Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town Review – A Simple Yet Jam-Packed Adventure (Switch)

If you like (or love) Studio Ghibli, then you’ll probably like this game: Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town. This game might also be familiar to you if you’ve played (or at least heard of) another Shin-chan game, Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation. I haven’t played the first game, but I did get to play Shiro and the Coal Town, and I have to say I couldn’t find much fault about it. I think this is one of those easy-going games that anyone at any age can enjoy, if they’d rather play something a little slower and more relaxing. Let’s take a further look at this latest adventure with Shin-chan.

Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is now available for PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch for $39.99.

Story – Saving Coal Town

I have to admit, I’d never heard of Shin-chan until the release of Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation. I thought it was a new concept, but Shin-chan has been around since 1990, first starting as a manga in Japan called Crayon Shin-chan. The series is still going today. To briefly summarize what it’s about, it focuses on a five-year-old boy called Shinnosuke Nohara (also known as Shin) and his family. The series follows Shin’s daily life, but he also has plenty of adventures – and Shiro and the Coal Town is no exception.

In this game, Shin and his family head to the quiet village Akita, renting an farmhouse near where Shin’s dad’s parents live, as his dad has been given an assignment there. One day, Shin’s dog Shiro reappears covered with soot. When Shin follows him to an abandoned train station, an old train mysteriously appears out of the bushes. Upon boarding the train, they are whisked away to Coal Town, a lively and prosperous mining town stuck in the Showa era. The happiness of the town is threatened by its mysterious-and-sinister leader, who has his own plans for the place. It seems that it’s up to Shin, aided by his new friends, to save the town.

Being my first experience with Shin-chan, I have to say I was very impressed overall by the storytelling and characters, as well as the setting. Even if you’ve never heard of Shin-chan or played Me and the Professor (like myself), you’ll still be able to follow the story easily. It’s nothing too complicated, yet its engaging and will make you want to progress with the main missions. There are plenty of characters to meet throughout Shiro and the Coal Town as well, but it’s easy enough to get to know them all and their role in Akita and Coal Town. I found the characters very engaging and enjoyed completing their side quests and chatting with them. I also found the main villain intriguing to watch and a believable threat to the main characters.

I enjoyed the antagonist in Shiro and the Coal Town. They provided a few surprises in the story.

Gameplay – Simple Yet Addictive

Don’t look at the word “simple” and take it as a negative thing when I describe the gameplay of Shiro and the Coal Town. Yes, it is sweet and simple, but in a good way. It’s nothing overcomplicated. In fact, this game was pretty good fun. I don’t think at any point I ever got bored of it or felt that things were dragging along. Although it isn’t one of those games you can finish in a day, you do feel as if you get your money’s worth. I read online somewhere that this game should take about 12 hours to complete. That’s probably pretty accurate because although I wasn’t counting, I’m sure it took me that long to finish the game as well – and I hadn’t even completed all the side quests by the time I did the final mission! Let’s take a closer look at the gameplay in Shiro and the Coal Town.

Bug Collecting and Fishing

Collecting items is a big part of the gameplay in Shiro and the Coal Town. To complete missions, requests, and progress through the story, you need to find stuff for people. This includes fish, vegetables, minerals, and more. Some of these are found by exploring Akita and Coal Town and interacting with sparkly spots on the ground. You can also purchase items from the shop with money Shin has earned through completing tasks, or by trading at the noticeboard. Some items require a little more work to obtain. This includes bug hunting, fishing, and gardening. 

Bugs and fish can be found all over Akita. You can also find bugs around Coal Town, but there are no fish at all. At the very start of the game, Shin procures a net, which he can use to catch bugs. There are also plenty of fishing spots where Shin can catch a variety of fish. This is very reminiscent of Animal Crossing, but it’s made much simpler in Shiro and the Coal Town. Bugs and fish cannot be scared off. You don’t have to creep up to bugs to catch them, and fish don’t get spooked. This makes collecting bugs and fish much easier. 

There’s something very relaxing about bug collecting in Shiro and the Coal Town.

There are one or two things you should note. Because of the fixed camera angles in Shin chan, it can sometimes be hard to get the right angle for catching bugs, but this just added to the fun challenge of catching them. At least bugs didn’t fly off in a panic if you missed. Also, fish automatically swim over to the hook. There’s none of that frustration in Animal Crossing of readjusting the throw of the fishing line to get the fish to see it. However, some fish, especially crawfish and crabs, don’t hurry themselves, so you have to wait a bit before you can reel them in. However, if you do bungle a reel-in, they don’t swim away for good, so you can try again. 

