2024 has brought us the largest variety of anime games we’ve seen in years by almost every measure I can think of. IP, publisher, genre, source material format, etc. From Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: The Thrilling Steamy Maze getting both a modern port and a Western release five years after it first came out, to Bandai’s crazy 6-month run from Sand Land to Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, there was something for everyone. But one of the games that stood out to me the most was Shin-chan: Shiro and the Coal Town.

Crayon Shin-chan follows the daily life of 5-year-old Shinnosuke Nohara and his family: his parents Hiroshi and Misae, his baby sister Himawari, and his dog Shiro. Until 2020, I only had vague memories of watching the Funimation dub over a decade ago. This changed when I noticed that Bushiroad ported their mobile game, The Storm Called! FLAMING KASUKABE RUNNER!!, to Switch (and, eventually, Steam). After playing it a bit and falling down a Shin-chan rabbit hole, I realized that the series was both a lot older than I expected and still running.

Crayon Shin-chan ran in Futabasha’s Weekly Manga Action magazine from 1990, before transferring to Manga Town in 2000 and ending after the tragic death of the mangaka, Yoshito Usui. In 2010, the year after Usui’s passing, his team revived the series as New Crayon Shin-chan, continuing its episodic nature. The anime, on the other hand, premiered in 1992 and still airs to this day alongside a yearly movie since 1993. Over the years, Shin-chan also received games published by Bandai until 2014. FuRyu published one 3DS game in 2017, followed by the aforementioned (and now shut down) Bushiroad mobile game and its console/PC port, and in 2022 a fourth publisher put their own spin on Shin-chan.

Neos Corporation published two games that adapted Shin-chan to the Boku no Natsuyasumi format. The first game, Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation, was developed by BnN developer Millennium Kitchen and Star Factory, and released in 2021 for Nintendo Switch and 2022 for PS4 and Steam. The game went on to sell 500,000 copies worldwide, and a second game was announced in late 2023. Developed by NEO: The World Ends With You developer h.a.n.d, Shin-chan: Shiro and the Coal Town released for Switch in Japan on February 22, 2024, and for Switch and PC worldwide on October 24, 2024.

While the family is visiting Hiroshi’s hometown, Shiro wanders off in the middle of the night. He returns the following morning, covered in coal, and runs off again with Shinnosuke in tow. Shiro leads Shinnosuke to the outskirts of Akita, where the pair take a train to a mysterious new town, Coal Town. Upon their arrival, Shinnosuke is quickly recruited as part of plot to save the town from the clutches of the town founder’s descendant.

Progressing through the story heavily relies on collecting materials and trading them for items or money. Your three methods of collection are bug catching, picking up objects on the ground, and fishing. As you play, bug lover Kazuko will record everything you thing you pick up, and she’ll also buy fireflies from you. Coal Town’s inventor, Yuri, uses the materials you pick up around the town to build her machines. You also unlock the Trolley Race mini game through Yuri, and this allows you to compete for money and rare items. Last, you can trade your fish to the restaurant proprietress, Yosoi, for meals that can be given to the residents of Coal Town.

The story is split into days with varying items and activities depending on the time. During the Day, you have the most time to explore. In the Evening, you have around half the time as Day. At Night, you have around the same time as Evening but you have limited areas to explore. (Remember, Shinnosuke is five.) Each time of day has exclusive items; fireflies, for example, can only be found at night. You can also adjust the length of each time of day if you find yourself running out of time too quickly.

I’m contractually obligated to recommend Shin-chan: Shiro and the Coal Town as an advocate of the “Put Fishing in Every Anime RPG” movement, but I actually enjoyed the game. Thanks to the game releasing around the same time as four other games I was looking forward to, I played in short sessions every few days instead of all at once, and I think that helped Shiro and the Coal Town not put me to sleep. It’s a very chill game, but it may come off as boring to you if this is your first Summer Vacation game.

Overall, Shin-chan: Shiro and the Coal Town was a very relaxing game to play. The story handled the “Technology vs. The Old Ways” concept well, and I felt like I was playing through a tamer version of a Shin-chan movie. Gameplay flowed well, and I spent more time than I expected to on the Trolley Race. My only problems with the game were Akita’s four roadblocks and the game’s performance on PC. Early in the game, you come across four children that block multiple roads in Akita until you give them a specific item. I get the what the game was going for, but I found them annoying. I also noticed a concerning amount of stuttering on PC, which is strange since this isn’t a particularly demanding game. I didn’t notice it on Switch, though, so I’d recommend buying the game there.

Crayon Shin-chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is available physically in Japan and digitally worldwide. A physical Switch version in the West and hopefully a PS4 port is in the works. A PC review code was provided by JF Games, but I also bought the game on Switch for the sake of convenience.