RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike Review (PC): Push it Real Good

Publisher Playstack released one of the most addicting games of 2024 with Balatro, a rogue-like poker game that would trigger a hit of dopamine every time I laid eyes on it, and a game I couldn’t stop thinking about all year. Playstack’s newest title RACCOIN follows a similar formula, this time as a coin pusher machine as the mechanic instead of poker, but the siren call of one more run hit me just as hard. 

With a roster of different characters, modified coins, and gadgets to drop into your arcade cabinet, RACCOIN has earned its place in my “one more game” rotation, even though it may not have as much staying power as Balatro once it’s all said and done.

Nice and Shiny

RACCOIN nails the feeling of the coin pushers it’s emulating; a simple arcade cabinet with two slots to drop in coins on a moving platform. Just like in real life, shooting coins into the right spot starts moving every coin in the machine, with the goal of making as many fall over the edge into scoring position. 

That’s how each run starts, with the main objective of pushing coins, but immediately after, the true game shows itself. Special coins and prizes that act like on the field power ups and permanent modifiers become available in-between rounds, and the rogue-like build crafting begins. Maybe you stack up on special coins that increase the size of coins they touch, or you combo a black hole power up, which scores everything caught in its radius, making for an instant round clear. 

These easy ideas start to build outward and become more complex, allowing you to create synergies between the 300 total power up items that feel like cheating, or can be complete duds if you find yourself outplaying your actual capabilities. It’s all ey to learn, but hard to master on higher difficulties, and depending upon which of the different characters you use, this extra layer is what keeps the game from being predictable, and left me wanting to try one more new idea after another.

Diamond in the Rough

Being compared to another game from your publisher can be a blessing and a curse, and RACCOIN comes away with both sides of that coin affecting my playtime. Run after run, each playthrough was engaging. Even nail biting at times, but always fun and would have me ready for a new way to tackle its challenges. That said, I struggled to shake the feeling I had playing Balatro, a game so successful I didn’t look at the genre the same way after, and a feeling RACCOIN didn’t fully measure up to. 

While trying to chase a score with little resources near the end of a tougher run, the game came to a crawl while I desperately looked for ways to pass that threshold. In these moments when I had little of the special power-ups or coins, it was impossible to ignore how truly passive the game can be, simply watching the coin pusher go back and forth, no longer able to manipulate the field. It’s fine at the start when I only needed to push a handful of coins into scoring range, but when the number became hundreds, waiting to inevitably lose became a slog. 

It also reminded me of how other games allowed me to truly craft a build I would live and die by, while in RACCOIN it was mostly up to the tricks I had up my sleeve. None of this was enough to make me want to retire the cabinet I had spent hours in front of, but the spell Balatro put on me years ago wasn’t as strong here.

Final Verdict

RACCOIN is the next rogue-like I didn’t imagine I’d want, or would even work, but developer Doraccoon has pulled the correct levers for what makes one of these games feel good. While it didn’t consume my every thought like other similar titles, there was more than enough coin pushing goodness to keep me at the cabinet for hours. With its hundreds of modifiers and power up’s, and handful of unique characters with special abilities, RACCOIN is the next dopamine hit game to get your paws onto.

RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike Review was reviewed on PC with a code provided by Doraccoon.

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