Shiro is white, so some of the people you meet see this as a sign. You meet new people there as well, help the townsfolk with their restaurant, bath house and other things while working for the local inventor. This is where the story really starts, because someone is working against the town to make it “Wasteless” but this has negative effects for the town and you are there to stop the evil “magician”.
I absolutely loved the story and its something I don’t really see from games made by developers in the West, it really is something unique in the way it executes it. Off course there are multiple games where you have 2 locations and have to do stuff, but the way it involves with the story really makes it stand out.
Every gameplay mechanic was fun to play around with and I spent hours trying to fill out my bug/fish book and explore every place to its fullest and it was so much fun. I expected to have fun with the game, but I did not expect it to be this great. The only mechanic I didn’t like as much near the end was the trolley racing. It was fun in the beginning, but it quickly got a lot harder, and especially the few story races got way to hard for my liking.
It’s visuals are a bit rough looking in the beginning, but it is the visual style of the anime as well, but after about 20 minutes I got totally pulled into the world and its locations, which all were so beautiful. There are some cool creak locations, a lake to look over, some Marshes and more. The whole game is just a pleasure for the eyes.
Looking for more reviews to read? Be sure to visit this page and discover a wide range of informative and insightful reviews.
