Review of Mineko's Night Market: the toebeans are irresistible

Our Verdict

Mineko’s Night Market is a truly charming little game, full of cute cats, quirky characters, and plenty of chill vibes. Its narrative successfully celebrates Japanese culture, friendship, and belonging in such a beautiful way, and is supported by a simple yet engaging gameplay loop made up of gathering, crafting, and even a spot of espionage. A must for cozy game lovers all over the world, and the perfect way to unwind after a stressful day.

I've known about Mineko's Night Market for more than two years, to be exact. I still remember how much I loved the game when I first saw it and told my colleagues that I would love to review it when it came out when I first began working on SmartRead. Thus, it is rather gratifying to be able to finally dig into a Mineko’s Night Market review after all this time.

However, a protracted wait raises hopes and expectations; can the game live up to the fanfare? I may be a little biassed since Mineko's Night Market fulfils a lot of my requirements, but I really like this game. It's straightforward and endearing, with a lighthearted sense of humour, a heartfelt story, and a soothing but captivating gameplay loop—all of which combine to create a really delightful small game with plenty of personality.

As a narrative-driven social simulation game that respects Japanese culture, Mineko's Night Market exceeds expectations in that regard. The narrative centres on Mineko, a little child who goes to a tiny island with her father. She quickly finds herself at the centre of unusual activities occurring on this island, however.

Numerous cats, including the enormous Sun Cat, Nikko, who resided atop Mount Fugu and kept watch over the humans below, were originally common on the island. With Nikko appearing gone, the island has become a shadow of its former self, and many of its residents don't even think he still exists. That is, until Bobo makes Mineko his buddy right away and asks her to assist in proving Nikko's existence.

It will take a lot of work to find proof of Nikko and restore the island to its former splendour since there are a lot of enigmatic agents lurking about. They have even imprisoned all of the cats. But when Nikko goes to see Mineko one night, she sets out on a quest to assist Nikko go back to his house atop Mount Fugu, as well as to release all the cats who have been taken prisoner and rebuild the island.

The story is really sweet, and I like how often parallels to Japanese mythology are made. The characters are fantastic as well, ranging from the grownups like Hank the Hunk and Mineko's father to the younger ones like the initially hostile Miyako and the boyband-obsessed Hana. You have a delightful conversation with them that is sometimes funny and even thought-provoking. It is filled with cutesy asides, fascinating backstories, and lighthearted asides. Throughout, there are also some really poignant moments that explore concepts of belonging and companionship in a very meaningful manner.

A weekly calendar serves as the focal point of the gameplay. You may explore various regions, gather materials, make goods, and do missions throughout the weekdays. It's time for the self-titled Night Market on Saturday nights, where you may set up shop and participate in activities to raise the market's profile and, eventually, make it grow into the famous attraction that it once was.

You go to the bus station outside your home and take it to various areas. You may spend as much time as you desire in any region since there isn't a traditional clock, yet time does really pass when you leave and return to a spot. Buses only operate throughout the day and at night, so you can visit no more than two destinations each day. However, if you have the energy, you are free to explore and collect as much as you want from each stop.

In relation to hearts and stamina, you begin the game with a single heart. Gathering and gathering objects requires a certain level of endurance, whether it's picking up a flower or a hairball, cutting wood, or mining rocks. You can replenish your energy by eating or drinking. Small snacks and drinks typically provide you half a heart, while larger meals like sushi or yakisoba to-go provide you a full heart. However, you are only allowed to consume three types of food or beverages per day, so it's usually best to splurge and get the to-go meals rather than the less expensive ramune.

At first, this seems a bit constrictive, but as the tale goes on, you get more hearts, allowing you to do more jobs in a day. A lovely little touch is that each consumable sends you a sweet small note when you use it.

When you first visit a new place, it's usually overrun with agents, and some of them need you to have purchased a tool from Hank's Tool Shop in order to enter. Once there, you have to go past the agents, release a certain number of cats who have been imprisoned, and then do a last mission like finding a Nikko artefact, unplugging a communications tower, or blowing up a supply container in order to fully unlock the area and advance.

You have three "lives" in these portions, which are indicated by little Mineko head symbols at the top of the screen. You lose a "life" if you walk in front of an agent's torch. You have to restart the sequence if you lose all three "lives." The key to getting past the majority of the agents is usually timing: wait for them to move out of the way, then dash through to get the cat in the cage. There are various variations, nevertheless, that need for some deductions or perhaps some bribes.

Even though these portions are all fundamentally the same, I still find them to be incredibly interesting since they give enough diversity to sometimes make you pause and reflect. It also gives you a really rewarding moment when you drive the agents away and manage to release all the cats, revealing the region with all its flowers, resource locations, and kitties back in the wild. How could I have forgotten, too? There are usually a lot of cats lounging about each place. Indeed, you are welcome to pet them; it takes no effort at all.

Some cats only shift positions when you pat them, while others form adorable little congas and follow you around until you go home. Because there is no time limit in each location and petting cats doesn't require much stamina, there's really no harm done. However, as a cat mum, that's pretty much my real life anyway. The follower kitties can occasionally get in the way, especially if you're collecting items off the floor.

Apart from picking up objects from the floor, such flowers or hairballs, every resource you get comes with a unique minigame. For instance, you must press, hold, and release a button when the marker is in the proper location in order to mine rocks and cut trees.

