Guacamelee! review

When you first go to play Guacamelee, which you are going to because it's awesome, the first thing you'll notice is the visual style. Sure, it's 2D but what indie game isn't these days? I didn't know I wanted it but when I found it I realized how much games have lacked it: an awesome Mexican-inspired art style. It's bright, colorful, and humorous, especially in the towns of Pueblucho and Santa Luchia. These luchador-loving hub worlds are full of references to video games and internet culture in the form of posters, such as the Mario Brothers re-imagined as luchadores:

In fact, the entire game is full of references to other games, from Mario and Metroid to Castle Crashers. The dialogue as well makes numerous references, and is humorously aware of it, giving the classic "save the girl from the big bad guy" story its unique charm.

Also the soundtrack is amazing. Sort of a mashup of electronic beats with more traditional latin sounds. I'm always a sucker for a great soundtrack, and this one really fits with the hectic fighting.

Not just for opening doors

A luchador lives to fight, and the protagonist Juan does that very well. In its most basic form, Guacamelee's combat is simple 2D brawling, with punching and kicking and throwing, and a dodge roll ability thrown in for good measure. It feels great to send enemies flying into other enemies  but there's more to it than just that. See, Guacamelee is a game in the tradition of Metroidvania games in which you must find new abilities to progress, like a double jump to get to a new area and the ability to smash through a previously unpassable door. What Guacamelee does differently is instead of giving you, say, a grappling hook to climb up stuff, it gives you a fighting move that's primarily used in combat as well as getting you up there. Many fights require you to use all of your abilities, and the ones that don't require them will probably kick your ass if you don't incorporate them into your punching repertoire. This means that as the platforming parts get more complicated as you acquire more moves, the fights get more and more complex as well. What starts off as punching an enemy until you can throw him at another quickly gets entangled with mechanics like air combos, breaking shields with specific moves, and enemies that can't be hit with most of your attacks.

Perfect Pacing

There's one thing that's a little less obvious that makes Guacamelee great from a game design perspective. With each new mechanic added, like an uppercut that can be used as an extra jump comes new possible situations, both in platforming and combat. What Guacamelee does really well is fully exploring each of these ideas but never to the point of making that idea stale. For example, there's one fight late in the game where it's just Juan against flying, stationary time bomb enemies. Each wave threw a wave of these "exploders" at you, and you'd have to destroy them in order or take damage. Each wave was more complicated than the next, until one wave leads you in a circle of the entire room, forcing you to use every one of your abilities with precise timing. Then, the fight ends and there's never a fight like that again.

The game moves from one idea to the next, seamlessly and quickly. It keeps it short and sweet, making it only about 8 hours long for me. There's never a fight where you think "this is exactly like the last one" and never a platforming segment that has you repeating an action until it gets boring. That's what the pacing of a game like this should be like, and Guacamelee got it perfect!

P.S. The entire game can be played local co-op which is awesome.