Raccoo Venture Review: A Ringtail with Retro Flair

Raccoo Venture burst onto the gaming scene in December 2023, bringing a blast of retro charm to modern platforms after exiting early access development. This 3D platformer comes to us from the mind of solo developer Diego Ras and the publishing prowess of QUByte Interactive. Windows, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch gamers can all join the adventure through the whimsical world of Verta.

In Raccoo Venture, you play as the titular Raccoo, protector of the magical Verta realm where peaceful forest creatures dwell. But when chaos-loving armadillos steal an ancient relic right out from under your nose, it’s up to you to restore harmony. Your quest will take you hopping, stomping and puzzle-solving through lush forests, haunted mansions and even the Land of The Dead.

While modern in presentation, with its cute cartoon critters and colorful landscapes, Raccoo Venture bleeds nostalgia. Its gameplay pays homage to the golden era of 3D platformers in the 1990s, when Rare and Nintendo reigned supreme. The influence of classics like Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario 64 can be felt in everything from the worlds to the music. But can this solo passion project stand up to its legendary inspirations? Strap on your overalls and grab your backpack—adventure awaits!

Bouncing Through Platforming Challenges

At its heart, Raccoo Venture is all about agile 3D platforming and using your noodle to solve puzzles. This isn’t a collectathon in the traditional sense with big open sandbox levels. Instead, the game guides you along fairly linear paths within levels. But there is still plenty of room in its nooks and crannies to uncover hidden items and secrets.

A world map stitches together the levels you’ll traverse, each with its own themes like sunny forests, creepy mansions and underwater ruins. New stages unlock when you collect enough relic pieces along the journey. Snagging these chessboard tokens and cosmic chess piece fragments is key to making progress.

However, Raccoo’s creators may have gone overboard on the hidden object hunt. Many collectibles are squirreled away in extremely sneaky spots off the main track. Or they throw you into leaps of faith where you just have to guess the right direction mid-jump. With so many items virtually impossible to grab on your first run through a level, prepare for some repetitive backtracking.

The developers also set up gates on the map that halt your advance until you collect enough things. So sometimes you’ll be forced to painstakingly re- comb areas, hoping to trip over that last chess piece. This mandatory, blind scavenging feels more like artificial difficulty than fun challenge.

Thankfully, controlling Raccoo himself feels pretty solid. Movements and hitboxes are responsive. Our ringtailed hero can run, jump, bounce, tip-toe, grab and throw with ease. Standard platforming challenges feel fair…it’s the obscured collection quests that grind.

Combat unfortunately misses the mark. Your only direct attack is the classic butt stomp pioneered by Mario. Line yourself up above a foe then slam down with a satisfying smack. It works great on paper, but can get frustrating in practice. Lining up stomps proves trickier from Raccoo Venture’s more distant, fixed camera angles. And herd enemies in tight spaces can lead to fast damage accumulation.

Speaking of damage, death mechanics could use an upgrade. Instead of lives, Raccoo has a wallet of coins. Each time you die, 50 coins vanish into thin air. There’s no banking either…once they disappear from your total, they stay gone. So repeat deaths eventually leave you bankrupt, forcing you back to earlier checkpoints coinless.

Since coins also purchase goodies like cosmetic outfits, loss piles up fast. Fetch questing to rebuild coin counts risks burning players out. An extra chance or two before complete failure may have better retained accessibility for less seasoned platformers.

Coins even limit your throw ability. Grabbing and tossing objects like explosive mushrooms seems integral to boss battles. But the imprecise tossing controls already work against you. Without a guide marker to gauge shot alignment, missile launches come down to luck. And you can’t gently put down held items to reposition. One false step and you’ve fumbled your fungal nuke off a cliff! Given the throw stumbling blocks, penalizing players for practicing the skill feels unnecessary.

Overall, Raccoo Venture nails platforming essentials with responsive control and interpreted hazards. But obscured collection breadcrumbs lead to repetitive area retreading that some may find off-putting. And slightly more check pointing between coin loss and failure states could make its challenges more inviting to casual players. Still, there’s plenty of bouncy joy to be had here!

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A Blast of Nostalgia in Vivid Color

One glance at Raccoo Venture transports older gamers back to the 1990s glory days of 3D platformers. Its bright and cheery visual palette looks like a long lost Nintendo 64 classic. The stylized landscapes burst with sunlight through tree canopies, rippling waterfall backdrops and brickwork battle arenas. Playful splashes of color enliven the outdoor and indoor environments alike with a storybook quality.

