Sometimes you come across a game that feels like it was made to cater specifically to your interests, and for me, that’s Tanuki: Pon’s Summer. Just seeing the trailer of this mail-delivering, BMX-riding life sim was enough to convince me to add it to my wishlist. To be honest, the tanuki alone was probably enough. But now, having played its (albeit too brief) demo, I am thrilled that it feels like it’ll live up to my expectations.
You play as Pon, a tanuki responsible for delivering mail across four bright, summery Japanese towns. As summer starts coming to a close though, the Tanuki Festival gets closer, and the shrine has been left in disrepair. With the pocket money you earn from your part-time job at the post office, alongside the minigames you can complete around the town, you can purchase decorations to make the shrine as magical as it should be before the festival.
When you start the demo, your first task is stacking packages and letters into your bag which you then need to deliver. This is done through a Tetris-esque puzzle, dragging pieces from the shelves into a grid which represents the space in your bag. It’s easy enough, I didn’t have to rotate any blocks or spend much time at all figuring out the best way to do this. I imagine the more of the game you play, the more challenging these puzzles get, though. As soon as you’ve done that, you’re off to go and deliver.
This is where the world of Tanuki really opens up. You don’t have to follow a strict order of which package to deliver first, and you can spend some time gathering your bearings in the town. Even though it’s by no means a large place, there are a lot of characters to meet and areas to visit. You hit the main ones, like the sumo wrestling ring and the cocktail bar, as you go around delivering. But, you’ll also want to make the most of the conveniently placed ramps and rails. After all, you are riding a BMX, it would be rude to not hit a few tricks when you can.
Having an abundance of tricks at your disposal might not be a selling point to your typical cozy game player, but it does make everything a lot more fun. Even in the demo, I spent a lot of time straying from my path to pull off trick combos in the center of town. You don’t have to do them, though, and you can still progress without dedicating much time at all to learning. Alongside the packages you also have to deliver, you have “letter challenges” to complete, which involve things like doing specific tricks in certain areas, or collecting the letters to spell tanuki. This additional layer is enough to keep you playing even after you’ve completed the main aim of delivering packages.
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But the one thing I loved most about taking on my new role as the town tanuki is the fact no one is surprised a yokai is helping them out. Except the tourist who refuses to believe you’re anything but a standard American raccoon. Aside from her, everyone sees you cycling around and thinks to themselves “yep, that’s Pon” and when you deliver packages they’re happy to greet you and ask how you’re getting on. Even though Pon doesn’t speak, he responds in the same, expressive way as all the human characters, which makes for some incredibly entertaining interactions.
When you deliver mail to a few characters, you’ll also get to participate in different minigames. These can be something simple, like taking photos of a specific set of statues around the town, or go as far as learning to sumo wrestle by competing in the ring. My favourite minigame involved working at the local cocktail bar, which has somehow mastered the art of creating a drink with a foam and liquid ratio tailored to each customer. So, using two taps, you have to perfectly tilt each glass to get the right mix of drink and foam, before handing it over to the bartender to be ranked out of 10 and given to the customer.
Taking all your hard-earned cash at the end of a day of delivering mail and completing minigames and going to decorate the shrine reminds you why you’ve done it in the first place. You’re given a significant amount of space to decorate, and a lot of choice in terms of decoration with things like statues, flags, and most importantly—vending machines. These items are limited in the demo, but I look forward to seeing what else I can adorn my shrine with when the game releases in full. Currently, Tanuki: Pon’s Summer doesn’t have any sort of release date or window, but I’ll be putting on my mailman hat and making sure my tires are pumped when it finally arrives.
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