TANUKI: Pon’s Summer Review

Denkiworks delivers a colorful summer adventure where a lazy tanuki must deliver packages, befriend locals, perform BMX tricks, and restore a forgotten shrine before the Great Tanuki Festival.

Cozy games have a particular way of turning the mundane into something fun, whether that's running a small business, meeting new people, decorating a house, or simply exploring a lovely setting. TANUKI: Pon's Summer is a perfect example, and it goes a bit further by putting you in the role of a laid-back tanuki who's suddenly required to be a proper postman. Denkiworks has crafted a game that blends package deliveries, BMXing, a host of mini-games, and shrine restoration into a very pleasant summer experience.

Rather than go down the route of a long narrative or a lot of combat, it focuses on getting to know the island's inhabitants and helping restore a long-neglected shrine. You play as Pon, a rather over-enthusiastic tanuki who's spent most of his time playing video games, eating snacks, and sleeping rather than actually doing anything useful as a shrine guardian.

The Great Tanuki Festival is due in a few weeks, and the shrine is in a right state of disrepair. He's got very little cash and just about a month to get the shrine in order. His solution is to work at the local post office. His job is to deliver mail and parcels across the island, meet the various inhabitants, and, in the process, collect enough money and rewards to get the shrine back in shape before the festival.

It's a fairly simple concept, but Pon's personality makes it a lot more fun. That's what gives TANUKI: Pon's Summer its own distinct flavor and makes it stand out from the usual run-of-the-mill cozy games. The writing and presentation are probably the best aspects of the experience. Pon isn't presented as some perfect hero who always makes the right call.

He's lazy, he's cheeky, and he's often far more interested in having a good time than in actually getting on with his job. His rather silly animations make the game's mundane moments entertaining, whether he's running around town, cycling, or just reacting to conversation. He has no traditional spoken dialogue; conversations are presented as a range of response options via expressive face emojis. That's a very small detail, but it gives him character.

The humor also helps establish the adventure's identity. 

Pon's lack of discipline constantly clashes with the expectations of his rather stern (and ancient) tanuki ancestors, who would have him take his shrine duties seriously. It's fun to watch how they react to his antics, especially when they ask him to do something utterly out of character. The other characters on the island are all great in their own right, with their own quirks, requests, and daily lives. 

The story itself is fairly simple, but TANUKI: Pon's Summer is a very enjoyable adventure thanks to all the little things that happen. The core gameplay is you working at the post office and doing your daily deliveries. You start the day by collecting the packages and letters you have to deliver, then getting your bike ready to go. Delivering everything isn't always as straightforward as just cycling straight to the place you're delivering to.

The packages come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and you have to fit them into your bike basket in the right way. There's a very minor puzzle element there before you even start exploring the island. It's not a particularly complex system; it adds a bit of variety to the rather standard delivery routine.

Once the packages are sorted, you can move between locations and pick up residents waiting for their deliveries. Some objectives are fairly straightforward; others are more complex and require you to assist locals with various tasks before completing your original objective. A delivery can easily become an ad-hoc request to collect something, cook something, or generally help out the locals in some way. That's what keeps TANUKI: Pon's Summer from being just a simple package-delivery game.

The island is quite large, and there is plenty to do off the main delivery routes.

The streets are colorful, the coast is lovely, and several residential areas and other environments offer cheerful places to wander without necessarily doing anything in particular. Not everything is a must-do; you're free to explore the island's different bits and interact with residents at your own pace. That freedom is vital, as the charm of TANUKI: Pon's Summer lies in smaller discoveries rather than a constant stream of major story events.

The most notable feature of the delivery system is Pon's BMX bike. Instead of walking or driving a standard vehicle, you can ride a bike capable of jumps, tricks, flips, and grinds. The developers have clearly drawn inspiration from the arcade extreme sports games you'd find in the 80s and 90s, with the environment full of ramps, rails, and all the other features you'd expect.

You can actually do tricks while traveling between your delivery points, so getting from A to B becomes its own activity. The BMX mechanics also throw up several challenges for the more movement-focused player. Well over 100 challenges are dotted around the island, prompting you to go back and do things you might otherwise have walked past. You can also try to string different moves together into longer trick sequences, which is a good bit of extra entertainment in itself.