Another straightforward, quick-time-style collecting game is fishing, in which you have to wait for the fish to drag the bait down before pressing the button. You can utilise almost all of the resources you collect for crafting, but some of them may also be submitted to museums. Once you get enough artefacts in, the museums are renovated and made public, which helps the island grow even more while earning you some lovely stuff.

In a similar vein, every crafting table has a unique minigame. These can be as simple as pressing a button to cut a stem on the flower craftbench when the marker is hovering over the appropriate area, or they can be a little more complicated like using a paintbrush to guide around a map on the art craftbench or a sewing machine to follow a pattern on the sewing craftbench. If you execute it flawlessly, you'll have a flawless product that is more valuable. You get a standard item if you do well but don't get it absolutely perfect. Furthermore, you will end up with a subpar product that is unfit for sale if you make a huge mistake.

As previously stated, the primary goal of making is to have goods for the Saturday Night Market. But if you need a little additional money to purchase food, a new tool, or a craft table, you may also sell goods in stores throughout the week. Additionally, you receive villager requests, in which various individuals make specific demands for different products. At first, these are just food items, but eventually, they start requesting for certain constructed objects.

Fulfilling village requests not only improves your connection with the characters but also opens up additional recipe options and item drops. The fact that you may also get recipes by opening bottles that you find while fishing encourages you to develop relationships with the many local individuals, which adds to the pleasant and hearty world-building of the game. Giving the locals something that they can use to furnish their homes and spruce up the island even more is also quite fulfilling.

Once you become acclimated to these many components, it's simple to settle into a routine that involves replenishing your supplies at certain times of the week, making the best-selling things, and then showing up at the market to earn a tidy profit. However, there's always something fresh to do in this gameplay cycle since new locales and plot developments are added often. There isn't really a time restriction, however, if you'd rather go slowly. Thus, you may collect and create for as many weeks as you choose before moving on to the next section of the tale.

Mineko's Night Market has similarly stunning visuals. It takes on a straightforward, two-dimensional picture book style with charming details that pay homage to well-known Japanese works of art like Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Everything seems to be bathed in the golden light of a setting sun, and the world's gentle, calming aura is enhanced by the colours' variety but slight mutedness.

The soundtrack is equally delightful, with playful, jazzy pieces to accompany the espionage-esque scenes with the agents and original, calming melodies for the meeting spots. The majority of the songs have a low-fidelity feel, and some even use instruments that are evocative of vintage Japanese music. The game has a really calming OST, and I could totally see myself listening to it while working in the future. It's a beautiful soundtrack.

Apart from that, the majority of the game's sound design is appropriate and unobtrusive. The lack of voice acting for the characters doesn't really take away from my pleasure, in my opinion, particularly when paired with the enormous speech bubbles that serve to further emphasise the pop-up picture book vibe.

I had the good fortune to get both the Switch and Steam beta versions, which I have extensively tested and spent many hours playing. On the Switch, Mineko's Night Market has very simple controls. To run, press one trigger; to crawl, press the other. There's an inventory button, a journal opening button, and an item collection button. I didn't need to do any remapping in order for anything to feel responsive and comfortable.

It took me some time to get acclimated to the Steam version, however. The default controls seem to be centred on utilising the directional arrows, since left shift is sprint and right shift is creep, even if WASD still functions for movement. The mouse does nothing when you hit enter to gather or interact with objects, E to see your inventory, and J to access your notebook. Fortunately, the controls can be readily remapped via the options menu. Once I used to my new layout—left shift will always be sprint for me; it's become second nature—I found it to be both comfortable and rather nostalgic for older PC games from my childhood.

For the most part, the performance on Steam and the Switch is similar. For the most part, the straightforward motions and graphic style provide for a fluid and aesthetically pleasant experience on both systems; images even seem similar, which is unusual for the Switch.

The Switch version does, however, have a few problems. Because load screens are longer, the Mineko sprite that is running in the bottom right corner becomes quite familiar to you. This is particularly annoying when you are travelling between the village's craft and tool stores since you have to wait on a load screen to enter and depart each store, which makes the process take much longer than it has to.

When you load into a new region or begin a cutscene, there is also a lot of stuttering, with the actors sometimes stalling and the music occasionally shutting off. When deciding between platforms, bear in mind that the Steam version is almost devoid of these problems.

Aside from that, I encountered some glitchiness in the Headquarters when I had to leap into a vent on the second level to get to the spot where the door code was broken. I had to restart the game and lose my daily progress since I was unable to advance. On the frozen lake, I also had a few rough patches when Mineko would get stuck on the edge of a frozen, slip-stream-like portion, but everything would eventually sort itself out. It seems that this problem exists in both the Switch and Steam versions. I will, however, give the game some leeway since it's still in beta, and I trust the developers to address these issues when the game launches fully.

All things considered, Mineko's Night Market is an incredibly adorable game that was well worth the wait in my opinion. It may seem corny, but it really has the same cosy feeling as Animal Crossing video games and Studio Ghibli movies—especially My Neighbour Totoro—while also paying respect to a stunning culture and standing alone as a unique experience.

It's straightforward and doesn't attempt to reinvent the wheel, but it's also really calming and ideal for days when everything seems a little too much. Thus, keep in mind that Nikko is waiting for you in the Night Market every Saturday if you're feeling down.

That concludes our analysis of Mineko's Night Market. If you like this kind of game as much as I do, check out our lists of thebest indie games,cute games, and our best choices for thebest Switch games overall. Along with tutorials for Fae Farm multiplayer, Fae Farm flowers, and Fae Farm Fish, we also have a list of all the ACNH villagers.