Interested in funny little platformers that you can play with a friend and still get a good challenge? There's a good chance that you'll enjoy Guacamelee. Drawing influence from traditional Mexican lore and culture, the game provides a fair amount of cultural insight as well as entertainment.
Right off the bat, you can't help but notice how bright and colorful it is. Animation looks cartoonish, and everything is in bright, warm colors. This world pops and stands out. It's score perfectly matches as well, with the sounds of traditional Mariachi music and instrumentation mixing with modern electronica sounds. The themes throughout the game stand out as much as the backgrounds, character designs, and animations.
The game follows Juan, an agave farmer who is in love with El Presidente's Daughter. One day, an evil charro skeleton arrives, kidnaps her, and kills Juan in the process. Ending up in the land of the dead, Juan is reinvigorated with the power of a sacred mask given to him by a luchador. He is transformed into a powerful hero in order to fight an army of skeletons and magical henchmen, all to save El Presidente's Daughter.
You can already see a bit of the Mexican folklore that is used as the ground for the story. Along the way, Juan must learn new skills from the strange and humorous Uay Chivo, an old man who is always in the form of a goat when you run into him. He shows up after you destroy one of his statues, annoyed, but giving you new powers that aid you through the levels.
At it's core, the game plays a bit like a Mexican Mario. It's story is just a "save the princess" one, where you come so close several times, only to have the villain pull her away at the last moment to a new location. Combat is much more a role in this game, of course. After all, it's called Guacamelee for a reason! To be sure, many of the trials in the game come from navigating a hazardous environment. While it's not quite like Mario's traps and hazards in specifics, the idea of traversing areas where you can fail to cross and die is prevalent. However, you'll be doing a lot more than just jumping on enemies. Instead, you will be engaged in melee combat - sometimes with loads of enemies! As you advance, both enemies and environmental hazards get more difficult.
By the end, you really need to have gotten a good grasp on all the powers and abilities to stand a chance. This is one of those games where you need to be rather familiar with it to win. The learning curve is pretty well designed, as it rarely introduces new things that are overwhelmingly difficult compared to everything else it introduced earlier.
Part of the beauty is that - again, like a Mario game - the levels may be straight forward and linear; the overall world is not. Though some levels are only accessible after you gain certain abilities, the player is largely free to roam. Other than a few set moments, especially early in the introduction and tutorial, there isn't really a set order to do things. The maps give you markers for where to go to advance the story, but you don't have to rush to do that. This goes a long way to letting players feel like they have control and choice in a game that might otherwise feel pretty linear. As a result, it rarely does feel that way.
Of course, some of the challenges are really difficult. I had a few moments where I had to stop playing and return the next day because I was getting too frustrated. If you're going to pick it up, be prepared to die. A lot. On the other hand, though, I always got through those tough parts the next day. when I reviewed Journey, I mentioned how nice it is to get some of those "lean back" games that are relaxing and calming. Guacamelee highlights how satisfying it can be to get the opposite: a "lean forward" game that's challenging and frustrating. Seriously, few things are more satisfying than overcoming a difficult section in a game.
You also have to just love a game where one of the mechanics is you turn into a chicken to access narrow pathways. The game is as funny as it is fun. Though I didn't get to try co-op at all, it does seem like a good game to play with a friend.
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