Stone Age Game Review: Super Spy Raccoon
Over the past few years, there’s been a rash of retro-inspired games that have aimed to recapture the specific look and feel of the arcade hits of old. The likes of Donut Dodo, Murtop, Annalynn, and more have successfully nailed the concept of the “simple to play, difficult to master” formula that made games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong classics to begin with. The thing that most of these games have in common is that they’re all, just like the arcade hits of the 80s, action-oriented. Twitch reflexes, jumping skills, speed, these are almost always some sort of factor. But Super Spy Raccoon from developer Slain Mascot and publisher Flynn’s Arcade, does things a bit different. This is a stealth game.
Bear in mind, I didn’t say this was a stealth-action game. It’s not tactical espionage action, either. This is a game that’s all about not being seen, and almost nothing else. Each of the game’s five (well, five and a half, if you want to get technical) stages has a number of secret documents floating around, and it’s up to you to grab them without being detected. There are monkeys running around, owls, lasers, spotlights, etc, and if you so much as step one foot into their line of sight, that’s it. You lose a life. Super Spy Raccoon is incredibly unforgiving in this regard, so you have to keep tabs on everything happening on the screen at all times if you want to get through with a decent score.
Another thing that sets this game apart from its contemporaries is how its lives system works. In a game like Cash Cow DX, for example, you have a set number of lives. Once you’ve used them up, it’s Game Over and you have to start again from the beginning. Super Spy Raccoon actually allows you to continue as many times as you like, but every time you do, you lose points. Same goes for the game’s sole powerup, a sort of potion that turns you invisible for a brief period of time. You can grab it if you want, but it’ll cost you your high score.
This leaves the stakes of the game feeling a little non-existent, unless you care about grabbing a high score. Which I’m sure won’t be an issue for a lot of players, but that’s never really been my thing.
In fact, Super Spy Raccoon in general wasn’t really for me. I’ve never been a huge fan of stealth in video games. That said, I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t have any fun with this game. It’s got a great look, and the Romeo Raccoon character is pretty cool. The final stage is more action-oriented too, which was a neat change of pace, but there was something here that just felt a bit slight overall. It’s about as light on content as a lot of other games of its ilk, but maybe it’s just my aversion to the stress of stealth games that really makes me not want to come back to it very often.
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The bottom line is, this is a well-made game. If you’ve ever wondered what a game like Donkey Kong would be like if it was all about stealth instead of reaching the top of the stage, this game will answer that weirdly specific question for sure. But if you’re like me and aren’t a fan of stealth in your video games, it’s probably best to avoid this one.
Generally, though? I recommend it.
Super Spy Raccoon is currently available on Steam and Nintendo Switch.
Thanks to Flynn’s Arcade for supplying me with a review code.
