Rift Racoon

Review

They are nocturnal, have a body length up to 70 cm and can reach a weight of 26kg, and are a very cute animal! As I am not as nocturnal as I used to be, and don’t live in America, the chance of me seeing them in the flesh in their natural habitat is pretty much . . . well ... zilcho. It’s a shame because I am very fond of their distinctive big white eyebrows. So, when I received a call to help one of these cute creatures to escape from a relentless Drone, I was there!  I had to guide him through tough challenges in the Hardcore platformer, Rift Racoon!

Rift Racoon is an action/hardcore platformer game with fun pixel graphics, developed and self-published by Marcos Game Dev on the 2^nd of November 2019 on Steam.

Whether you are looking for your next hardcore platformer game, or you’re being initiated into the genre, Rift Racoon is definitely a title to consider. The game consists of 50 really tough challenges (as the developer put it on the game Steam store page description) and has two levels of difficulty, which are Normal and Casual. The difference is that in the Casual mode, you can make two mistakes before dying, while in the Normal level of difficulty, there is no second chance; when you die, you either restart the level from scratch or from a checkpoint, if you manage to reach one.

The first couple of levels are pretty much tutorials.  As soon as you acquire the teleporting bracelet, each level will become increasingly harder as you progress through the game. You’ll die hundreds of times, and there will be many reasons for it: touching spikes, circular saws, missing the next platforms, and so on and so forth. The trick is to learn from your last death and make sure to get your timing spot on. One thing to remember is that your racoon can only move up, down, left and right, including when you use your teleporting ability (and that, my friends, will bring back some words that you thought you had locked away for good! I am not usually that type of person, but this little fellow with big eyebrows copped a few mouthfuls from me!).  I seem to be particularly good at dying in walls while teleporting. It occurred over and over just when I thought I had it covered . . . go figure - What a little rat! What I can tell you is that if I have to choose between being a racoon or a cat in my next life, I’ll choose to be a racoon, as 7 lives is rather short for cats these days.

So far, I’ve managed to clear over 20 levels on the Casual level of difficulty. Yes, I tried to play the game as it was intended (normal difficulty) but I ran out of adhesive tape, and hair too. Jokes aside, the design of the levels is very good, and you’ll get to the end of the level if you persist. It will bring you great satisfaction, as well as a sense of apprehension for what’s to come! In each of the levels, there is a blue diamond to collect, and these little blue crystals are usually in an awkward location within the level and probably increase your mortality by an extra notch.  However, you’ll earn some new racoon skins if you manage to collect some of these diamonds.

Good pixel graphics, and the soundtrack suits the game very well. In term of controls, you can play the game with your keyboard (after setting up your key binding), but I strongly recommend playing the Rift Racoon with a gamepad.