One Life Left: Guacamelee!

It always warms my heart when I stumble upon an indie gem as these games tend to offer vastly different experiences than from your typical AAA release. They will be cheaper, usually offer a unique visual style and feel more like a video game due to their lack of cut scenes, dynamic cameras or other things that games with a bigger budget use to create a more “cinematic” experience.

Guacamelee! is such a game, developed by newcomer DrinkBox Studios, and if this is their first attempt into the game-creating world, let’s say that I am holding my breath for what they release next as Guacamelee! Is an impressive debut.
Guacamelee! tells the story of Juan, a simple agave farmer and tequila maker who, after a fire at the Presidents house, rushes off to rescue his childhood friend, the presidents daughter. Calaca, an undead skeleton who wishes to use her for a ritual that will merge the worlds of the living and the dead so that he may rule all, has kidnapped her.

Juan challenges him to a battle, only to be killed nigh instantly. It’s in the world of the dead where he discovers a magic luchador mask which grants him life as well as newfound strength and speed, exactly what he needed to stop Calaca.
The first thing you will notice is the visual style, a comic book feel with a Mexican luchador motif. Lots of vibrant colors, sombreros and dia-de-los-muertos skeletons all inhabit the lush, but small world of Guacamelee!.
Guacamelee! is a love letter to the Metroidvanias, as it uses this classic formula, but in new and exciting ways. The game is a 2-D side scroller which only progresses when the players find new special moves, which allow access to areas were previous not accessible. True to the genre, there are also plenty of special nooks and crannies to find and explore, usually containing pieces of sugar skulls, which increase your stamina, or heart pieces, which increases the length of your health bar.

The combat is also incredibly simple but still statisfying. Juan has his basic three hit combo, but once a character is weak enough, Juan can grapple them. Once grappled you can throw an enemy in any particular direction, suplex him, drop kick him, or just throw him into the air to begin an air combo. This creates a thrilling combo based combat system that feels true to the luchador motif the game is portraying.
The most interesting mechanic in the game however is the necessity to switch from the world of the living to the world of the dead, and vice-versa. At first this will be done through little switches floating, but later in the game Juan gains the ability to switch between the two at will.

By switching worlds, the environment immediately changes around him, walls may disappear, enemies that were not there may suddenly appear and the actual visual look changes as well, it is this mechanic that separates Guacamelee from its predecessors, and it works very well as it creates well-designed platforming sequences where a combination of aerial moves and quick world-switching are needed to succeed.

However the game is not without its faults, for one, it is far too short. The game only has three real boss fights, and while they are enjoyable and fun, its still only three boss fights.
The game is also littered with internet memes and game references. Some are contextual and enjoyable, such as the fact that Juan obtains his new moves from breaking Chozo statues, a throwback to the Metroid games. Others are just obnoxious memes that add nothing to the feel of the game and just feel desperate.

Guacamelee! is currently only available on the Vita via download, but there are talks of porting it to PC via steam, which I certainly hope they do, as this is a fantastic game with a lot of great ideas, an affordable price tag of $15 and a cool visual motif.

Guacamelee! gets an 8/10