At the heart of this vibrant vertscape are the cute and colorful animal heroes and villains. Our courageous raccoon crusader especially brims with personality thanks to his exaggerated movements and animated facial expressions. The dastardly Tattooed Armadillos have just as much roguish charm. And a cavalcade of other forest critters fill out the land of Verta.

Developed chiefly by one man, Diego Ras, Raccoo Venture’s visual presentation punches above its weight class. While geometry and textures may look a bit basic up close or on larger screens, the polygonal characters and worlds burst with dreamlike saturation. The graphical simplicity becomes a strength here, ensuring fluid frame rates and gameplay clarity. Plus, the bright, chunky models are perfect for handheld gaming on the Steam Deck or Switch OLED.

The audio also stands out through memorable melodies and playful sound effects. Many tracks capture the adventurous instrumentation of Rare’s N64 heyday with bouncy tempo, driving percussion and triumphant horns. Each area theme suits the environments too, from tranquil woodwind and chimes in the forest to ominous organs in the haunted houses. It’s amazing that one composer delivered such a polished, cohesive soundtrack.

Together, the sunny sights and sounds infuse a strong sense of comfort through nostalgia. All the ingredients that seasoned gamers fondly remember from childhood classics seem to blend into Raccoo Venture’s stew. Sure, some might call its aesthetic style “basic.” But that reductionist take overlooks how effectively it channels the core vibes of its spiritual predecessors. This game looks, sounds and most importantly feels like reuniting with an old friend after decades apart.

So while its graphical fidelity lags modern benchmarks, Raccoo Venture artfully brings the 1990s platforming heyday into the 2020s. Its vividly colored charm and familiar tunes offer the perfect hit of nostalgia for longtime fans. And it introduces a new generation to the wholesome, wondrous worlds of gaming’s past. For a solo developer’s debut, Ras knocked the presentation out of the park.

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More Than Meets The Eye

Don’t let Raccoo Venture’s cute exterior fool you – this plucky platformer packs in plenty of content beneath the surface. The story itself proves fairly simple and lighthearted. Mustachioed villains swipe your granddad’s cosmic chess set, threatening the harmony of the magical animal kingdom in the process. So you set off on the typical hero’s journey to restore balance.

While standard save-the-world fare, the narrative provides ample motivation to venture through some 30 handcrafted levels across 6 themed zones. And references to this chessboard mythos emerge through collectible relic pieces tied to progression gates. So the scattered storytelling rewards exploration.

Our fearless Raccoo also discovers oodles of character outfits on his quest. These snazzy costumes offer far more than just fashion. Equipping certain garbs unlocks new abilities, like gliding a hang-glider suit or illuminating dark caves with a miner’s helmet. The diverse wardrobe also hides tributes to other indie games and pop culture staples. So changing your look frequently proves worthwhile.

In addition to platforming challenges, players can test their skill at carnival game booths and obstacle courses. These side diversions award tokens to unlock goodies and serve as a welcome change of pace from standard hop-n-bop fare.

And keep your eyes peeled for hidden puzzle rooms off the beaten path. Solving these brainteasers grants access to the game’s most potent artifacts. While their effects may seem subtle individually, collecting the full set bestows legendary hero status onto Raccoo.

So a completionist run through Raccoo Venture offers much for diehard players to sink their teeth into. The deceptively deep collection of outfits, lore relics and hidden puzzles let you tailor the experience to your playstyle. And New Game+ mode with remixed collectible locations provides even more replay value.

Some may blast through just to see the credits roll in 8 hours. But don’t be fooled by this unassuming platformer’s cute cassette case. Analogous to classic Rare games, Raccoo Venture rewards players who poke into every nook and cranny by expanding its world far larger than it first appears.

Approachable Yet Punishing Platforming

Raccoo Venture keeps the control scheme classic yet intuitive for new players. Our ringtailed hero handles like previous mascots – running, jumping, butt-stomping and throwing his way through obstacle courses. The simple inputs make diving into Verta’s first levels feel natural, especially for veterans weaned on old school 3D platformers.

However, the difficult spikes faster than the tutorial prepares you for. Suddenly, formerly manageable jumps grow precariously long over lethal drops. Environments tighten around hazards with little margin for error. And enemies barrage poor Raccoo with projectiles while he struggles to activate his grounded pound attack.

Repetition can aid mastery, but forced replaying of levels kills momentum. When progression gates halt you for lack of hidden collectibles, trudging back feels like indignity. Exploring more organically may have provided better challenge calibration and engagement.

