Raccoin [REVIEW] – Seaside Nostalgia Meets Roguelike Chaos 

We’ve all been there… you know… when you sit down for a quick twenty-minute gaming session, and suddenly, it’s 2am and three hours have vanished into thin air. It’s something that’s happened to me with the likes of Balatro, Slots & Daggers, and Cloverpit over the last year, and now, my latest experience of it has come with Raccoin. It steps away from the usual decks of cards or slot machines of those titles though, instead drawing inspiration from the penny falls machines (or ‘2p Machines’, as I have graciously called them since I was younger) you’d find in a seaside arcade. It might sound a bit bizarre, but believe me, it makes for a surprisingly deep and dangerously addictive experience that’s only let down by some luck-based frustrations. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

The core loop is incredibly straightforward: you drop coins onto a sliding upper shelf in a bid to have them push other coins onto a lower moving shelf, where they must get pushed off the edge for the player to earn them… simple. Your goal is to meet a constantly rising target score across each level, but what makes this trickier than your average arcade machine is that the physical layout of the board persists between rounds. Whatever mess you make is waiting for you in the next level, meaning you must think about where your drops are landing, plan ahead, and set up the machine for the long haul. 

Of course, the real fun begins when the game introduces its wild array of upgrades and special coins. Between stages, you can visit a shop to spend your earnings on Chips, which act as passive buffs for your run, or Prizes, which are single-use board manipulators. Pop a Prize, and you might summon a UFO that dumps extra currency onto the field or even deploy an umbrella that sweeps up your stray coins and drops them back on the top shelf – there are PLENTY of unique mechanics in play that add a lot of unpredictability and strategy to ensure each run remains rewarding (and, of course, chaotic). 

“Raccoin is a highly entertaining title that successfully brings the penny falls experience into the roguelike space in a creative and deceptively strategic manner.” 

The special coins are the true stars of the show, though… you’ll find coins that explode on impact, coins that grow in size the longer they stick around, and even coins that simply boost your score multiplier (and that’s just scratching the surface). Raccoin has a heck of a lot of things going on within its gameplay loop to ensure that it remains engaging, because come on, dropping coins into a machine hardly seems like something that’ll absorb hours of your time, right? (Spoiler alert: in Raccoin, it does, but only because the game is so much fun). 

Every few rounds, the game also tosses in Bad Coins, which act like boss encounters, taking up valuable physical space on the board, blocking your pushes, or raising shop prices. You essentially have to hoard your best abilities to counter them, but they can be a massive hindrance just when you think you’re surging towards success. However, despite the frustrations they will cause in runs, they feel like an important cog in the machine, ensuring Raccoin’s routine always keeps you on your toes. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

To keep things fresh, Raccoin also features a roster of unlockable characters, each tailored to a specific playstyle. It gives the in-game progression a regular push, constantly teasing you with new tools to experiment with, and whilst it’s easy to pick a favourite early on, it’s only through experimentation that you’ll really get to see just how clever the game can be. I always found myself approaching the game in a different way to take advantage of each character’s strengths, which just emphasised how much diversity can be found within the simple gameplay loop. 

However, despite all of the things that Raccoin does right, the game isn’t without its frustrating quirks. Because it relies heavily on a physics engine, your success is largely tied to pure luck, and sometimes, just when you think you’re in line for some super high scoring, the drops just won’t land your way. Add to that the fact that there’s also a random nature to the upgrades you can grab, and it’ll make Raccoin feel like a double-whammy of RNG chaos where it’ll often feel like your strategic planning doesn’t always matter. It can be REALLY frustrating, and whilst it didn’t stop me from having fun with the game and coming back for more, it did feel like the elephant in what was otherwise a room I loved being in. 

Developer: Doraccoon 
Publisher: Playstack 
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed) 
Website: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3784030/RACCOIN_Coin_Pusher_Roguelike/