Raccoon Cocoon Review: A Cozy Puzzle Package

Sometimes when it comes to games, including cozy ones, you just want to play something quick, simple, but still with a challenge thrown in. Puzzle games are ideal for this, including this new title, Raccoon Cocoon – A Cozy Puzzle Game from Kekik in the Bag. This game comes bundled with 60 different puzzles to complete, which you can do entirely at your leisure. There’s no time limit, and you can replay the puzzles as often as you like. If you enjoy titles such as A Little to the Left and Tell Me Your Story, you’ll probably like this, too.

Raccoon Cocoon – A Cozy Puzzle Game is now available on Steam for $4.99.

Story – Grandma Raccoon’s Cozy Puzzles

Raccoon Cocoon doesn’t have much of a story in the strictest sense. The only bit of story given is in the game’s description, in which you assist Grandma Raccoon with little tasks around her pixel house in the form of puzzles, primarily ones involving some form of organization and sorting.

The core focus is on the puzzles themselves, which in the context of what the game is about, that’s perfectly fine. You don’t have to sit through several lines of dialogue to get to the puzzles. As soon as you hit Play, you start the first puzzle, solve it, and immediately move onto the next one, until you either exit or complete the final puzzle.

Sometimes, you simply don’t need a story to make a game work. Raccoon Cocoon works perfectly fine without one.

Gameplay – A Selection of Quick Yet Challenging Puzzles

Raccoon Cocoon consists of several short but also challenging puzzles, 60 to be exact. These make up the core of the game, as well as fitting its cozy vibe.

Getting Organized

The majority of puzzles in Raccoon Cocoon involve some form of organization or sorting. You may have to put objects in the correct order, arrange items so they fit together, rearrange pieces, or match the correct items together. Other puzzles get you sorting through items, such as putting trash in the correct recycling bins, or putting items in boxes based on room type. 

My personal favorite type of puzzle involved placing items in the correct slots of organization trays. These were methodical, relaxing, and therapeutic.

A personal favorite, puzzles where you have to arrange objects in specific places on a tray.

Other Puzzles of Note

Puzzles in Raccoon Cocoon aren’t just about organizing and sorting. A few other puzzles come up as well. Some are very simple, like putting mushrooms in a basket, collecting fireflies, or making a pizza. One particularly unique puzzle involves watering and wilting plants with a sun and rain cloud until you get the right size. 

The plant puzzle, where you need to get four plants to the correct size using the sun and rain cloud.

Relaxing, but Not Necessarily Easy

Generally, when it comes to puzzles in Raccoon Cocoon, they are designed to be relaxing, cozy, but also challenging. They’re not so hard that they become stressful, as this would defeat the purpose of it being a relaxing cozy game. They do get the cogs in your brain working, but in a calming way. Plus, there’s that safety blanket of knowing you can get a hint, or even skip the puzzle, if you become seriously stumped.

The puzzles are relaxing, but they can be tricky, too.

Need a Hint? Want to Move On? You Can!

Raccoon Cocoon is a puzzle game through-and-through, but since it’s designed to be more relaxing than a brain trainer, the game does help you out if you ever get stuck on a puzzle.

How to Solve a Puzzle

First is the handy hints option. You get this in every single puzzle you do. When a level first loads, you’re not instructed on how to solve it. You have to figure it out. Sometimes it’s obvious, other times less so. If you’re really confused and have no idea what you’re meant to do, the hint helps you out. It informs you what the puzzle is about and how to go about solving it.

However, don’t think it will hold your hand and tell you the exact solution. That’s still down to you to work out – but this is a good thing. It stops the game from being way too easy and too quick to finish.

You’re not alone solving a puzzle. If you really have no clue what to do, simply check the hint and it’ll tell you.

Skipping a Puzzle

If you’re really stuck on a puzzle, even after using the hint, there is the option of moving onto the next puzzle. You’re not trapped in the puzzle you’re stuck on. By pressing the ESC button, you can skip the puzzle you’re currently on, or jump to another puzzle, or just quit the game.

It’s also reassuring to know that you don’t need to do anything to earn a pass or a hint. These options are always available, should you ever need them. You also don’t ever get penalized for skipping a puzzle or using a hint. The whole purpose of Raccoon Cocoon is to help you relax through puzzles. Since getting stuck is not relaxing, the game is always waiting to help you out.

If you really can’t get work out a puzzle, you can just skip it.

Things to Look Out For

Although for the most part Raccoon Cocoon gives you a relaxing experience with fun puzzles to solve, I did encounter one or two hiccups. Fortunately, these aren’t in the form of bugs, but just a few gameplay observations.

Unclear Rotation Controls

One thing was that with the jigsaw puzzles, as well as another puzzle, you’re required to rotate the pieces so you can fit them into place. The issue here was the game didn’t explain how you did this clearly.

Despite an animation in the corner of the screen demonstrating how to rotate, initially I was baffled as to why it didn’t seem to be working for me. No matter how many times I clicked the right-mouse button on a puzzle piece, it wouldn’t do anything. I actually thought it was my mouse not working. I soon figured out that to rotate an object, you have to click the right-mouse button while holding the piece with the left-mouse button. The game didn’t clearly explain that!

The jigsaws are easy. It’s the controls that were initially the challenge.

Confusing Sorting Puzzle

This wasn’t the only issue. In another puzzle, you had to organize a series of plates, teapots, and sugar bowls on a shelf. I didn’t have an issue with the plates or teapots; I either worked these out myself or used the puzzle’s hint. What I was stumped by was the sugar bowls. Here, you had to place them in the correct order by size. However, when I tried arranging the bowls from smallest to largest, it didn’t work.

After much trial-and-error, the game seemed to accept the order of the bowls in seemingly a completely random order, not defined by their size as the puzzle requested. This was the only puzzle I was baffled by; all other puzzles made sense. I’m not sure why this one didn’t, unless I overlooked something.

For some reason, the tea set puzzle had me scratching my head – at least with the sugar bowls.

Graphics & Audio – Perfectly Cozy and Relaxing

As a cozy puzzle game (this even being in the title), Raccoon Cocoon must invoke this with its graphics and audio. Fortunately, it doesn’t fail here, at all.

The stylistic pixelated graphics work beautifully in Raccoon Cocoon. The colors are subtle and easy on the eyes, and everything you see in the game is clearly defined. The art style gives that warm and cozy but also tastefully old-school feel.

While you work through each puzzle, soothing and relaxing music plays. It’s perfectly matched for this game, giving you something calming to listen to without being an annoying distraction.