Crayon Shin-chan

Crayon Shin-Chan as you have probably guessed is part of the Shin-Chan franchise. I am not an expert on this at all, but I did watch it during my college years as it was on Fox Kids, and one of those shows that was super weird after a beer or two. All I can remember from it is that Shin-Chan seemed to like to get his butt out a lot. Anyway, this mid 90s Genesis/Mega Drive game never actually left Japan so I was quite excited to get the chance to play it.

What Is Going On?

Ok, so I have to tell you that Crayon Shin-Chan for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis is all in Japanese and there is a great deal of text in this game. So with that being said, I have no clue what the heck is going on here. I do feel that it is following the show though as there are many cut scenes to move the story along.

Just Like TV

One thing that is very impressive about this game and the thing that kept me playing, in all honesty, is the visuals. This is a fantastic looking game and one of the brighter-looking Genesis games I have come across. The types of colors you are getting with Crayon Shin-Chan are usually what you would find on the Super Nintendo. This though is one great looking game. Each of the games four different areas all have a nice look to them as well and even the soundtrack is pretty fitting and I am sure I recognized the odd tune from the show here and there.

Do What You Gotta Do

As I said, I could not follow the story, but I picked up the idea of the game pretty quickly. I would best describe Crayon Shin-Chan as a side-scrolling action game. Shin-Chan can move around freely, jump and he can use special moves with these cards you collect such as a water gun and a weird thing where he pretends his junk is an elephant or something like that. You talk to people; you go beat a guy up and then you get a card. That for the most part is the formula of the game. You also get to take part in a bunch of mini-games and these are way more fun than you would think. These mini-games were a fun way to shake the gameplay up and my favorite is a weird pinata one and also one where you are in a three-legged race.

Interestingly, you can play these mini-games from the game menu so while they are in the main game, you can just play them whenever you want.

Pros:

• The game looks fantastic
• Lots of high quality cut scenes
• It captures the style and feel of the show very well
• Shin-Chan’s craziness is here in full!
• You can play some fun mini-games

Cons:

• The game is in Japanese
• I think it could have done with more focus on platforming

Shin-chan is a kindergarten brat who stars in one of Japan's hottest TV anime series (it consistently scores viewer ratings of at least 20 percent). In a way he's a lot like Dennis the Menace, but with a lot more bite. For instance, his imitation of an elephant involves him dropping his shorts and drawing "eyes" about three inches below his belly button.

He's bringing his twisted humor to the Mega Drive in weird Action stages. Unlike a lot of poor translations from hit cartoons, this one promises to capture all the charms of Shin-chan with plenty of cinemas and digitized speech. It's weird, but way cool.