Hey, remember Balatro<\/em>? Man, what a game. Even two years after its release, I\u2019m still thinking about what a lightning-in-a-bottle idea developer LocalThunk captured there. Taking the design language of a roguelike and applying it to a deceptively strategic card game like poker? I could write a dissertation on why that fusion works as well as it does. I could probably also write one about the wave of games it has already inspired, but that paper wouldn\u2019t be quite as flattering.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Following last year\u2019s CloverPit<\/em> (Balatro,<\/em> but slot machine), developer Doraccoon has jumped on the emerging trend with Raccoin <\/em>(Balatro<\/em>, but coin pusher). The elevator pitch tells you almost everything you need to know about the new gambling roguelike: do some build-crafting, gradually increase your score with each upgrade, rack in the dopamine rewards. What the on-paper pitch doesn\u2019t <\/em>communicate is just how hollow that hook is removed from the game that inspired it. There\u2019s a good reason that Balatro <\/em>is still the best at what it does, and it\u2019s not just because it was first.<\/p>\n At a glance, Raccoin <\/em>looks very different from Balatro <\/em>\u2014 at least <\/em>compared to more direct riffs like 2024\u2019s Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers<\/em>. The roguelike runs aren\u2019t set inside a card game, but a coin pusher machine. What\u2019s a coin pusher, you ask? It\u2019s one of those arcade attractions where an automated tray pushes a pile of coins around. You drop some coins in the machine in hopes that the extra mass in the coin pile will cause the tray to push a few coins into the prize hole. For me, it\u2019s always been a scammy, C-tier carnival game that\u2019s about as exciting as watching Chuck E. Cheese\u2019s animatronic head rust in real time, but what do I know? Coin pushing videos are a surprisingly popular niche on platforms like YouTube.<\/p>\n And so, Raccoin <\/em>capitalizes on that by adding deckbuilder and roguelike elements to God\u2019s dullest game. In each round of a run, you simply have to score a certain number of points. To get there, you need to shoot coins onto the field, trading in the tickets you earn along the way to get more stacks. The twist is that you can make a simple game more complicated by amassing passive perks and specialty coins that add a bit of chaos to the machine while keeping your combo multiplier high. By the end of a successful run, you\u2019re not simply waiting for a tray to push a few measly coins into the prize slot; you\u2019re hacking the damn thing. In that way, it\u2019s exactly <\/em>like Balatro<\/em>, but with the hand-crafting replaced with satisfying physics manipulation backed by ASMR-worthy coin-dropping sound effects.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the rub: No amount of goofy gimmickry can make up for the fact that you are playing the arcade equivalent of slug racing. The exciting crescendos where multiple effects trigger in rapid succession \u2014 spinning prize wheels, sprouting coin towers, board-changing items like UFO catchers \u2014 are outweighed by the moments where you\u2019re simply waiting for the tray to slowly inch a few coins into the hole. The payoff is rarely worth the reward, as failed runs tend to peter out anticlimactically rather than blow up in one risky decision. I\u2019ve yet to have a full run that felt genuinely enjoyable from start to finish, just a few moments of gleeful noise that leave me honking like a seal while hectic reactions I don\u2019t understand happen on screen.<\/p>\n But why doesn\u2019t <\/em>it work for me? It should, right? After all, none of this is really all that different from Balatro <\/em>under the hood. It\u2019s the same kind of \u201cnumbers go up\u201d game where I\u2019m managing exponential growth through build-crafting. Raccoin <\/em>is arguably even more <\/em>active as a game considering that I can at least shoot dozens of coins into the machine and try to strategically craft piles that will cause a chain reaction. Yet, no matter how many weird coins I unlock that can manipulate the board or send my multiplier into the stratosphere, nothing feels as exciting as scoring a pair of buffed up twos and getting a million points for a weak hand.<\/p>\n The problem for games like Raccoin <\/em>is that they are replicating the most superficial parts of Balatro<\/em>. They map the mechanics of the roguelike play without understanding why they work so well in the context of poker <\/em>specifically. The secret to Balatro<\/em>\u2019s success? Your average deck of playing cards. Those 52 cards have kept humanity entertained for centuries because they give us endless room for invention. You can always create a new game from the same set of tools, in turn changing the function and value of that king in your hand. Think of a deck of cards as the world\u2019s most powerful game engine.<\/p>\n Balatro <\/em>gets that. It\u2019s a game that builds on the endless versatility of cards by recontextualizing them in each run. Your buffs, hand multipliers, and jokers transform the 52 cards that you use time and time again. A queen of hearts feels different in your hand depending on the rules you\u2019ve created through your build. You\u2019re not playing regular poker rounds on each run; you\u2019re inventing a new variant of the classic game altogether. And yes, it also draws on the sticky appeal of gambling, but to chalk Balatro<\/em>\u2019s enduring popularity up to that alone feels too reductive. There\u2019s something more meaningful happening with each shuffle of the deck.<\/p>\n So, what then am I supposed to take from Raccoin<\/em>? What does the rule-shifting premise of a roguelike emphasize about the appeal of a coin pusher? If there\u2019s an answer, I\u2019ve yet to find it. Maybe I\u2019m supposed to engage with it as a power fantasy about outconning a machine built to defeat you. You won\u2019t stop me from claiming my prize! <\/em>That\u2019s the same appeal powering CloverPit<\/em>, after all \u2014 a more direct \u201cfuck you\u201d to the dastardly slot machine.<\/p>\n But where Balatro <\/em>feels sincere in its love of poker and all its complexities, both Raccoin <\/em>and CloverPit <\/em>come off as ironic gags at best. Wouldn\u2019t it be funny if you added roguelike elements to a coin pusher!? <\/em>They\u2019re explorations of video game systems that don\u2019t seem to care about the physical game they\u2019re building on; they\u2019re interested in Balatro<\/em> first and foremost. (Even Raccoin<\/em>\u2019s groovy background music sounds like a royalty-free cover.)<\/p>\n To some degree, that\u2019s fine. Video games are a medium built on iteration. The magic comes from developers riffing on one another\u2019s design discoveries and placing them into new contexts. You could call Balatro<\/em> a deconstruction of Hades<\/em>. I love getting to see where one game\u2019s brilliant ideas do and don\u2019t map onto other foundations, just as I\u2019ve loved watching Nintendo try to figure out how to reimagine some of its classic games as pseudo-battle royales. Even when an idea like Raccoin <\/em>doesn\u2019t work, there\u2019s still value in figuring out where the experiment breaks down. I\u2019ve had more fun thinking about it than I have playing it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure Doraccoon isn\u2019t losing sleep over any of this. Raccoin <\/em>sold 100,000 copies on its first day and seems to be going over well enough with the kinds of players who dig this flavor of roguelike. We love when a number gets bigger, folks. But if the goal is to create something that stands on its own rather than something you\u2019re bound to buy bundled with Balatro<\/em> in a good Steam deal, the developers behind these roguelikes could stand to investigate where the game and the game<\/em> intersect. Why is a coin pusher interesting? What video game systems best explain that? Being able to connect those dots is a skill that separates the Balatro<\/em>s from the Balatro<\/em>-likes. Otherwise, you\u2019re just dropping another coin in a machine full of them and hoping that will be enough to knock some cash into the hole.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Coins](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/raccoin-coin-pusher.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Doraccoon\/Playstack<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/balatro-justice.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: LocalThunk<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/raccoin-shop.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Doraccoon\/Playstack<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n