Guacamelee! - PS Vita Review

Guacamelee! is an excellent 2D action platformer whose unique visual style and combat system make it an incredibly fun entry into the "Metroid-vania" catalog of games.

In Guacamelee! you play the role of Juan Aguacate, a simple farmer set with the task of rescuing El Presidente's daughter from the evil skeleton Carlos Calaca. To acomplish this task you become a luchador and gain the powers of Mexican Wresting.

The world of Guacamelee! is inspired by traditional Mexican art, folklore, and music. The environments and characters pop with bright neon colors and the Mariachi guitar music is lively and pushes your forward on your quest. While the characters models are relatively simply in design, they are fluidly animated and expressive in their performances.

The humor also shines in the game. Dialogue is funny and self referential with seveal nods to older games like Mario and Zelda. The characters are also quite memorable from a crotchety old shape-shifting goat man who explains your new powers as you collect them (one time giving you the "Congratulations! You've earned NOTHING!" line) to a fire breathing, tequila drinking gunslinger who would fight you if it were not for him wasting all his ammo shooting his pistols up into the air. The jokes and sight gags really are refreshing for a game in this genre which is usually filled with Gothic castles or abandoned space stations.

The base of Guacamelee!'s gameplay is combat brawling and dungeon exploration. Your character moves around in an open world consisting of several different environment types (desert, ice, castle) and then trekking into dungeons which are broken up into small, closed off arena battles, puzzle platforming rooms, and boss fights.

Like the world itself, the fighting in Guacamelee! takes it's cues from Mexican Wrestling. You have your basic punch/kick combos along with throws and suplexes. You are often faced with multiple enemies at a time which makes tossing foes into each other to stun them imperative toward survival.

Combat has a nice flow to it, allowing you to rack up large combos by mixing up different strikes and special moves. These special moves, which come in the form of attacks such as shoulder dashes and rising uppercuts, are gained by smashing orb holding Chozo Statues, which is a direct reference to the Metroid series.

 

Certain enemies will be shielded different colors indicating the special move needed to defeat them. This has you using all of the moves in your arsenal and gets to even more complicated levels in boss battles. The special moves also come into play when solving the game's many puzzles rooms. These rooms are a real treat to play and have you wishing there were more of them. You are often faced with what seems like a completely impassible set of platforms and walls between you and a chest but after several attempts and a clever use of the directional boosting abilities of your special moves, you'll end up feeling like a genus.

The character building aspect of Guacamelee! comes from item and gold collection. Collecting sets of hearts or skulls expand your maximum health and stamina respectivly. Defeating enemies will net you gold which increases with the execution of longer combo stings. This gold can then be traded for more item sets or stronger strikes and throws. The progress comes quickly and has you searching every part of a level for that next item.

While there is some backtracking in Guacamelee!, it is no where near the level of a game like Super Metroid. Usually after gaining a new ability in a dungeon a simple detour will allow you to collect everything in an area. This makes for very quick passage though the game without having to worry about traveling all the way back to a spot now that you have a special move that allows you to pass through a colored door. While there is a fast travel system in place using giant Olmec heads, I found myself not using them at all throughout my playtime (I used them once after completing the game to get an achievement).

BOTTOM LINE:

Guacamelee! is an amazing ride for any fans of Metroid-vania type games. While the playtime is short (5-8 hours) the game is constantly pushing you forward with it's fast and deep combat and awesome, hilarious presentation. A perfect fit for the Vita platform.


8/10