Raccoin turns your favourite arcade machine into a ridiculously fun roguelike
We all love those 2p pusher machines that litter arcades in every British seaside town, right? Well, developer Doraccoon has taken the thrill of the arcade, added roguelike elements – and a raccoon – to make what might just be the most moreish game since Balatro. It’s called Raccoin, and while it doesn’t have a release date just yet, a free playtest kicks off this Monday, allowing you to go hands-on with this wonderful little gem.
It’s funny I should compare it to Balatro, because it’s being published by Playstack, the same team who brought Balatro into our homes. Clearly it’s a studio that has a good eye for games we won’t be able to put down.
Like Balatro, there’s a big element of luck to Raccoin. Each round, you’ll need to get so many coins to drop, but like real coin pushers, there’s no guarantee how many, if any, are going to drop with each coin you put in. But thanks to various upgrades and modifiers – special coins and items – you can swing the luck in your favour. Throw in a certain special coin and it might increase the value of each other coin it touches tenfold, for example. A common item makes it rain coins, while another, if you have it equipped, will let you shake the machine every so often (not recommended in a real arcade, not unless you want to get chased out by security).
Naturally, the playtest doesn’t provide access to the whole game, but there’s more than enough to get a taste of what Raccoin has to offer. You can play through the tutorial which teaches you the basics, and then you can jump into a 10-round game. Things start off easily, with you needing to amass only 30 coins – a piece of cake! But that total soon ramps up, and by the 10th round you’ll be needing to drop thousands.
As long as you’ve got the right upgrades, though, it should be doable – and watching your score mount up is rather thrilling. OK, maybe it’s not quite the same as getting a little prize out of the actual machine in the arcade, but it scratches a similar itch.
If Raccoin sounds like your sort of thing, be sure to head over to Steam on Monday to join the public playtest. No release date information has been provided yet, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on any more details about this ridiculously fun little game.