The coin-as-hit-point system can also feel dated and demoralizing. Banking zero progress between attempts while watching reserves drain ratchets tension sharply. Newcomers lacking twitch reflexes and vantage familiarity may find the financial failure loop frustrating.

Camera quirks exacerbate matters in spots. While generally serviceable, wonky angles do occlude hazards, limit view ranges and confuse spatial awareness. When combined with touchy platforming, the mild control hiccups nip unfairly at lifelines.

That said, patterns and layouts prove consistent enough to increment skill through repetition. With progressively better timing, broader vantage awareness and improved aim, the walls smooth away. Persistent players can likely bang their heads against most walls given enough effort. But mainstream audiences may bounce off rather than summit the difficulty.

In aiming to recapture 1990s mascot magic, Raccoo Venture uplifts the peaks but also the pitfalls of that era. Moderately accessible early challenges can see intermediates quickly outmatched. And obscured collection goals force replay slogging rather than satisfying retry enrichment. Adjustments lowering the floor slightly could have widened the fun to mastery canyon for more to traverse. But for battle-hardened retro platforming devotees, Verta should strike a sweet spot of nostalgia.

Hat Tips to Heroes of the Past

Raccoo Venture proudly pays homage to the giants of 1990s 3D platforming while charting its own course. The DNA of legendary mascot titles like Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario 64 can be felt across Raccoo’s DNA. From collectible-gated progression to snack-fueled health meters and acrobatic movesets, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

Yet this solo passion project by Diego Ras still asserts its own identity through charm and creativity. By focusing level design on economic challenge rooms rather than overloaded sandboxes, Raccoo Venture allows its tight core platforming to shine. And the surprisingly deep outfit collection mechanic offers plenty of room for experimentation.

The journey also overflows with loving references to its predecessors. Strange skin suits transform Raccoo into the lead characters from Conker and even Abe’s Odyssey, two kindred 90s classics. Other pop culture rarities like Goonies and Garfield outfits join the party too. And a secret dance party mode unleashes nostalgic vibes with its bubbly syntwave visuals.

Raccoo Venture proudly pays homage to the giants of 1990s 3D platforming while charting its own course. The DNA of legendary mascot titles like Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario 64 can be felt across Raccoo’s DNA. From collectible-gated progression to snack-fueled health meters and acrobatic movesets, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

By infusing its quest with so much heart and humor, Raccoo Venture carves out a space all its own. It revitalizes the best bits of past icons to deliver an adventure equally suited for fans of Yooka-Laylee or Spyro. While its dimmer stars reflect mild flaws in execution, this scrappy one-man studio succeeded in brewing nostalgia magic.

And the solo developer’s effort pushes Raccoo Venture’s merits even further into the limelight. By realizing such a polished product alone, Diego Ras deserves to share the pantheon with retro era greats like Miyamoto. While standing on the shoulders of giants, Raccoo Venture still finds plenty of moments to shine.

A Diamond in the Retro Rough

At its heart, Raccoo Venture delivers on pure platforming joy. Responsive controls and interpreted challenge paths call back to mascot classics of the 1990s. One-man studio Diego Ras managed to capture that nostalgic magic within his solo passion project. Fans of collectathon adventures from Banjo to Mario should find plenty to love.

Unfortunately, a few design holdovers of the era hold back accessible enjoyment. Excessively punishing lives systems and forced collectible backtracking can lead to repetition burnout. Given the strong foundation elsewhere, adjustment to checkpoint generosity could have opened Raccoo to a wider skill spectrum.

Yet creative newcomers willing to practice and determined veterans thirsty for nostalgia may still find the enjoyable core loop outweighs the minor hindrances. Imaginative outfits, colorful worlds and a slammin’ soundtrack round out a polished package. And the amount of care poured into every handcrafted centimeter stands as a triumph for the underrepresented solo developed scene.

In the end, Raccoo Venture’s strengths mirr its inspirations as much as its faults. It stands toe-to-toe with the 90’s legendary mascot heroes in every way, for better and worse. While unlikely to achieve similar mainstream breakout success, it fills a niche severely underserved in the modern market. And there’s greatness to be found within with some patience.

For platformer fans, Raccoo Venture deserves a playthrough. At half the price of a standard release, this scrappy passion project overdelivers. Minor roughness around the edges doesn’t outweigh everything soulfully done right. And supporting independent creators expanding the genres we love sends a message; keep the old school 3D adventures coming!

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