Chess pieces are the collectable of choice in this outdoorsy 3D platformer, replacing customary spinning gold stars and giant coins. This isn’t quite as random as it seems, with the mystical one-of-a-kind chess set being a symbol of balance. Black and white. Light and dark. Ying and Yang. After the pieces become scattered, our spritely raccoon star must travel the lands and stop an army of tattooed armadillos – with the help of his elderly pigeon chum. Coo!
Raccoo Venture looks and plays like a small budget, ergo cheaper, alternative to New Super Lucky’s Tale, featuring a similar art direction and action that’s likewise mostly viewed from a side-on perspective. It also retains Super Lucky’s playful nature, with an agile lead and lots of coin stashes to discover by slamming the ground and rummaging around behind objects.
While the presentation isn’t quite as lavish, it’s still clear a lot of time and attention has gone into establishing the world and its characters – including a bunch of outfits to unlock. Moreover, the controls are responsive, and the levels are well designed, full of different challenges and secret areas. Often, I reached a level’s end missing a vital chess piece, prompting a replay with more attention paid. They can be very well hidden, even calling for backtracking.
A lot of ingenuity is on display, preventing this from being a simple dash-left-to-right platformer. Pru the pigeon can be controlled in some areas, expanding puzzle solving elements. Larger enemies can be lured away from their posts using scented mushrooms, swimming plays a part, crystals temporarily reveal hidden platforms, and various fruit ‘n veg must be collected and carefully carried to their corresponding cauldrons to make new areas appear. Mushrooms are also used in combat, with explosive fungi able to vanquish foes wearing spiked armour.
The combat system isn’t completely robust, however. Raccoo’s default attack is a ground pound, which defeats weaker enemies only. If a spiked enemy joins the crowd, it can be tricky to separate the pack so they can be dealt with individually. Carrying explosive mushrooms also slows Raccoo down, so you’ll need to allow yourself a few seconds to grab, position, and throw, without being caught in the blast radius. It’s a tricky juggling act.
Raccoo can withstand three hits, which is reasonable, but I’d still recommend casting aside any preconceived notion of this being a walk in the park. Falling off a ledge or into a bottomless void results in a Game Over. Every retry costs 50 coins; and once your coin stash is empty, you’re thrown back to the start of a level. This makes Raccoo Venture deceptively tricky, as it’s full of platforming sections that take a couple of attempts, requiring careful timing. I once died on a boss and lost around thirty minutes of progress, along with a good 400 coins – which I then had to return to an earlier stage and grind for so i’d have enough to try again.
As a fan of the genre, I’ve played a lot of indie 3D platformers, and this is still one of the better examples despite its shortcomings. It’ll take a while to beat, has lots of variety – including a target shooting range with prizes, plus a means to gamble with your coins once per stage – and has a strong focus on less-is-more. Each world only has a few stages, but they’re all suitably different from one another. They are quite lengthy too, with checkpoints spread a good five minutes or so apart. Boss battles are reasonably creative, and thankfully, they don’t have to be defeated a second time if you want to return to a stage and explore. Separate stages for boss battles would have been more ideal, though.
But for all its positives, the whole package is let down by something that affects a lot of smaller projects: the developers clearly know this game inside and out, and the difficulty level reflects this. To reiterate, this is quite a demanding experience, with many sections that should be far easier than they actually are. On the subject of frustration, a few glitches also crept in, including a recurring one where the camera locks in an awkward position.
While I’d hesitate to recommend this to younger gamers, it’s competent and creative enough for long-time platforming fans to take a look. It may not have you jumping for joy, but it’ll certainly put a skip in your step.
QUbyte’s Raccoo Venture is out December 14th on consoles. Developed by Diego Ras. An early access PC version launched in 2020.