Technically, Shin-chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation (opens in new tab) is about a 90s anime and manga star who spends a very strange week on vacation. There’s an imperfect time loop, far more dinosaurs than any modern venue should have, a curry-cooking ninja, and an ancient legend thrown into the mix — enough to keep anyone entertained. But that’s all just an excuse to give players a precious chance to tear through a small rural village in the carefree way only a five-year-old could.
It’s a simple idea – and one that can be easily misunderstood when viewed through the overwhelmingly performance-oriented lens of gaming. When so many games are designed to be exhausted just in time for the next wave of #contentsomething as gentle and no-nonsense as Shin-chan can feel wrong, as if the developer missed the global game design meeting. A playable summer vacation might sound like a great idea, but what should you actually do? to do? There are extensive lists of fish to bring in and insects to catch, and many errands Shin-chan can run for the local businesses. Those are all tasks that need to be completed, aren’t they?
Well…but also no.
If this game had to be put into a genre, Shin-chan would probably be bundled in the same unnamed box games like A Short Hike (opens in new tab)Animal Crossing and the Japanese Boku no Natsuyasumi (“My Summer Holiday”) series from the same developer. They’re games that, if they’re supposed to be “about” something, are about the joys of living within small and supportive community-based sandboxes, and they look damn cute doing it.
There are plenty of defined goals to work towards – stories to follow up, items to collect, new clothes to wear – but they are always presented more as a personal target, an optional extra to give the ongoing experience a little more. to give structure. There is always a lot that can be done, but very little that has to do.
The relaxed pace is the key to enjoying Shin-chan’s adventure. The endless supply of fish swimming in clear streams or in the shadow of the village bridge are no targets to hone until the digital supply is finally fully cataloged after many repetitive hours. They’re meant to be noticed when Shin-chan walks by on another perfect summer afternoon, and only fished if fishing sounds fun at that exact moment.
Above: Turn on the sound and enjoy the atmosphere for a minute.
The wait, the sound of the water, the final catch via a simple reaction-based pull – maybe it’s something new to shoot, maybe it’s something familiar that the local restaurant wants to put on the menu in exchange for a little pocket money , maybe it’s real junk that only fits in the trash. The experience is the point, not any measurable success or progression that could come from it.
To adapt to this laid-back lifestyle you’ll need to switch off your gamer brain, but if you can handle that, Shin-chan’s vacation life becomes much more fun than completing a defined task ever could. There is pride and pleasure in this relaxed state of mind, in enjoying a pleasant moment simply because it is there.
Summer Vacation is not a realistic sim, but it captures the feeling of chasing butterflies in a favorite spot during a peach twilight and lets the sound of the crickets drown out everything else. I’ve always wanted to take the time to stand outside Shin-chan’s neighbor’s house listening to the neighbor’s mother read her children a different short story on the porch every night, even if there’s no tangible reward for it.
The people who live in this little summer world still manage to relate even to all the dinosaurs running around thanks to an honest kind of fine detail, which deftly anchors a superficial and stomach-churning sickly sweetness in a very ordinary kind of reality. Shin-chan’s adventure in the village of Asso always feels like a summer vacation that I might have had to myself, if only I had visited the right aunt for the right week decades ago. Plumes of grass grow next to worn dirt paths, concrete corners and parking lots. Beautiful sunsets silhouette a telephone pole. A few mismatched tables are pushed together at breakfast. Two persons Like it like each other, but have trouble finding the right words when together.
Shin-chan may be a cartoon character running around with his ass literally out in a game with his own “evil” professor, but the charm lies in how this strange little gremlin kid’s escapades capture the ghost of a summer almost for all of us. It’s pretty much real enough to get stuck in our imaginations, even if it’s not a place we can actually visit.
Despite its easygoing attitude, it’s not a long game (expect a run-to-credits run that lasts about 10 hours, even without a guide), but again, this is a carefully considered feature designed to enhance Shin-chan’s sun-soaked atmosphere. . An in-game day spent watering vegetables or playing with the local kids in a miniature robo-dino battle tournament cannot be considered wasted when the ‘real’ adventure is always so close and so easy to handle. unloading is so why rush? Why not explore the local cows, learn the name from the beautiful pink flowers that grow by the roadside, or even watch fluffy clouds pass silently at the top of the mountain?
Your summer will surely be over before the next big game starts downloading anyway – the only problem is that once you get used to Shin-chan’s carefree pace, you might not be in such a rush to move on.
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