I’ve been in Bilewater so long that I had to put Silksong down for a moment and play other games. This week I played a cozy game about working in the summer and riding my BMX.

This week is the Tanuki: Pon’s Summer Demo!

Tanuki: Pon’s Summer is a cozy adventure game from Denkiworks and Critical Reflex. The game is going to be released for the PC, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.

Nothing says Summer like working a summer job. Pon the Tanuki has set out to make some extra cash to play “Fixer Upper” and repair the absolutely unkept shrine, all before The Tanuki Festival. Pon takes a part-time job (it feels like full-time) at the post office delivering mail, on their beloved BMX, to the weird citizens of the city.

Core gameplay is tied to this, delivering mail and riding the bike. Pon is insanely good at BMX, even rivaling Dave Mirra. Pick up the mail from the post office in the morning and deliver mail to the city, earn extra money, and then take the money back to the shrine to buy stuff for the shrine.

Onboarding is clear in showing the player how to ride and do tricks on the bike.

The whole city is built like a skatepark, with ramps and rails littered throughout. The BMX is the most fun because it is the main mode of transportation, and doing tricks is a blast. Tricks are tied to the D-pad and the face buttons, and bunny hopping is tied to A, making it easy to hop over obstacles and start trick lines.

While delivering mail, it is possible to talk with people and do fun little mini-games, too. After doing a tail-hip, wheeling to a front flip, I pulled up on a sumo ring and delivered some mail. Next thing I knew, I agreed to become the first ever Tanuki sumo wrestler!

I also rode up on a bar and it was determined then that I was able to serve people drinks and participated in a confusing, yet really fun, pouring beer mini-game.

gameplay is super fun and super cozy. It’s all that I need.

Big fan of the art design; It’s got the cozy look down. The overall environment has all the blues, greens, and browns that make the game visually pleasing. I like the unique look of the skatepark items because when you see them in the world, you’ll know that you are able to ride off a ramp and trick off of people’s roofs. The character models are something special as everyone of importance is seemingly more colorful and detailed than everyone else. Everyone talks in bubble text, which I ADORE Pon’s emojis for their responses.

Music is great. Calm music plays in the background when you are talking and playing a mini-game. However, when you get on the bike, heavy music starts to play, really getting you in the mood to do some tricks. VERY ENJOYABLE.

Tanuki: Pon’s Summer’s demo was super enjoyable. I was skeptical about BMXing, but after the onboarding and a little time to get a hang of the mechanics, I was moving around town, grinding on anything and everything, and doing tricks off staircases. The animations were looking a little stiff, but I can ignore that because I was having so much fun talking to the quirky people I was delivering packages to.

Great demo, I recommend playing it.