GUACAMELEE! 2
We like it but we don’t luchador it
Guacamelee! 2 starts with a Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night reference. Just like that classic title it opens with the end of the last game, and even uses Castlevania’s most famous quote (“a miserable pile of secrets!”) just in case you hadn’t quite caught on. It’s a fun opening but an early sign that while the game knows its influences and isn’t ashamed of them, it never escapes them either. After winning the day we leap forward seven years to find our hero, Juan Aguacate, settled down for a quiet life, married and with two children. We see the former wrestler gawking at an old poster and it’s clear he longs for the good old days, perhaps not least of all because he’s now completely out of shape. Games have so many contrived reasons for the hero to lose all their incredible abilities, it’s refreshing for Guacamelee! 2 to find a much more human cause for this reset.
Juan doesn’t have to wait long before he’s pulled back into his spandex, mask, and usual heroics. This time around it’s the ‘Mexiverse’ under threat (that kind of pun is something you’ll have to get used to in the game), and you travel to the ‘Darkest Timeline’, a reality where Juan wasn’t around to save the day and things grew much worse. A new villain is on the loose, hell-bent on finding a magical avocado (those millennials ruining everything again), and Juan must fight through their henchmen to save reality.
NACHO NACHO MAN
It’s a knowingly silly plot that’s matched by bright, colourful visuals and a host of absurd characters, like a musicalobsessed magician who’s backed up by three dancing chickens. The tone and visuals are important because they do most of the heavy lifting for Guacamelee! 2, setting it apart from others in its genre. The game is a Metroidvania firmly in the classic mould, right down to the unlocks (wall jump, grapple hook) and areas locked behind new abilities, just wrapped up in Mexican folklore-influenced aesthetics.
The action feels great, and combat, in particular, has a fun heft to it, but so much of what’s on offer is painfully familiar. It’s not bad by any means, but it lacks that spark that’d make it something really special. It doesn’t help that in its familiar mechanics it still finds ways to be frustrating, dropping abrupt difficulty spikes out of nowhere. Boss fights can be the source of much ire as they often demand you learn things the preceding areas haven’t really tutored you for. The game is at its best when it lets you find a solid rhythm, bouncing through challenges, having to learn on the fly but always managing to
“A MUSICAL-OBSESSED MAGICIAN BACKED UP BY THREE DANCING CHICKENS.”
get through and pick up new skills. Then out of nowhere it can drop an unpleasant change of obstacle on you, mixing things up but putting a harsh end to the solid rhythm you had going. Despite all that, though, there are some wrinkles that are welcome.
CHILLI CON CARNAGE
For starters there’s fourplayer co-op which gives Guacamelee! 2 a level of chaos that is gleeful, even if the sheer volume of what’s on screen can sometimes make it overwhelming. Playing with friends does help offset many of the game’s typical frustrations, lessening the blow of those unwelcome difficulty spikes considerably.
Then there’s the switching between the worlds of the living and the dead, giving the game a Soul Reaveresque element that makes platforming and combat both more exciting, especially when the two come together. In those brief moments of marriage Guacamelee! 2 finds a real identity of its own, but they never last quite long enough.
Guacamelee! 2 is full of character, brimming with charm, but that’s not quite enough to elevate a well-made but predictable Metroidvania. It’s funny how an early sequence sees the game reference Limbo, a game with smarter puzzles and much more interesting ways of toying with the player. If only this could surprise as much as that. Instead what’s here is fun (and doubly so with friends), but it’s almost always exactly what you expect and nothing more.
VERDICT
A well-put together action platformer with lots of charms, spiced up with colourful graphics, but one that fails to outgrow its influences in any meaningful way. Fun but predictable. Sam Greer