Tanuki: Pon’s Summer lets you enjoy life in a whimsical, Studio Ghibli-style Japanese village as a BMXing raccoon dog  

On September 26, Critical Reflex announced that they will be publishing Denkiworks’ Tanuki: Pon’s Summer. Coming to Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC sometime in 2025, the game will be playable in over 15 languages including English.  

In Tanuki: Pon’s Summer, you play as a somewhat lazy tanuki (raccoon dog) who delivers mail in an idyllic Japanese village. Unfortunately, the village’s shrine is in a state of disrepair. With just a month to go, Pon must try to rebuild the shrine in time for the Tanuki Festival.  

Gameplay involves riding around the village delivering packages to the residents. Pon is quite nimble on his bike, he can jump across roofs, and slide along ropes and railings- essentially BMXing his way through the village. Delivering the mail to people improves their relationship with Pon- prompting them to invite you to do various activities, including baseball, karaoke and fishing. Completing these activities allows you to unlock items and rewards that will help you rebuild the shrine. Tanuki: Pon’s Summer looks set to combine bike-riding action with helping locals with quests, as well as letting you build and decorate the shrine yourself. 

From the trailer, it seems the story-rich game with its cartoon graphics will have a quirky, whimsical charm almost reminiscent of Studio Ghibli films (especially Pom Poko). 

Tanuki: Pon’s Summer is being developed by Kyoto-based indie game studio Denkiworks. The studio was created by Liam Edwards, Taku Arioka and Jan de Graaf, all of whom previously worked for Q-Games on titles such as PixelJunk Scrappers. Information about Tanuki: Pon’s Summer was first released on the studio’s social media accounts in around July 2023- but now it has been given a release window. 

According to the game’s Steam page, Tanuki: Pon’s Summer is a “love letter to Japan,” based on the devs’ experiences of hot summers in Kyoto, Beppu and other places.   

Tanuki: Pon’s Summer is scheduled to be released on Xbox X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam) in 2025.  

Based on the original Japanese article by Keiichi Yokoyama (original article’s publication date: 2024-09-26 19:57 JST)