Review: Guacamelee!

Guacamelee! is a downloadable Metroidvania game, though the fighting is more beat-‘em-up, for the PC, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. It was developed by Drinkbox Studios. The game has both a single-player and a two-player mode; this review is based on the single-player mode for the PS3.

Juan and La Tostada fighting Calaca's army.

Juan, an agave farmer, is killed while trying to rescue his childhood friend, El Presidente’s Daughter from Calaca, who has come back from the dead with an army of skeletons to try and take over the world, and needs El Presidente’s Daughter to complete his plan. Juan finds a luchador mask in the underworld and is reborn as a masked luchador hero. With his second chance at life and new luchador powers Juan must rescue El Presidente’s Daughter from Calaca.

In Guacamelee! Juan travels around an unspecified area of Mexico, jumping around minor platforming obstacle courses and beating up skeletons. Juan has a basic three-hit combo and a grab, which you can only use on a bad guy after you have beaten them up a bit, as well as a dodge that also acts as a shield. Those are his only attacks, so fighting can feel repetitive, especially with the limited number of enemy types you fight. I did not mind because the battles were fast and I was able to pick up how to fight quickly, but those looking for a deeper combat system might be disappointed.

Juan learns several special moves in addition to his regular attacks that when used consume a stamina bar that refills on its own over time. These special moves are stronger, but more importantly, they allow Juan to reach new areas that he could not access before, like an uppercut that destroys special blocks, or a wall jump. Enemies sometimes have shields that can only be destroyed by a special attack, which adds a little more challenge.

Juan’s main ability travelling between the land of the living and the land of the dead, first through stationary portals, then anywhere at will. Both lands have the same layout, but walls and platforms that are not in one world might not appear in the other. Most of the platform segments involve Juan jumping between platforms and past walls by abusing his dimension hopping power. None of these areas are that difficult to get through, some jumps are challenging but you will never get stuck in area for more than a couple of minutes. These parts are not so simple that they are boring though.

The land of the dead looks very similar to the land of the living, but weirder.

Enemies can appear in one land but still hurt Juan with their attacks if he is in the other land, and you have to go back and forth between the two lands to fight enemies that are in both. It is another little addition that makes the game a bit more challenging, but not by much.

A silhouetted enemy means it is in the other world, but can still hurt Juan.

A few levels have multiple paths that you cannot access until you have a new power, but most just have an entrance and an exit. They also have lots of hidden areas, the idea is that you go through them initially to advance the plot then go back later to find hidden chests with health and stamina upgrades, or money that you can buy other power-ups with.

There is very little story. All Juan does is run around, fight Calaca’s subordinates, and fail to stop Calaca from enacting the next part of his evil plan. The one cutscene detailing Calaca’s backstory is more interesting than the entire main story. The thinness of the story is made easier to deal with by the cast, who are all likable and quirky, if not terribly memorable. The story is not serious, but it is not really funny either, lighthearted would be best way to describe it. The only jokes I really found funny were all the shout-outs to other games and internet memes that are found on posters.

So many shout-outs.

While I was playing I wondered if the game was racist towards Mexicans. I know masked wrestling is big in Mexico, and I do not think the game is mocking that. But there are times, like the sidequest where you build the world’s largest enchilada, or running into characters that end their sentences with “man”, that seemed a little crass. Maybe I am just being overly-sensitive.

Guacamelee! is short, and nothing about it is strenuous, but all of its parts are well made. The length is the only real issue, but that is forgivable given the game’s nature as a downloadable title, and if it was any longer the games mild flaws would start to stand out more.