Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid is a relaxing and endlessly charming title that harnesses summer vacation nostalgia with satisfying collection and exploration mechanics. If you’re looking for a laid-back summer game, this is certainly the one.
Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid
Developer: Millennium Kitchen & TOYBOX Inc.
Price: $40
Platforms: Nintendo Switch (reviewed) and PC
MonsterVine was provided with a Switch code for review
You come to dearly miss summer vacation as an adult, as your carefree days of wiling away the hours in the summer heat are replaced with work days. Thankfully, games like Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid exist to supplement that nostalgic feeling, with Natsu-Mon! being a particularly great one.
The game puts you in the role of a child of two adults who run a traveling circus. For the entirety of August, you get to explore Yomogi Town – a chill rural settlement that borders the ocean. There are some objectives you can take part in, but for the most part, you can choose to do essentially whatever you want as the days go by. You can explore different areas within and outside the town, collect bugs and fish, complete sidequests, and more.
This is all made easier by the Breath of the Wild-esque climbing system, which lets you scale anything as long as you have enough stamina. There’s no fall damage either, meaning you can climb anything and everything with no fear of repercussions if you fall, opening up the entire game world for exploration. It’s remarkably fun to jump onto every wall and cliff in sight as you search for collectibles, evoking the childhood feeling of wonder that came with going to new places.
“I really love the visual style of Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid, with the character proportions and expressions easily conveying so much of their personalities and individual quirks.“
There’s a huge variety of fish and bugs to catch as well as objects to find and sell for new toys and tools. This makes for a delightful loop of catching new species, finding new things and places, and selling them to make exploration even more fun. Each new area of the town that I’d stumble upon was filled with memorable characters and locales, as well as some truly wonderful music tracks that had me zoning out from the immaculately chill vibes.
The story itself has a lot of charm, as the circus troupe members and town residents are a blast to interact and joke around with. Even the suspicious investigator who’s trailing the circus to look into its financial woes is funny and memorable, and he’s just one of several denizens who made an impact on me during my time with Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid.
A minor thing that stood out to me is the option to change the speed at which days go by. If you want days to go quicker or slower, you can change the pace in the options menu, making for a truly customizable summer adventure experience. It’s little touches like this that are strewn throughout Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid that helps it stand out so much from similar titles.
I really love the visual style of Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid, with the character proportions and expressions easily conveying so much of their personalities and individual quirks. There are some small frame drops in the Nintendo Switch version that were a little distracting, but it wasn’t enough to really mess with my experience.
The Final Word
Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid is a delightful summer exploration game that harkens back to childhood days gone by in a refreshing way. There are tons to do and see, making it easy to recommend to anyone who’s looking to close out the summer with a relaxing title.
MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
