As somebody that used to be a big fan of the Shin-chan anime/manga as a kid, this is pretty much a dream come true kind of game. Not only we get a wonderfully faithful usage of the license material in video game form, we're also getting another game in the style of Boku no Natsuyasumi localized in English, and boy both of these things mix so well.

The game is mostly about exploring the little town of Asso, as Shin-chan and his family stays over at a friend's house because Shin-chan's dad has work-related duties in a nearby town, making it a one week summer vacation for you and the rest of the family. You'll get to know the locals, fish in the rivers and ponds, run errands to buy food so you have enough stamina in the day, and so on. Oh, and you're also dealing with a mad genius who's bringing dinosaurs from the past to the present.

Right from the start, this game is an immensely pleasing sight for sore eyes. The pre-rendered backgrounds here are the textbook definition of romantic, as every side of the little town you're in is shown in lovely detail and vibrant colors. Not to mention the great 3D character models that nails the style of the anime.

Another thing they nailed is the writing. Again, the spirit of the license material is masterfully materialized here, filling the story with the kind of shenanigans Shin-chan fans are very familiar with. One of my favorite examples is Shin-chan can't access one of the later areas in the game too early because there's a billboard advertising a local dentist, and he's too scared of dentists to even walk in front of that billboard. The main story in general is also filled with silly dialogues in the tone of the aforementioned example.

While there is quite a lot of crazy things happening in the story, Shin-chan's main goal is to get a "date" with Yoshiko, an university student working a part time job at a local newspaper. To do this, you will need to be the newspaper's one and only preschool reporter to help the newspaper prosper. Every thing that you'll do in the game, from encountering story set pieces, fishing, running errands, playing the dinosaur battle mini game, to simply exploring and talking to people, can get you "stories" which you can publish in the newspaper everyday, which will get them new subscribers. An example of this would be publishing a story about a rare fish that you caught, or a story about a gossip you heard from one of the characters. This is perhaps the main "carrot on a stick" element of the game, as the glue that sticks a lot of the bizzare story events together, making it feel much more cohesive.

My complaints of this game are mostly nitpicks. Some of the areas are hard to explore because they have really weird fixed camera angles. The dinosaur mini game is fun but I wished it didn't depend so much on RNG, in and out of the mini game. There's not much of a good reason to do a lot of errands since you don't need a lot of food to keep your stamina in check each day.

In short, it's a good time to be alive as a Shin-chan fan and as somebody interested in niche Japanese games like this. I hope you'll buy this game if you're interested, we need more games like this!

Reviewed on Oct 13, 2022


2 Comments


3 months ago

Great review. This has been in my backlog for a while now, but you've convinced me to bump it up in my list of priorities.

Although I wonder if I should play (the fan translation of) Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 first, since that seems to be the better received Millennium Kitchen game.

3 months ago

@Acquiescence I haven't played it but that seems like a good idea to me. No matter what you play first it's probably a win-win situation haha