Games worth discovering

Raccoon Unhappy First Impressions: Gamers Very Happy

7K View2022-05-31

The first thing you’re going to have to do with Raccoon Unhappy is ignore the strange title. Ignore the fact that the logo seemingly reverses the title into a much less awkward “Unhappy Raccoon.” And if furry aesthetics are the kind of thing that bothers you, by all means, please ignore those as well. It may seem like a big batch of red flags, but I’m here to tell you that this oddly titled game full of anthropomorphized animal characters is really damn good.

Raccoon Unhappy is a roguelite clearly inspired by some of the genre’s best and most popular titles, like Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon. You choose a character from one of four playable furry-style characters, including a cat, a dog, a bunny, and a fox. It’s clear that more characters are coming too; the character select screen has outlines for three more and could easily fit plenty beyond that in the future.

For now, though, you’re limited to the crossbow-wielding Kitana, the axe-throwing Dogo, the flamethrower-crazy Karota, and the dashing swordsman Caines. My first run was with Kitana, as she’s the default character and arguably the easiest to get used to. The game begins aboard what appears to be a spaceship, which acts as a hub between runs, but once I exited I was warped into a mountainous mine region and soon began encountering murderous robots, zombies, and other angry creatures.

Once again, the core mechanics of Raccoon Unhappy will be familiar to anyone who has played games like Binding of Isaac. Though you’re going through outdoor environments, areas are still split up into distinct rectangular “rooms,” and each room comes with several waves of enemies to destroy before you can move on. After working through anywhere from five to a dozen or so rooms, players will reach the end of an area and have to take on a much more difficult boss enemy.

The focus on combat in Raccoon Unhappy works well, because the core mechanics are extremely tightly designed and fun. Movement is controlled via a virtual thumbstick, while large buttons on the right-hand side of the screen handle the primary attack, special moves, and dodging. It may not be a controller, but it’s about as responsive as I could ever want from a roguelite. Dodging, in particular, is one of the most important and most difficult to nail down mechanics for a great action roguelike. Here, it felt great and provided some much-needed invincibility frames, really tying together the flow of combat.

It’s not all just combat, of course. Each time you clear a room, you’re rewarded with a treasure chest that drops a bunch of gold and possible upgrades. These come in the form of gear, which can be equipped to four slots and swapped out as you find upgrades, and chips, which can be picked up infinitely (or near-infinitely at least—in my longest run, I accumulated at least twenty-five chips and had no indication that things would slow down from there). Both gear and chips offer a wide range of improvements to your characters, from smaller stat-based stuff—improved attack, movement speed increases, etc.—to much bigger changes that affect the gameplay.

In my first run as Kitana, my favorite pickup was a chip that added an explosive boost to my arsenal. With this power, every third shot of my crossbow was immediately and automatically followed up by a rocket that would do major damage in the area where it exploded. This majorly increased my damage output and allowed me to pull off some major crowd control tricks in areas that might have overwhelmed me before.

Perhaps my biggest surprise in Raccoon Unhappy, though, was discovering just how meaningfully different each character plays, and how each manages to feel powerful enough to succeed despite that. Take Dogo as a prime example. Unlike Kitana, Dogo’s primary weapon is an axe. In other words, he fights in melee range. After playing a run as Kitana, I couldn’t imagine how that would work. There were too many enemies who seemed to require distance, who could smash you in the face or spray you with projectiles if you tried to get up close. But I quickly discovered that I was totally wrong. In addition to a special ability allowing him to toss axes, Dogo has a bigger health and shield pool, making him able to tank a few hits while walloping bad guys right in the face. Much to my surprise, I ended up actually performing even better with Dogo than with Kitana.

Of the four characters currently available in Raccoon Unhappy, there isn’t a single one that retreads the same ground as one of the others, and yet each of them felt well-rounded. Each one of them was a blast to play. And that just makes me more curious about the three characters (or more) that will be coming in the future. This is a fantastic base to build off of, and I’m excited to see what comes down the line.

The characters do all share one thing in common, though: access to a pool of global buffs that can be purchased at the hub between runs. For each boss you defeat, you’re rewarded with a number of diamonds, which can then be spent purchasing these buffs. Most of these seem to be more generic stat boosts, like bigger shields or faster cooldowns on special abilities and so on. While I’d love to see more interesting, game-changing upgrades to purchase, what’s here already provides a really solid way for players to feel a sense of progress, even after they lose a run and have to start over again from the beginning.

You know, all of this information, and I haven’t even talked about the title characters. Who are these raccoons and why are they unhappy? As you work through levels, you’ll be able to rescue and team up with a squad of up to eight raccoons. These little helpers can set up turrets, toss bombs, shield you from enemy attacks, or even shoot lightning or frost bolts at your foes. I’m not entirely sure what makes them unhappy—maybe the fact that they’re sometimes kidnapped and tossed in cages by the bad guys?—but they provide a nice additional layer of depth and customization to runs as you try to put together your ideal crew. Picking up four raccoons of the same type even provides new special abilities that can be a huge help during tough fights.

Honestly, given the bizarre name and my lack of interest in furry character design, I went into Raccoon Unhappy prepared to be unhappy myself. Even in this early test version, though, the game proved my early judgment to be foolish and unwarranted. The only serious complaint that I have is the lack of variety in level design and layouts. If the developers can improve on that while adding more characters, upgrades, chips, and other sources of depth to runs, this could be one of the best roguelikes on mobile.

Want to try Raccoon Unhappy for yourself? The test version of the game is currently available for Android exclusively via TapTap. Check it out here.

CHECK OUT SOME OTHER RECENT FIRST IMPRESSIONS FROM TAPTAP: