You are a raccoon who has free reign to walk around a science lab.  Maybe this animal is a pet or mascot, as one of the scientists in the lab gives you a hug when you walk past.  Although you can knock down beakers and break computers when you go by.  Anyway, shortly after you start, you find a wrist device that lets you warp a few feet in front of you, and these same scientists are ok with letting you test it.  So as a raccoon, you’ll run, jump, climb walls, and warp between them as you make it to the end of super challenging 2-D platform levels.  For a while their spelling of ‘racoon’ in the game’s title bugged me to no end, but apparently it’s also a correct way to spell it.  I’m still using two C’s for my review outside the title, though.  Anyway, Rift Racoon is available to download on nearly all current game consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

You can do pretty basic run and jump platforming, but you can also climb walls for a short while.  You’ll get tired if you climb too high, though, and will start to slide down the wall.  By pressing the square button, you can warp a little bit ahead or above you.  You can do this to pass through walls or get some extra height in the air.  Do this to make it to the end of the level and onto the next.  If you get hit by spikes, fall into a pit, or warp into a wall you’ll have to start the stage over at the beginning or at the last checkpoint you passed.

I liked the chunky monkey 16-bit style graphics but this game is way too hard.  Controls could be a little smoother and there’s just not very many levels from what I can tell.  Granted they’re very hard ones that’ll take some skill to beat, but the high difficulty kept me from staying interested very long.

Kid Factor:

Rift Racoon is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.  If you get hit, you’ll just dissolve into pixels and appear back at the last checkpoint, but that’s about as violent as it gets.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, and younger gamers may find it too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews