A key element of a roguelike game is knowing that even though it might seem impossible when you first start, you’ll be getting closer to an opportunity to succeed with each run. Maybe it is because you’re learning how to approach certain bosses and build with them in mind. Perhaps it is due to unlocks earned by making more progress. It could come down to pattern recognition and skill. While Raccoin: Coin Pusher Roguelike does fall into the genre, the fact that it relies so heavily on RNG means that it’s more of a dopamine-hit novelty than a more serious challenge.
The concept behind Raccoin: Coin Pusher Roguelike is a simple one. You are presented with a coin pusher in an arcade. You can choose whether a coin shoots out the left or right ramp onto the top level by pressing a trigger, with 20 coins to start. You can also buy an (upgradeable) clip to hold single-use special coins that feature a special effect or spend money on Chips that add a permanent effect or Prizes that act as a single-used effect when deployed. As you go through more runs and hit milestones, you’ll unlock things like new characters with unique effects, stickers that can change coin properties when they slide over them, and keychains that can do things like net you an extra change, replicate prize and makes things cheaper in the shop.
If you’re familiar with coin pushers, this is a lot like it. You keep an eye on where high value coins or items you want in the pusher are, then deploy the 20-at-a-time in your pocket to push them down to meet increasing goals in each round. So much of it is left to chance and physics. Yes, if you time it out and get accustomed to the triggers, you can send out coins at the right time to get positioning in such a way that you hit certain spots. There are absolutely ways to exploit the multiplier function to ensure spins so you can get more Prizes in balls dropped on the lower tier of the machine. But at the same time, the nature of it means you can just… have a bad run. Especially if you get Bad Coins on the field and the necessary special coins aren’t appearing in the shop for you to zap them out of existence and remove their penalties in the process.
This isn’t to say Raccoin: Coin Pusher Roguelike isn’t fun. It can absolutely be a dopamine fix. If things are going right, it will be a good time. It’s very silly, and the fact that it isn’t serious with dire stakes means you can spend 30 minutes or so tossing coins in and enjoying seeing numbers go up. But the fact that it is so RNG-related means the overall experience can feel very uneven. You can sail through using certain characters like the Biologist, Manager, and Mystic, or you might end up with a handful of runs that won’t get past a certain point because it will be dependent on ensuring you get certain types of coins on the field.
Another thing about Raccoin: Coin Pusher Roguelike is that as I play, I can think up ways in which I’d enjoy it more. It is a deck-builder, but the single-use nature of that makes it difficult to build it up sometimes. Getting the special coins I used back after they are deployed, then pushed out of the machine, would be a fantastic option. Coins not being single-use would allow the “deck” you build to matter, instead of relying on coins to remain in the machine between rounds. Telegraphing of nuisance coin types would allow for a sense of strategy. Once you hit a wall in a run, it’s very clear that there is no way you will win, but you have to exhaust everything before you get that chance to let it end. I also would have liked if the coins you get to drop might’ve been added to the amount you could fire out in some way, just like in real-life, so we could “reinvest.”
How much you enjoy Raccoin: Coin Pusher Roguelike will depend on how you feel about luck determining the course of every run instead of skill. It is a roguelike, but the influence of RNG in so many ways can make it feel like it’s all up to chance instead. Because even though you are gradually unlocking new characters, coins, prizes, and such via hitting milestones, the very nature of it means that builds might end up feeling meaningless unless factors outside of your control align. It will still be fun, but it means accepting how little influence you can exert over each run.
Raccoin is available for PCs.