New roguelike Raccoin takes an arcade favorite and gives it that Balatro magic

With the astonishing breakout success of Balatro, it's no surprise that there's plenty of games taking cues from its dopamine-inducing format of watching numbers ratchet into the billions and beyond. Newcomer Raccoin does it so well, and with such a smart core concept, however, that it's earned the attention of Balatro publisher Playstack, which has teamed up with developer Doraccoon to bring it to Steam. It invokes one of the most iconic arcade machines of all time, the dastardly coin pusher, and I can already feel my brain starting to tingle.

Raccoin combines the run-based strategizing of the best roguelikes such as Balatro with the humble coin pusher machine. If you've ever walked into an arcade, you've probably been tempted by these cabinets of cash. Pop your money in, watch it land on the pile, and hope that its interference disturbs the structural integrity of the whole thing enough for the pulsing pushers to send a flood of riches crashing over the ledge and into your hands. Or, more likely, watch in agonizing frustration as it creeps ever so slightly forward, tempting you to chance it with just one more attempt.

In retrospect, combining the format with the build-altering magic of Balatro is a fantastic twist. You'll find special coins with their own abilities. Drop a Water Coin onto a Seed Coin and you'll grow a giant money tree inside the machine to flood the board. Set off a TNT Coin and blast the dormant cash everywhere, throwing the whole layout into potentially valuable chaos. Find a Cat Coin and use it to chase down all the existing Rat Coins, earning you additional tickets.

To ramp things up further, you'll discover plenty of additional items that can further stack multipliers or spawn in more valuable coins. You can even resort to the tried-and-true method of shaking the machine (don't try this one in real life, they don't like it). Special platings can enhance the effects of individual coins; how about a black hole ability that gradually sucks in everything else nearby? That sounds like a high scorer to me.

Rounding out the setup are a variety of playable characters, each of which has their own coin set and playstyle. The greedy raccoon manager loves to rack up huge scores with math-based combos, while the biologist brings a collection of animal-themed coins that open up plenty of potential interactions.

There's no release date for Raccoin yet, but an open playtest is starting on Monday August 18, and you can sign up to join via Steam. Simply head to the store page and click the 'request access' button if you'd like to give it a try.

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