In the middle of a month full of high quality videogame releases, “Shin-Chan: Snowy in Carbonpolis” arrived to face games like: Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, Metaphor Re: Fantazio and Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 and yes, it could be said that the 3 aforementioned releases have absolutely nothing to do with “Snowy in Carbonpolis” as they are aimed at different types of audiences. However, ratings never make this analysis, so yes, the Shin-Chan game that is aimed at a child audience proved that even this type of game can outperform AAA games by far because of the possibilities it offers.
Shin-Chan: Snowed in Carbónpolis of the best children’s games of the year
Shin-Chan: Snowy in Carbónpolis is more of an exploration game focused on collecting resources that will help us complete missions that, in the beginning are too simple, but as the game progresses they become very complex being for an “adult” player easy to complete, but for a child (the target audience of the game) complicated.
Shin-Chan is a very sociable boy of only 5 years of age who lives in the small rural town of Akita, being used to a more city life. The little boy must learn some small habits that his grandfather teaches him with a lot of patience (and that will serve in the development of the game) such as insect hunting and fishing, once he masters them, Shin-Chan will use them to discover new areas that are blocked by other children in the area who “discriminate” Shin for being an outsider: the more areas are unlocked, the more species of insects, fish and even crabs can be collected.
One morning our dog “Nevado” has a kind of “vision” and takes the protagonist to a remote area of the town, where a train appears. This will take him to the city of Carbónpolis where we will meet the villain of the story, little Sumi who tells us that she has brought us to this mining city, a very cheerful cook who has a great seasoning, but a restaurant with almost no customers and the “most beautiful woman” in all of Carbónpolis: Yuri “The inventor” who has a machine that with only entering materials generates some useful object.
Both in Akita and in Carbónpolis, we need to do secondary missions to unlock new areas, the missions are generally to help Yuri or the inhabitants of the city with some “errands” or “errands” that will lead to alternate the character between both locations, something that does not make it repetitive and much less boring.
Simple gameplay, worthy of a children’s game
The game is notable for not using many buttons on the Nintendo Switch, in general you use the cross pad, the left stick, the A-B, R-L and ZR-ZL buttons (occasionally) and X to skip some cinematics, the only challenge is to complete the missions before night falls. However, this can be changed in the settings by choosing the option of a slow or medium transition of days. Fishing for fish and crabs is an important factor and something of the most complicated when specimens are very rare, unlike insects that will always be easy to catch.
Earning money to buy resources and create new recipes to unlock zones is complicated at times, because it is not possible to sell our resources, the only ways to make a few cents is: Accepting the challenges of his grandmother, taking rare insects to the “insect maniac”, serving as a waiter at the cook’s inn or making exchanges (although it is very rare), Shin-Chan must manage to get enough money to accumulate resources and unlock more and more zones to reach the villain of the story.
Decent graphics with one of the best cameras
The graphics are not the best in the world, it was tested in “portable” mode and in desktop mode in 4K screen, improvements were seen on the screen, more details and a somewhat clearer sound. However, nothing impressive, being a 100% “anime” game and based entirely on the anime Akita and anime characters, it sounds more like an interactive remake than a game, of course it is not, but at the graphics level it does seem to be. Something that is a luxury and that surprised is the transition of the camera, as it is automatic to make it easier for children to use the right stick.
The camera changes automatically during the game and we can see, for example: aerial, side and front shots of Shin-Chan, although there are also fierce and competent graphic sections such as loading screens, where Akita landscapes are shown excellently well detailed, these loading screens do not last at all, being ultra fast.
One of the best children’s games of this year.
The game Shin-Chan: Snowy in Cabonpolis is one of the most important children’s games of this 2024, because in addition to showing almost all the characters of the original story, it is an adventure of: friendship, mystery and lots of fun where both children and adults will spend many hours of fun racking their brains, thinking about how to solve the next assignment or secondary mission to unlock new areas.
“Shin-Chan Snowy in Carbonpolis” is a niche game focused on children, which can be played by adults to spend great hours of entertainment, although the little ones will enjoy the most. The game was developed by h.a.n.d. Inc and its publisher was Neos Corporation, h.a.n.d. has been in charge of great games like Kingdom Hearts and is available on Nintendo Switch console and Steam.
©USUI YOSHITO/FUTABASHA,SHIN-EI,TV ASAHI,ADK
©Neos Corporation
© Nintendo. 2024