Welcome to EXPlay (Explain & Play) — the review series where we don’t care for scores. Instead, we tell it how it is with every game we get our hands on, while including lengthy gameplay so you, the reader, can form your own impressions and views while reading and watching.
In this explanatory review, we’re covering TANUKI: Pon’s Summer by developer, Denkiworks:
TANUKI: Pon’s Summer (Nintendo Switch 2)
Developed by Denkiworks and published by CRITICAL REFLEX, TANUKI: Pon’s Summer is a multi-platform title, set to release worldwide on November 10, 2026 across Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC, with day-one availability on Xbox Game Pass.
TANUKI: Pon’s Summer is the debut title from the Kyoto-based studio and marks clear tonal departure for CRITICAL REFLEX, better known for games such as Mouthwashing and Buckshot Roulette. In it, you play as Pon, a well-meaning but slightly lazy tanuki with a part-time job at the local post office. The Great Tanuki Festival is only a few weeks away and the shrine is in a sorry state. Your job is to earn the money and the materials needed to restore it before summer ends. The result? A light-hearted, BMX-powered life-sim that leans fully into video-game cosiness — colourful, gentle, and packed with charm from the moment you hop on the bike.
The game takes place on a single island with a built-up town on one side and another on the opposite side. The second area becomes available during Pon’s second working week, not to be confused with the second of the game, as the actual first week is essentially skipped because Pon was too busy sleeping all day and playing video games all night. Visually the two sides of the island feel distinct from one another, and the world is dotted with other locations that help keep exploration interesting. There’s a small bamboo forest-like area owned by one of the characters, (Kacho) a golf course, a school, a baseball field, a fishing area, and various other little pockets that give the island a lived-in feel. It’s not a massive open world, but there’s enough variety in the environments to stop the daily routes from becoming completely repetitive.
Almost everything you do feeds into the shrine restoration in some way, which gives the experience a pleasant sense of purpose without ever feeling overly stressful. Delivering packages is a huge part of the loop, but it’s far from the only thing you’ll be doing. You’ll regularly find yourself helping island residents in all sorts of ways — taking photographs, learning how to sumo wrestle, serving the perfect pints, and more. There are also plenty of activities to discover, and the variety helps keep the days feeling fresh. The design clearly wants you to feel like you’re spending a kid’s summer vacation: you have responsibilities, but you’re also constantly being tempted into goofing off, trying new things, and simply riding around for the fun of it.
The BMX handling took a little getting used to. It feels somewhat weighty at first, and precise manoeuvres can be a tad awkward at times, but once it clicks it’s genuinely fun to ride around on. There’s a simple joy in just watching a tanuki tear around on a BMX, and the game leans into that heavily. The optional challenges (105 in total) are a welcome addition. Some simply ask you to reach a specific location marked by a Torii gate, others require you to race through a series of gates, perform a specific series of combos, collect letters that spell out TANUKI, or score a set number of points with tricks. They’re enjoyable and easy to sink your teeth into, though a few of them can be properly challenging. They also serve as a useful break when you need time away from shrine building and package runs, and they help make sure the BMX never becomes an afterthought. Just make sure to explore as much as you can and stunt as you can before delivering the final package of the day to maximise your results and exploration.
Of the various side activities, golf was particularly enjoyable, and fishing was a lot of fun too. Baseball, on the other hand, took a while to get the hang of — nailing the perfect hit to bat my way to victory proved trickier than expected, as I often struck too soon or swung too late. Still, the mix of activities works well overall and gives Pon plenty of reasons to get out and about beyond pure deliveries. The game does a good job of making these moments feel like natural parts of island life rather than disconnected mini-games.
The cast of townsfolk is another strength. TANUKI: Pon’s Summer game does a great job of incorporating its various NPCs and finding fresh ways of keeping them relevant. Some characters will have multiple deliveries for you, others have multiple tasks, and a few can be plain annoying (no names to avoid spoilers). One character who stood out for me was Taiga, the old man with the baseball bat. He appears often, is always intimidating, and seems to be looking for any excuse to swing that bat. He’s hilarious, and the game is better for having him in it. The supporting cast in general helps sell the feeling that this is a real community, even if some of the interactions are relatively light.
With regard to the shrine restoration, progress starts off slowly. Each of the four main tasks takes up a full week, with two of them falling in Pon’s third working week. You’ll also need to build your perfect shrine by purchasing decorations from a Kitsune. Once the money starts coming in and more options unlock, the process becomes far more satisfying. Restoring each of the four main parts of the shrine comes with a costly invoice, so depending on how much you’ve earned, it’s often better to hold off on heavy decorating until the final day. That way you can level up enough to unlock and afford the decorations you actually want, rather than settling for the same item in a different colour. Once all four parts are restored, you’re free to finish the final deliveries, take part in the closing ceremony, and enjoy the ending.
Watching the shrine slowly transform into something of your own making gives a genuine sense of progress and pride. There’s a clear sense that Pon’s efforts are actually resulting in something, especially with the days counting down toward the festival. It ties neatly into the design philosophy Liam Edwards described in our interview — the feeling of a kid’s summer vacation, where every day brings something new and the knowledge that it will eventually end gives the whole experience a quiet weight. The post office job itself works well as both a practical gameplay loop and a narrative parallel to the shrine: both are traditional institutions that feel slightly out of step with modern life, and both are kept going through the quiet effort of people who still care about them.
On Nintendo Switch 2, TANUKI: Pon’s Summer runs fine overall, though the loading screens can feel sluggish at times. The soundtrack and sound design are a real strength — very fitting and enjoyable, doing an excellent job of supporting the cozy summer atmosphere. Outside of those longer loading times, we didn’t run into any other technical issues. Incidentally, performance is also solid enough that it never gets in the way of the experience.
Not rushing and without 100% completing everything, the game took us around 12 hours to beat, with more fish to catch, bugs to collect, and challenges still left to finish. The ending is bittersweet and while there is no post-game content to enjoy, there is plenty for us to go back and complete, however we don’t feel immediately compelled to go back and get everything just yet. This is the kind of game we can easily see ourselves returning to for more cozy adventure later on, but for now we want to let the ending sit with us for a while longer and simply enjoy it. There’s something quite deliberate about that feeling — the sense that you’ve shared a summer with Pon and that it’s okay to leave some things unfinished. (There’s always next summer for another adventure.)
If there’s one weaker aspect, it’s that returning to the Tanuki Shrine and then heading back into town can start to feel a little long-winded and repetitive after a while. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it is the one part of the loop that occasionally pulls you out of the otherwise pleasant flow. A few of the more drawn-out activities (the two-person saw sequence comes to mind) also overstay their welcome slightly, though they’re the exception rather than the rule. In conclusion, we would happily recommend TANUKI: Pon’s Summer to anyone looking for a wholesome game they can properly lose themselves in. Just don’t be surprised if you end up investing more time into it than you originally planned. Sometimes the best games are the ones that simply ask you to hop on your bike, deliver a few packages, and enjoy the summer while it lasts.
Game Specifications:
Developer: Denkiworks
Publisher: CRITICAL REFLEX
Platform: Nintendo Switch 2 (Digital)
Genre: Adventure, Action
No. of Players: 1 (Single System)
Release Date: November 10, 2026
Price: $19.99
Nintendo.com Listing
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