Changoo 4 is the fourth and best entry in the Changoo series, fanmade games based on Crayon Shin-Chan, an excellent humorous manga (and now anime) series that is wildly popular in Asia but is rarely known outside the continent. If you're not familiar with Shin-Chan, just picture the naughtiest but not-so-bright 5-year-old you can think of, who lives with a flirtatious, often-drunk father, a parsimonious but forgiving mother, and a baby girl who gets much more attention from everyone. The game starts out as a standard 2D side-scrolling platformer, starring you as Shin-Chan taking a walk in his neighborhood. You will need to avoid and attack crazy upper classmen (most of whom are women, to Shin-Chan's delight) and other assorted hazards including unfriendly animals. The game gets more and more wacky the more you play, and before long you will find Shin-Chan riding a spacecraft fighting colorful enemies, and having fun in various mini-games. The mini-games are all excellent, and once you find them in the game you can play them separately from the main menu screen. The first mini-game is a fun clone of Dance Dance Revolution arcade game, which is available from the "mini games" menu from the beginning. Changoo 4 is a thoroughly entertaining and polished game - with cartoony graphics that look like they have been ripped directly from the Shin-Chan anime, the game could pass for a commercial title. Shin-Chan himself is very well animated - down to the naughty little actions (stripping down his shorts to "moon" you, for example) he does when he's not moving. The only downside from the perspective of us non-Koreans is that the game is in Korean, so if you don't know the language, you won't be able to understand the exchanges Shin-Chan has with various people in the game. This is an action game, though, and it takes only a few minutes to learn the controls and what each menu option means. All in all, another excellent freeware underdog from Korean's budding freeware scene. Two thumbs up, way up! Reviewed by: Underdogs |