Meet The Bike-Driving, Mail-Delivering Raccoon Who Dares To Problem GTA 6

This November would not appear like different Novembers, not on the sport launch calendar anyway. Usually, this month is reserved for the discharge of some of the largest video games of the 12 months, strategically timed to drop simply earlier than the vacation season and occasions like The Sport Awards. However in 2026, practically each huge writer and even a lot of smaller ones backed away from November for one apparent cause: Grand Theft Auto 6.

Rockstar’s long-awaited sequel will probably break each leisure gross sales report that exists. Launching in that type of blast radius is not an attractive prospect for many. However it did not scare off Denkiworks, creators of Tanuki: Pon’s Summer season, and I wished to know why.

Talking with him by way of e mail, recreation director Liam Edwards informed me that whereas GTA 6 was actually a consideration, there is no sense in ready for all the celebs to align as a result of that is not what the celebs do within the video games trade.

“Truthfully, it was in everybody’s thoughts, I feel, all 12 months. ‘When is that recreation releasing,'” Edwards informed me. “However I feel for us truly, once we lastly selected November, it was a mixture of: ‘Okay, we have now to ship and might’t preserve ready round. If we delay, there are additionally a whole lot of video games like ours, different indies who could have delayed, after which we’re preventing towards them for consideration.’ There’s sadly no ‘proper reply.'”

He stated that his developer associates have questioned the choice, too, however added that Denkiworks hopes Tanuki: Pon’s Summer season is “sufficient of a very good time” that gamers will discover it after taking part in video games like GTA 6 and The Ocarina of Time remake, even when they do not catch it on this small window between that pair of November titans.

I have been taking part in and loving Tanuki for a couple of week now. It is a third-person journey recreation that blends parts of BMX methods with mail supply in a quaint Japan-inspired city, and stars a lovable raccoon making an attempt his best–provided he will get off the bed on time. It looks like a Nintendo recreation that someway went multiplatform. Characters are as charming because the world round them is vibrant, and Pon looks like an on the spot fan-favorite character and mascot. (Might any person please make a plushie of this fella? My daughter is begging you!)

Edwards stated the sport began out as his method to give again to Japan, which he moved to over a decade in the past and grew to understand. Impressed by 4 particular cities–Kyoto, Sapporo, Beppu, and Aomori–he informed me he and his crew sought to bottle the area’s genuine feeling. They appeared to all facets of Japan’s signature structure and temples, even right down to smaller quirks like its colourful manhole covers. This surroundings is introduced to the gamers by way of the eyes of Pon, who’s initially an outsider, very similar to Edwards as soon as noticed himself.

All the time envisioned as a biking-in-Japan recreation of some sort, Edwards famous that he first wrestled with concepts of creating Pon’s Summer season in response to the pandemic, with a narrative about individuals who could not go away their houses. Nevertheless, the crew pivoted to succeed in for one thing extra constructive as a result of a lot else on the time felt destructive.

As a substitute of navigating a neighborhood of shut-ins, Pon interacts with people throughout city, doing odd jobs within the type of mini-games, like sumo wrestling and dealing a sushi bar. As he bikes round, an brisk soundtrack takes over, and although it is not diegetic, it feels as if it invigorates the lovably lazy raccoon.

The tip result’s a captivating journey recreation that mashes up the mail-delivery coziness of Lake with the extreme-sports aptitude of Tony Hawk Professional Skater, all in a just-go-with-it story paying homage to a Ghibli movie. It is a mix I did not know I used to be ready for, however penning this after an evening by which I wakened three hours early with GTA 6-induced job nervousness, it seems Tanuki: Pon’s Summer season is strictly what I wanted this November.

Tanuki: Pon’s Summer season is out now on PC, PS5, Xbox Collection X|S (together with Sport Go), Change 2, PS4, Xbox One, and Change.