The BMX controls aren't quite as comfortable as the concept would suggest. It can feel quite floaty, and at times you find yourself making a lot of adjustments to control Pon's bike. Acceleration, braking, and steering don't always feel natural, and at times the bike is hard to control, which can make certain sections of the course frustrating rather than fun. 

The BMX system is probably the most interesting feature in TANUKI: Pon's Summer, and that's a good thing; just the handling could have been a bit better.

You don't need to be a BMX expert to give it a go, really. If you're the type of player who wants to get on with the deliveries and explore the island, you can do that without spending a lot of time trying to nail the difficult combinations. The optional bits are there if you want to take them on, but you can absolutely do the whole thing at your own pace, and it's not a requirement at all.

Another major aspect of the gameplay is getting involved with the islanders in all sorts of activities. As you get to know the residents, they start to invite you along to all sorts of things. You can make sushi, play baseball, go to sumo matches, and more. Each activity offers a different way to engage with the world and gives you a chance to earn rewards you can use to help restore the shrine.

The mini games are a great way to break up the delivery. You don't just go from place to place collecting the mail all the time; you come across all sorts of different scenarios. Not all of them are equally fun (some could have been quite deep), but the variety is good and helps keep things light. They do a lot to make the island feel like a community and give the residents something to do besides collect their mail from Pon.

The shrine restoration system is another good reason to keep on finishing your objectives. Since Pon's primary job is to get the shrine ready for the Great Tanuki Festival, you can use the cash and rewards you earn from deliveries and activities to rebuild and redecorate it. You can buy various items, arrange the decorations, and slowly turn the run-down shrine into a proper place to welcome the festival.

Customization is done through a simple system where you can place all sorts of items around the shrine.

There are literally hundreds of things you can use to decorate it, so you're free to create all sorts of arrangements and looks. You can go for a very tidy setup, add extra structures, or decorate the place however you like. The system is pretty straightforward, and you don't need to spend ages learning a complex building system.

However, if you're looking for a very in-depth construction experience, the customization you can actually achieve is somewhat limited. The decoration system is geared toward creating a cozy feel rather than serving as a full-fledged building system. That's not a bad thing, as TANUKI: Pon's Summer isn't really a shrine management game in itself. It's more of a nice side activity that gives your deliveries and mini-games real purpose.

The presentation is absolutely excellent. The visual design is vibrant, the character animations are expressive, and the world's Japanese aesthetic is clear. The island offers a range of locations, and the inhabitants are all quite distinct in appearance. It's a world with personality, even if the textures are quite basic.

The soundtrack also works really well. It mixes traditional Japanese-inspired music with a bit of rock and roll (especially when Pon is cycling around the island). It sets the mood depending on what you're doing and doesn't get in the way. It's a cheerful soundtrack, and the sound design makes you feel like you're in the environment rather than just observing it.

For the PC version, TANUKI: Pon's Summer is available via Steam and supports controller play. Our impressions don't include specific PC performance figures, so don't assume anything about frame rates or the like. The experience offers accessible movement, exploration, and controller play. Ultimately, TANUKI: Pon's Summer works because it nails the fundamentals of a good cozy adventure. 

The delivery missions are straightforward, the mini-games are varied, and the shrine restoration system gives you a reason to keep going and earn rewards. The BMX isn't flawless, and the controls can be a bit of a pain at times, but Pon's character and the island's sheer charm make those flaws easy to forgive. The narrative doesn't really stick with you, but the little bits of day-to-day life and the small adventures you go on make it a great experience.

If you like games that are all about exploration, customization, and meeting characters, then TANUKI: Pon's Summer is a very different proposition from a more demanding adventure. A very good alternative to Animal Crossing for those who want more freedom of movement and some arcade-style activities.

Pon isn't the most responsible of shrine keepers by any means, but it's a lot of fun just spending a summer with him delivering the packages, getting to know the people, and helping him rebuild his house. TANUKI: Pon's Summer is a very enjoyable game.