Tanuki Sunset Review - Longboarding into the Sunset

Tanuki Sunset

Tanuki Sunset is a game about longboarding down an extremely long road while being a tanuki. The road was built with wanton disregard for the safety of both longboarding tanukis and drivers, so there are no barriers preventing you from plummeting thousands of feet to the ground below. The road is also strewn with hazards like giant piles of rocks, random trash, and highly aggressive crabs. You need to weave between and drift around all of these safety issues to reach the checkpoints as quickly as possible. You can also collect bits off the road to buy cosmetic items and do tricks to increase your score, but if you're just interested in reaching the credits, not falling off is all that matters.

Like most of these sorts of time trial racing games, Tanuki Sunset makes a very good podcast game. There's hardly any story to distract you from whatever you're listening to, the lo-fi soundtrack will blend easily into just about anything, and, for me at least, having something to split my focus on makes playing the game easier. If you're like me and are only interested in playing to the credits, you'll have to be okay with not getting very much playtime for your money. It's pretty easy to get there in under two hours, and while the postgame does unlock one secret track in the arcade mode, it's not much of a challenge to survive and is much less interesting than the main campaign levels. The game is clearly intended for people who want to chase high scores, best times, and beating levels without dying, and you'll get far more playtime out of it if that's what you're looking for.

Still, I had a good time with it even though I'm obviously not the intended audience. This is an entertainingly stupid way to spend a few hours, and it's mechanically solid once you get used to the drifting controls. It's a little hard to recommend at full price if you're playing the same way as me, but for score chasers I think you'll get your money's worth pretty easily. Give it a look.

Rating: 75%

Time to beat: Roughly two hours to see credits.

MSRP: $15

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