Raccoo Venture Review

Get ready to be transported back to the 1990s with Raccoo Venture. This 3D platformer challenges all the nostalgia you have for titles like Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. In this colourful and playful title, our hero is Raccoo Venture — who, of course, is a bipedal raccoon — as he sets out to save his planet Verta’s Harmony. The game was developed solely by indie developer Diego Ras, so I can’t wait to see how he was able to create a game totally on his own!

The game shows us that this world was made of chaos, inhabited by monsters known as the Tattooed Tatus, born from disturbances in nature and who feed on the disorder in the land of Verta. Fortunately, the Guardians came and united their powers to create a relic so powerful that it was able to contain these forces of chaos, bringing balance to the world. Now the planet was fertile once again, and all the animals living here lived in harmony.

Of course, this peace would not last forever. Even though the sacred relic was broken into multiple pieces, the evil Tattooed Tatus have acquired them all and is now in possession of this special item, putting the world in great danger. It is up to Raccoo, the only heir of the guardians, to use their power to prevent the balance from being disturbed.

If you have ever played a 3D platformer before, you will feel right at home playing Raccoo Venture. I’m playing on the Switch, so Raccoo is controlled using the left thumbstick, and to jump, use the B button. Like in Super Mario 64, Raccoo attacks enemies using a butt drop performed by jumping with B and then hitting Y while in the air. If you try to just jump on enemies, you will take damage, so you will rely on this butt slam a lot. Our hero has another special move up his sleeve, and this is to throw items. You can stun an enemy so that you can easily take them down or throw items like mushrooms that act as explosives that can break cracked rocks or cause a lot of damage to foes. Make sure you move out of the area, or your trash panda will also get hurt.

A tribe called the Visgo Vesgo has spread magical items throughout Verta that you will discover as you explore the lands and solve the puzzles that are waiting for you. So besides the main story, trying to collect all these will keep you busy for a long time, especially if you are a completionist! Besides gambling, you have the task of trying to retrieve the panels of a special chess board that was the one thing that your grandfather had left for you. Members of the Tattooed Tatus broke into your place and stole the special board. Somehow the board has been broken into tiles that you need to recover so that you can assemble and make it whole once again. Raccoo will also find some snazzy “Special Outfits” to add to his wardrobe; these will give your raccoon a new look so that you can customise your hero. I opted for the snowsuit as it is winter, and it felt like it fit with the Christmas season!

The visual style of Raccoo Venture is a playful and vibrant game that does a great job of pulling you into the environment to search for treasures and solve puzzles. The music and the game's sound effects are pretty good; the music is happy and peppy, fitting the feel of the Raccoo Venture very well. I appreciate that the levels you play aren't only on dry land but also involve underwater components. You will have to keep an eye on Raccoo’s air supply to make sure that he doesn’t run out, or you will take damage. With only three hit points, it doesn’t take much to die.

Raccoo Venture can be a bit challenging at times as if you fall off a ledge, you instantly get a game over. So make sure you are careful around the edges of a cliff if possible, but there are moments, especially when you are jumping towards yourself, where it is hard to judge the distance and you fall. The more you play, the easier it gets as you learn how far your hero can jump, but in the beginning, it’s a bit tricky. When you die, besides losing a life, you will lose 50 coins. Fortunately, there are a lot of coins hidden in the world for you to pick up, so be sure to check out flower beds or run along the edges of the land to find hidden coins.

There are a variety of fun animal enemies to face. Some, like hedgehogs, have spikes, so you will get hurt if you jump on them without stunning them by throwing something at them first. Others are prepared for your attack and are wearing helmets so that they won’t be damaged by your normal buttdrop. Like with the spiky enemies, you need to throw something first. The boss enemies are easy to spot as they are heavily tattooed. I have to say that I never expected to fight a large rat with that amount of ink! It was a unique design that I can confidently say that I have never encountered in a game before.

Raccoo Venture is a fun 3D platformer that made me feel like I was playing an N64 game from the ‘90s but without the annoying camera issues. The characters were full of personality and entertaining to interact with, and with so many different items to collect, there is always lots to do. If you are a fan of 3D action platformers, Raccoo Venture is a title to add to your list!