Tanuki Pon’s Summer Review: BMX Mail Run Charms, Chores Drag
Denkiworks' Tanuki: Pon's Summer has a raccoon dog delivering mail by BMX bike to save a crumbling shrine. A review published November 12 praises its warmth and odd cast, but finds some minigames repetitive.
Denkiworks, a Kyoto-based studio, has released Tanuki: Pon's Summer, a game in which a tanuki delivers mail on a BMX bike around a Japanese island. A review published November 12 calls it warm and charming, with a few chores that wear thin. This is the tanuki pon's summer review in short.
The pitch is simple. Pon is a tanuki, a Japanese raccoon dog, who let his village shrine fall apart while he ate chips and played video games.
How the game works
Tanuki gods push Pon to fix the shrine before a big festival. Repairs cost money, and money comes from a job. Pon's only real asset is a BMX bike, so he takes a post office job.
The game spans one month of summer, with each day marked on a calendar. Every morning Pon stacks the day's mail in a basket through a Tetris-like minigame, then rides out. Deliveries can be made in any order, though the story is linear.
The island is small but dense. Pon can jump on his bike but not on foot, so walking is a poor option. A skatepark-style layout makes the riding itself a draw, the review says.
Characters and minigames
Some parcels are simple drop-offs. Others come with a story. Residents include rival sushi and yakitori chefs, a photographer who has lost his creative spark, and a tough guy with a soft spot.
The reviewer says the story is less about Pon than about the community. Over the month, the feuding chefs soften toward each other and toward Pon. His deliveries also help reunite an estranged father and daughter, who are both artisan makers.
Residents' requests drive a long list of minigames. They include skewering meat and vegetables for yakitori, stacking sushi to order, serving shaved ice and foamy beer, working the convenience store checkout, playing drums for a local musician and hitting home runs at a baseball field. The reviewer likens them to the small adventures of childhood summers.
Where it falls short
Not every activity lands. The reviewer found sanding logs slow and said another task forces Pon to cut down far too many bamboo stalks. Those chores felt like a drag, the review says, and the reviewer resented some of them.
Opening with the line "Freestyle BMX mail delivery, but make it cute," the review describes a game that captures the lazy opportunity of summer. It was published on November 12, as autumn cold begins to settle in New England.
