RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike Preview

There are some games, like Vampire Survivors and Balatro, that are incredibly addictive and keep me hooked for long periods of time. A new game has popped up called RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike that looks adorable and that has the potential to become one of these huge time-suck titles for me. I was curious to see if the game would be super addictive or if it would be a forgettable experience.

RACCOIN is a coin-pusher roguelike, just like the machines you find in the arcade, happily eating everyone’s tokens. I had the chance to take part in the playtest and now have a few hours under my belt. The owner of the coin pusher you’re playing is a raccoon — thus the game’s name — and they teach you how to play.

You start by selecting a cabinet; the playtest is limited to a cardboard machine with 10 rounds. It is incredibly simple to play — all you need to do is insert a coin into the pink chutes placed on the left and right sides of the machine. If you insert a coin on the left-hand side, it will slide to the right, and inserting one on the right will slide it to the left. The owner gives you a tip, recommending that you put them in from both sides at the same time so they collide in the center and form a pile.

When you drop coins, they get pushed to the edge, where they eventually fall off into the Scoring Zone, giving you points and tickets. The amount of points you earn is calculated by taking how much each coin is worth, your combo amount, and multiplying the Score Rate. To clear a round, you need to reach the Target Score. Once completed, you go to the shop to purchase Collector’s Coins that are worth more points or have unique effects, like the Boom Coin, which explodes and moves the pieces around it, or the Killer Coin, which is shaped like a raccoon and kills the “bad coins” in the machine. These evil coins prevent you from exchanging your tickets, which sucks when you just need to drop a few more pieces to push them into the Scoring Zone.

Once you drop all of your coins and use your items, it becomes a waiting game. You just sit there watching the pusher, hoping that somehow it can push the coins a little further. There were moments where coins on the top shelf should have been pushed down, but it just didn’t happen. As the pusher moved, the coins would go into the panel of the machine instead of getting moved forward like they should; when this happened, I was forced to give up on my run and start over again.

RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike has potential, but at this moment, it can be super frustrating when the coins aren’t moving like they should. I hope that, with feedback from players of the playtest, the developers make a few changes to refine the game. It is a lot of fun, and I think it will become a game I go back to over and over again, once it’s not so frustrating.