I recently watched the really still very good Phineas and Ferb for the first time in over ten years, a show that is essentially about doing absolutely everything you can during the summer break. The absurdity of it is wonderful, but if we reduce it to ‘doing A LOT while it’s summer’, it’s not that recognizable to me. That’s why it’s a bit ironic that I played Shin Chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation, a game where you do almost nothing, which I think suits me much better. And it lets you do nothing in the most soothing ways possible.
Before I get into why a game where you don’t do much is somehow a good thing, we need some important context. Shin Chan may look familiar to you if, like me, you saw it on Cartoon Network as a kid, but the Summer Vacation series is one you’re less familiar with.
Boku no Natsuyasumi (or My Summer Vacation) originally appeared on the first PlayStation in 2000, but unfortunately was never released in English. Created by developer Millenium Kitchen, who also created Shin Chan: Me and the Professor, it’s simply a game about a young boy exploring a rural village. You collect insects, bottle caps and meet the locals, and not much else. And while I haven’t had a chance to play the game because of the language barrier, it seems like my shit.
Then, not long ago, the news came that Shin Chan: Me and the Professor was getting an official English translation, instantly skyrocketing it into my highly anticipated release this year. And while the game has the Shin Chan IP overlay, it’s essentially just another Boku no Natsuyasumi (which did spawn a number of sequels).
You may have some questions right now, such as ‘do you really only catch insects?’ or “Is there a deep emotional plot to spur you on?” The answers are, in order, no, you catch fish too, and no, the plot is mostly incredibly simple.
If you’re looking for a title that’s filled to the brim with gameplay options, you won’t find it in Shin Chan. Your daily activities include, as I mentioned, catching insects, fishing, hiking and dinosaur fighting. Fans of Animal Crossing will definitely find the appeal in the first two in that list, as they are functionally the same, although there is no museum to donate them to. You’re just doing it for fun.
Catching insects and fish, while a fun activity to do, is not what makes Shin Chan so delightful. It is the city of Asso that you gradually discover more and more, making you want to go further and further.
Shin Chan is literally a PS1 game for the modern age, complete with pre-rendered backgrounds from animation studio Kusanagi. Everything has a fixed camera angle, which is why we’re treated to some of the most beautiful video game environments I’ve seen this year.
Every day is a beautiful day in Shin Chan, with endless blue skies adorned with the fluffiest clouds, sunbeams gently brushing the landscape. It’s the kind of images where if you looked at the word idyllic in the dictionary, you’d find images of these wallpapers.
However, initially you do not have all parts of the city. Some places are closed due to construction work, or a sign from a dentist (Shin Chan is very afraid of the dentist, you see), and you have to wait for them to open. Once they do, it’s unlikely you’ll find anything new other than more expertly crafted backgrounds, but that was rewarding enough for me.
There will be various bugs to catch and new fish to find, but it’s mostly exploring for the sake of it. I can’t think of anything more attractive than that for a five-year-old, which Shin Chan herself will constantly remind you of. And it reminds me of how I used to spend my own summers, for the sake of exploring, not really finding that much, but just enjoying being in that space at the time.
At some point, as you get to know the city better, you’ll eventually be introduced to a not-so-secret secret base where those dinosaur fights I mentioned take place. In practice, they’re very simple turn-based battles where you play rock-paper-scissors, but presenting the toys as if they were real ones definitely shows the power of a child’s imagination.
Collectible cards are also available that will boost your dinosaurs’ stats, and given how avid collector of Yu-Gi-Oh and other cards I was as a kid, this pleased me immensely. There’s no greater reason to gather and fight, it’s just a way to have fun with your friends, which to me is a pillar of childhood. Do it for fun, not for purpose.
One thing to keep in mind is that Shin Chan can get tired, and when he runs out of energy, he collapses and comes back to the house where he is staying, although there are no consequences other than losing some time. You lose energy going from screen to screen, which is a fun way to encourage you to remember the layout of the city and figure out which routes are the fastest, if only for the satisfaction of doing so.
Of course, there is a plot to be found, one that is definitely suited to a younger audience. The titular professor is quite prominent for his use of a time machine that summons dinosaurs from the past. Jurassic Park would suggest dinosaurs would immediately cause chaos, but they’re usually pretty chill, and the townspeople even grow up to take care of them.
It’s one of the least commitment stories I’ve experienced this year, and in a year filled with as much pressure as it has been, it’s something I really appreciate. The story isn’t really about the dinosaurs, but about how the townspeople live their lives around them, and how Shin Chan as a five-year-old can help them.
Being the sympathetic idiot that Shin Chan is, his help is normally well-meaning but not always productive, but still everything will work out in the end because a game like this can’t be too dramatic.
Because of that lack of pressure, Shin Chan serves as the perfect, relaxing escape. Animal Crossing, as beautiful as it can be, also has the strong potential to be stressful if you can’t design your island just right, but Shin Chan asks so little of you that it’s impossible to get stressed.
I want to make it clear that games that do challenge the player with inconvenient and important themes definitely have an important place in the canon. But Shin Chan deserves a spot like that just as much, because in the world of major releases, there’s not much like it, especially when you consider that Boku No Natsuyasumi is pretty inaccessible outside of those who speak Japanese.
We can’t escape the real world forever. I know that, you know that. It’s not even what I want in the long run. But we all deserve a week off here and there, and I think many of us would benefit a lot from being able to do nothing without an ounce of guilt. And Shin Chan, a game where you do nothing for a week, is one of the most perfect types of nothing you can do.
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