Tanuki: Pon’s Summer review: A charming delivery sim with the guts to take on Zelda and GTA head-to-head

It takes a brave studio to look at the two-week period between The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake and Grand Theft Auto 6, and pop its game in the middle.

Yet that’s exactly what Kyoto-based Denkiworks has done with its debut title, Tanuki: Pon’s Summer. Some may see it as madness, but in one way it’s appropriate to fit it in between a Japanese adventure game and an open-world game, because that actually describes it well.

The game tells the story of the titular Pon, a tanuki who’s let himself go a bit. He spends most of his life lazing around the small treehouse apartment at the sacred shrine where he lives, and he’s spent most of the shrine’s savings on video games and snacks.

It may sound like the ideal life, but Pon hasn’t realised that the Great Tanuki Matsuri festival – which only happens once every 50 years – is coming up in a month’s time, and the shrine is in complete disrepair, with no funds left to restore it to its previous state.

It’s up to Pon to take a summer job at his local Post Office in an attempt to earn enough money to tidy up the shrine and refurbish its four most important elements – its torii gate, its chōzuya (water purification pavilion), its komainu statues and its ema stand (where visitors write prayers) – before time runs out the Matsuri festival arrives.

If you’re worried that this is a Dead Rising situation where you’re constantly against the clock to complete the game before time runs out, that’s not the case at all – although Pon’s Summer counts down the days to the Matsuri festival, each day is essentially another chapter of a linear story, meaning you have all the time you need to finish that day’s missions before calling it a night and moving onto the next day.

Most of the gameplay loop involves waking up in the morning, riding your bike to the Post Office, picking up your parcels for the day and delivering them to the townsfolk. Each day there are a couple of smaller generic parcels which are a simple case of dropping them off and getting paid, as well as more important parcels which lead to some side-quest or another.

This is where the game really earns its keep (or, indeed, its yen), because while these missions are often elaborate fetch quests, sometimes they’ll lead to a brief mini-game designed to stop things feeling too repetitive.

This could involve pulling pints for locals at the bar, arranging sushi for a chef, taking part in a sumo contest, using a crane to pick up crates from the sea, playing drums for a band at an open mic night… there are a wide variety of activities here, and they’ll make you smile.

That said, they’re harmless diversions – not all of them are so enthralling that you’ll want to replay them multiple times, but the game is wise enough to know this and doesn’t keep throwing the same mini-games at you over and over each day.

To get around, Pon uses his trusty BMX bike. This is better at navigating than he is – you can jump while on the bike, but not on foot – so it’s a good job that controlling it is a breeze. You can also pull off tricks mid-air by pressing a direction and a button, and it’s all very easy to get used to (though I’d have liked the acceleration and grind commands to have been on different buttons).

These tricks are mainly for your own amusement, but they do come into play at times – a handful of side-missions will have people asking you to do tricks, but it’s the BMX Challenges where you’ll need them more often.

There are 100 of these challenges dotted around the map, divided into five levels of difficulty and various tasks. Some have you racing through checkpoints, others have you trying to get to one checkpoint that’s a distance away, and others ask you to either score a certain points total or pull off a specific combo.

Some of the combo challenges can burn in a fire – while the controls are solid enough for pulling off individual tricks without too much effort, Tony Hawk this ain’t (it ain’t even Dave Mirra) and so chaining tricks together with the game’s wheelie move is far less reliable than pulling off a manual was in the iconic skateboarding series.

Don’t be under the illusion that any of the criticisms I’ve levelled at Pon’s Summer are suggestions that the game isn’t worth your time of day, however – far from it. Its niggles aside, this is a charming adventure with an endearing protagonist and well-written NPC dialogue.

It’s clear as you play it that great care and attention has gone into so much of this game. The way there are constantly two versions of the soundtrack playing – a more chilled-out, calmer version and a rock version with electric guitar – and the game seamlessly pans between them as you get on and off your bike is an absolute joy (even if it did make my enthralled daughter keep asking me to do it more than I’d have liked).

The little collection side-quests, which have you catching fish and bugs and adding them to an encyclopedia is straight out of Animal Crossing and just as compelling.

And while the combo challenges can be frustrating, all the other BMX challenges are so moreish that you’ll constantly find yourself finding new ones as you head towards your next delivery, saying “well, go on then” and taking them on.

This decision is made easier by the fact that once you’re done with the challenge, the game plonks you right back where you were when you took it on, and instantly starts guiding you back towards the delivery you were previously heading towards.

This is just one of a number of examples of a game that respects player convenience, along with generous unlockable fast travel spots, and the option to skip straight from Pon’s bedroom to the Post Office when you start a new day.

In all, Pon’s Summer is a little hug of a game that isn’t without its issues and does mainly revolve around fetch quests – even though it does its absolute darndest to distract you from that with its wide variety of mini-games – but makes you smile throughout its duration regardless of this.

It may have found itself stuck between two absolute titans in a new GTA and a new(ish) Zelda, and in a contest like that – assuming Rockstar hasn’t dropped the ball in the most spectacular fashion in the history of the medium – little Pon is always going to finish in third place.

Try to take it out of that context, however – as unrealistic as it may be to do so – and on its own merits Pon’s Summer is a charming and worthwhile adventure, especially given its budget price of around $20 / £16 (not to mention the fact it’s a day one Xbox Game Pass Ultimate / PC release).

Its publisher may have made the bewildering decision to release it during the one moment when the fewest people are going to be paying attention to it, but just because two enormous circles may currently be on your radar, that doesn’t mean little Pon hasn’t earned a smaller, but still very bright, spot on there too.