GamerEscape

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity of previewing the first three days of Shin-chan: Shiro and the Coal Town, developed by h.a.n.d., Inc and published by Neos Corporation for PC and Switch. My feelings were such that I found myself greatly excited by the title’s cozy atmosphere and gorgeous artwork, but felt a little more trepidation regarding what appeared to be a rather simplistic gameplay loop and an overly consistent pace.

Whether or not the game would be able to shed these impressions was the main question I asked myself going through the full release on PC, and now that it’s set to release out in the wild on October 24th, 2024, I’m pleased to report back that the answer is yes—but not completely.

Highway to the Coal Zone

Shiro and the Coal Town’s plot primarily sees Shinnosuke bouncing between the countryside town of Akita and the industrial, more dreamlike Coal Town. Both towns offer a plethora of characters, collectibles, and minigames. They all need Shin-chan’s assistance in some way or another and they’re all eager to give him a task to complete. Shin-chan’s immediate family gets star billing, as one would expect, but there are plenty of fresh faces to keep a focus on, like Coal Town’s resident inventor, Yuri.

Much like the title’s source material, the tone is largely irreverent and cheeky. Shinnosuke gets to interact with a lot of different characters across a large range of ages, and they all speak with him in the same manner you’d expect them to interact with a small child. They’re eager to briefly discuss their troubles or help Shin-chan with his current task, and do a great job of comprising the world of characters that have plenty of interesting things to say.

Truthfully, Coal Town’s story ended up being one of the core pillars for my appreciation of the game. Not because of its engrossing character arcs or shocking plot developments—there isn’t a whole lot of that in Shiro and the Coal Town—but the dialogue, conflicts, and characters themselves provide a lot of unique charm and humorous content for the player to experience that keeps things from getting too repetitive.

In particular, I really enjoyed the sense of push and pull between the ideologies of the citizens in the two very different towns. They don’t directly interact, but by equally splitting time between the two locales, the player is encouraged to compare the perspectives of the people living in the idyllic Japanese countryside and the more askew, industrialized, built-on-top-of-itself Coal Town. Shin-chan’s childlike curiosity and earnestness in taking things at face value was always a treat as well, and there were a several moments that tugged on the ol’ heartstrings. Though it isn’t an earth-shattering narrative by any stretch, it never eschew its commitment to capturing the tone of its source material, which is a great thing.

Pick Up the Shinies

It probably won’t come as much of a shock to hear that the game doesn’t change drastically following the ending of the introduction I covered above. A majority of your time spent with Shiro and the Coal Town will see you guiding Shinnosuke through the various locales of both areas, picking up miscellaneous items on the path, catching bugs with a button press, interacting with others, and finishing quests by doing some combination of these activities. Again, it’s all very much in alignment with the wacky antics of the series itself, complete with a sprinting animation that sees Shinnosuke sticking his butt in the air as he speeds across the screen.

Shiro and the Coal Town doesn’t deviate from its basic setup too often, though it does offer a minigame here and there to shake things up. Fishing ended up being one of my favorite ways to pass the time in-game. It’s a rather basic minigame with a couple of button presses between you and your coveted catch, but I still preferred it to nabbing the various insects peppering the world.

Trolley racing is perhaps the biggest minigame distraction Shiro and the Coal Town offers, and it’s a fun one. Roaming the game’s screens collecting miscellany and helping out the people around you gets put on hold for a no-holds-barred, arcade-style competition on a ludicrously unsafe trolley track between Shinnosuke and a CPU-controlled opponent. This is where you can spend your hard-earned currency to upgrade your trolley and its various parts to better tune the trolley to your preferred playstyle or the specific stage you’re working on. Interestingly, the difficulty here doesn’t feature a wild jump upward, but it is significantly more challenging than the relatively pared back gameplay demands of the rest of the game. Probably not enough to cause you any undue stress, but it does feel a little out of place for it.

Outside of this, you’ll be spending most of your time doing the basics discussed above. It’s a very simple formula, and one that works for the way it makes it easy to commit to pick up and play, but it simply isn’t the thing hooked me into the game. That credit goes to the story and the presentation.

A Cavalcade of Colors

As you’ve noticed from these screenshots, Shin-chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is, put simply, a very pretty game. The decision to remove camera control from the player to emphasize the title’s detailed, painterly backgrounds was one that paid off in spades. It would be one thing for the game to achieve making each section of the game’s world distinctive from the next, but Coal Town manages to do this rather consistently on a screen by screen basis. Every time I knew I was reaching the edge of the viewable background or foreground, I was excited to see what perspective or neat visual twist might be waiting for me, and I was rarely disappointed.

Rather similarly to the narrative itself, the disparities of aesthetic between Akita and Coal Town paved the way for the artists to explore the different ways they could be presented. The two towns feel drastically different visually and sport contrasting palettes, of course, but the differences are also more subtle than that. The scale, perspectives, and tones between the two. Many sections of Coal Town feel actively warped, with structures that feel just moments from buckling under their own weight. Akita feels a bit more grounded by comparison, but its focus on realism causes the more vibrant visual style to really pop.

The music is similar, sporting a wide variety of tunes to match the tone and relaxing atmosphere. The voiceover work, which was only available in the game’s native Japanese audio, also delivers when it’s present, although only main progression features a lot of voiced dialogue. It lends itself to a feeling of authenticity which also builds on the overall experience.

No Trolley Problem

Suffice it to say, Shin-chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is a ridiculously cozy game about exploring both the serene Japanese countryside and the harsh metalworks of Coal Town, getting to know the townspeople of each town and helping them with their troubles. As I played through the game, I found myself in constant appreciation of the heart put into it, which can be seen in the high degree of effort that went into its lovingly rendered landscapes, wonderful music, and fun characters.

The successful execution of these elements is almost enough to distract you from the game’s highly basic and low-impact gameplay for a while, but not entirely. Even with the introduction of more minigames and narrative situations, the game remains a highly consistent experience for better and worse. Still, if Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town looks like a game for you, chances are good you’ll have a great time settling in and immersing yourself in its simplistic charm.

~ Final Score: 7/10 ~

Review copy provided by Neos Corporation for PC. All images courtesy of Neos Corporation.