All-in-all, bug collecting and fishing in Shin chan is an enjoyable experience. It’s also very satisfying when you either catch a fish that breaks the record for being the biggest, or one that you are looking for in a quest. Also, there’s an ongoing side quest where you help a young woman fill up her bug, fish, gardening, and mineral book. Getting the latter two isn’t too hard, but it is satisfyingly more challenging to get all the bugs and fish, giving you another incentive to find them all.

Gardening

Gardening initially appears as a small side activity in Shiro and the Coal Town, but it actually serves an important role in the game. When it comes to certain quests, particularly cooking, some ingredients can only be obtained through trading at the noticeboard, buying at the local market stand, or by gardening. Shin’s family owns a small plot where they can grow their own vegetables. You start off with a few seeds, then unlock more as you complete Shin’s grandma’s gardening tasks. 

Gardening is straightforward enough: you just plant the seeds you want to grow, water them every day, and wait for them to be harvested. Each vegetable has different growth speeds, so although you may plant something at the same time, you may find yourself harvesting at different times.

There are a few catches with gardening though. There are only four plots available to grow seeds in, and there is no way to procure more growing plots. Also, you cannot dig up planted vegetables, so if you’ve got no room for new plants, you’ll just have to wait until they’re harvested. Still, it wouldn’t be fun if it was too easy. It is very satisfying watching the plants grow day-by-day in Shin chan.

Gardening is a satisfying activity – but space is limited for crops – and you can’t dig up what you’ve already planted.

Cooking and Helping at the Restaurant

One quite prominent side quest when Shin makes it to Coal Town is helping to establish the local restaurant, run by a friendly woman with a deep passion for cooking. This includes building up the menu – and it does grow quite big, so by the end, any patron would be spoiled for choice! To unlock the recipes, Shin must gather the necessary ingredients, which includes fishing, gardening, buying stuff at the market, and collecting wild veggies. 

Generally, a lot of tasks throughout Shiro and the Coal Town has you going around gathering stuff for different people. At any one time, you can have almost a dozen requests, but I didn’t actually mind this too much. Some may find this fetch-quest gameplay a bit trivial and tedious, but I found it quite addictive, hunting for the required fish, growing the right vegetables, and getting everything on the list.

The food looks so good! It was worth running around getting all the ingredients to unlock them all.

Trolley Racing

If there was one activity I really enjoyed in Shiro and the Coal Town, it’s trolley racing. I don’t think I unlocked it until about halfway through the game, but when I did, I was off. Honestly, trolley racing is the best fun ever. Can it be frustrating at times? Yes, but so what? It’s fun! It takes a little getting used to the controls and handling the cart, but you lose all track of time as you whizz around the courses. 

In trolley racing, you compete against one other racer. The goal isn’t necessarily to get ahead of them, but to collect as many points as possible. Points are earned by collecting gems along the track, but you also lose points by crashing into your opponent or obstacles, or if you go around tight turns too fast. These mistakes can cost you the win, as well as the prizes you get from completing races. The more points you get, the more prizes you win. You’ll also unlock more courses as you win races, and they range from easy to hard.

Trolley racing is the best in Shiro and the Coal Town. It’s a change from the other laid-back activities in the game.

To better your chances at performing well in trolley races, you can buy upgrades. You can get a lot of parts, including stabilizers to stop your trolley from tipping, projectiles to fire at your opponent, boosters to temporarily go faster, and drills to break through giant rocks. Upgrades can be costly, but are worth it.

I’m not a spoiler person, so I don’t want to say too much, but Shiro and the Coal Town does have a final boss battle that involves a special trolley race segment. I’m being totally honest here when I say that it was probably the most fun boss fight I’ve ever experienced in any video game, which I find odd saying as these are designed to be extremely frustrating. Although I kept failing and it took time to complete, I had such a good time.

If you want to master the tracks, you’ll need to upgrade your trolley.

Graphics & Audio – Majestic

One thing I love about Studio Ghibli is its beautiful backdrops, which is probably what will attract you to Shin chan: Shiro and the Coal Town. The game does have a fixed camera style, but if this means getting to enjoy the gorgeous scenery, I don’t mind at all. It makes me want to visit the Japanese countryside so badly! In contrast, the characters have a cartoony style which Shin-chan has had for years, but again, this is something I don’t mind. Actually, the two art styles complement each other quite well: the beautifully realistic backdrop with the cartoonish characters.

The music in Shiro and the Coal Town for the most part is very lighthearted and upbeat, suitable for a family-friendly game. I didn’t find it annoying or want to silence it at any point, nor did it drive me crazy when it eventually got ingrained in my head. I especially like the contrast between the soundtrack of Akita and Coal Town, further distinguishing the two locations Shin frequently travels between.

Shiro and the Coal Town was played and reviewed on the Nintendo Switch with a key provided by Jesús Fabre.