'An introspective view on a Metroidvania indie darling'
In 2013, I purchased Guacamelee Day 1, At the time I was familiar with Drink Box's previous game the cult classic ‘Tales from space: A Blobs Tale’ but with the promise of a portable Metroidvania on my newly acquired PS Vita. It turned out to be one of the best games I played that year and still remains one of the best games of its genre. In 2018, I bought the game again on the Nintendo Switch, but I haven't played it until now. The re-release is referred to as STCE, and it's essentially a Game of the Year version of the base game. It includes a few more costumes that change the way you approach a new playthrough. For instance, the Pollo Luchado suit slowly regenerates your health over time, but in return, it slows down your stamina.
You won't be able to use special moves as often, but if you're dying frequently, then this suit will help, especially if you're attempting the new game plus on hard difficulty. Best of all, you'll look like a chicken! it also added some new areas and an extra boss. After not playing for so long, I couldn't tell what was new, but I was eager to play again.
In Guacamelee!, you play as Juan Aguacate, a resident of the mexican village Pueblucho.
The village is suddenly attacked, and you step up to fight, but unfortunately, as quickly as danger arises, you are killed by the reaper. You then awaken in the dark world all alone. However, you soon meet a mysterious character named Lucho, and together, you obtain a special lucho mask that allows you to return to the light world and set out to save your first love, Lupita. The ultimate goal is to reclaim what is rightfully yours!
The story itself is straightforward, lacking any real excitement, no thrills affair but it contains some amusing and distinctive humour that remains enjoyable even today. The villain's (Calaca) motive is reasonable, having sold his soul to the devil after breaking his arm ahead of a significant competition. However, as the story progresses and his subordinates reveal more hidden secrets about Calaca, it becomes clear that he is only pursuing his own selfish interests without regard for the consequences that others may face.
Guacamelee draws inspiration from various aspects of mexican culture and folklore, including alebrijes. This is also reflected in the game's music, which features modern-sounding Mexican inspired songs with EDM and synths incorporated throughout. As you progress through the game, you'll gain an ability that allows you to switch between the light and dark worlds. These two worlds are distinct and different, with the dark world reminiscent of another Mexican cultural influence, 'Day of the Dead'.
I have a small issue with the UI of STCE. One of its new features is a multiplayer mode that can be accessed by pressing start on another controller at any time. However, at the top of the screen, there is some unattractive text that constantly reminds you of this mode.
Pueblucho is a lively little village that fully embraces their love of Lucha libre, the townspeople have quirky one-liners and whimsical animation but they also want you to help out with small fetch quests, most of which, are based in the town, with upgrades to stamina, health for Juan or money as a reward.
Back in 2013 when this game launched, it was before the influx of other indie Metroidvania that swarmed the scene soon after, it still holds up with some super tight controls This becomes especially important in the late game, where platforming puzzles require very accurate movements. The main character, Juan, is a wrestler, so his moves and special abilities are all melee-focused. You will come across four unique special moves in the game, each hidden behind a funny tribute to the Chozo statues from the Metroid series,
Scattered across the world, you can find coloured tiles that correspond to one of the four special moves. These moves are essential for a wrestler like Juan who focuses on melee combat. However, despite their importance, the moves lack variety and are too simple. They stand out conspicuously and they stick out like a sore thumb.
The game also includes other Metroidvania staples, such as a boost dash and a version of Samus from Metroid's, morph ball, which instead of a ball is a small chicken.
Early on in the first temple, you are bombarded with new abilities. While this helps with learning the ropes quickly and getting a good feel for Juan and his abilities, it does disrupt the pacing and flow being so frontloaded.
Throughout the game, there are several hard-to-reach power-ups that can expand Juan's health and stamina, these start simple enough but do become very complex later on with a demand for mastery of all the games systems that reminds me a lot of Super Meat Boy. Additionally, you can find shop stalls scattered throughout the game, placed conveniently before tough combat encounters, tricky platforming sections or bosses. These stalls offer the chance to buy additional hearts and skulls for Juan and supe up some of his wrestling moves, and they also double as quick save checkpoints.
When backtracking to search for hidden items, Olmec heads can be used for teleportation. These heads are relatively scarce, usually only one per area, but they can be quite useful when cleaning up previously trodden areas for collectables.
General combat encounters are mostly closed-off affairs that are reminiscent of a Mexican wrestling ring and you must defeat waves of enemies using Juans close quarters combat skills to overcome them, while Guacamelee shares a lot of similarities with games of the same genre the combat is a fresh twist on battles and even has a timed combo meter that starts when doing flowing strings, each victory in the ‘ring’ you earn a pinata which upon breaking bursts with money and extra goodies depending on how quick, efficient and how big you got that combo meter!
Although some of the combat scenarios in the later stages of the game can become repetitive, my personal issue with relying on the same attack combinations to deal with any type of enemy encounter, the boss battles are a standout feature. They are well-varied and their difficulty scales nicely. One of my favourite fights was against Flame Face, who made excellent use of the world-switching ability. Mid-fight, he changed water to lava, and having to adapt to this change in real-time made for a tense and enjoyable battle.
Upon replaying Guacamelee, I was reminded of many things that made me hold it in good memory. The game has a vibrant and colourful style, tight controls, and some clever, hard-to-reach upgrades. Being on the shorter side, it didn't overstay its welcome. However, the endgame's harsh increase in difficulty somewhat tarnishes a great five hours of gameplay. Guacamelee has been available on many platforms, old and new, for a few years now, and it's worth playing if you're a fan of the genre or looking for something small to play in between bigger game releases.
Pros
Fun difficult platforming
Vibrant Art style
Great puzzles
Cons
Simple power ups
Ramp difficulty spike in end game
Played on: Nintendo Switch
Hours to beat: 4 ½
VERDICT: 7/10
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