Dare To Go Retro With This Retro-Style iPhone Game

Posted by Bogdan Lazar

Daring Raccoon iPhone App Review.

If you're looking for an addictive game to play this Christmas, then you've come to the right place. Daring Racoon is one such beauty, a pretty simple adventure game featuring over 60 challenging and not-so challenging levels, 2D retro-style graphics and sounds. The game doesn't require much mental engagement, but does guarantee excitement along the way.

Find your way through the maze

The game is structured as a vertical maze comprised of platforms and ladders. You need to find your way from the bottom of the screen to the top of the maze, while collecting all the fruits, ice-creams, sandwiches and other food items you may find without getting eaten alive by the snakes and bugs or falling from one platform to another.

The bad guys are not that cunning. They basically move sideways across the screen (either left-right or up-down) at the same speed. This gives you the ability to calculate your moves and time them accordingly. Try not to get caught between a wall and an approaching snake or bug. It's not impossible to jump over them, but the timing has to be absolutely perfect.

Some levels feature a set of wings that need to be collected. These will enable your raccoon to fly up and down for the duration of that level. When you're on land, use the jump button to jump. When you're in the air, use the jump button to flap your wings, and fly.

Controlling the raccoon

Daring Raccoon uses the standard directional pad control, combined with one button you are to use for jumping and flying. The controls are simple and responsive, although I did find it difficult at times to climb a ladder, unless I was positioned exactly at its base.

A level bonanza

Daring Raccoon features 60+ stages of adventure. You need to jump, climb, run, sit tight and generally use your daring reflexes to get past the baddies and find your way to collecting all the food items in order to clear up the level. Every item must be collected in order to clear the level and proceed to the next.

I got through the first 16 levels of game play in under 20 minutes, but the difficulty is growing with each level.

Great social integrations

Daring Raccoon is astounding in the level of social integration it provides. It's clearly something I wasn't expecting in this retro-style game, and it's why I'm recommending it to you. The game does feature OpenFeint and Twitter integration. Cool enough. But one section of Daring Raccoon is the stage builder. This gives you the ability to build your own custom levels, test them on yourself or even share them online with other players via the app's dedicated website.

In addition to creating your own custom stages, you can download stages that others have built themselves. This is a great idea! Players can extend the game to their liking which gives everyone virtually unlimited levels!

On the down side, the game has a weak story line. Perhaps a story-line wasn't really necessary. You're a raccoon, you're in the jungle, you need to eat while avoiding snakes. Instead, the developers complicated things a bit. You, as the raccoon, need to save your family after an alien invasion. This is however a minor inconvenient, and I must admit I'm a bit too critical when it comes to the effect the story-line has on the overall game experience.

Overall, a great addition to my addictive games collection!

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