| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation Vita | 8.80 |
| Overall | 8.80 |
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I have a feeling that the idea for Guacamelee came up while two friends were just hanging out and one of them says "hey what if someone made a metroid game but instead of samus in space its a mexican luchador in mexico!" Then they actually made the game. If you are looking for a 2D metroid like fix this game is a must play. Guacamelee begins with your character having only a few attacks and powers, for the first hour or so the combat and exploration remains very basic. Attacks are all melee based since he is a wrestler. After some punches an enemy will become stunned which will allow you to grapple and throw an enemy, which can be thrown at other enemies. For defense you have a roll which has some invincibility frames. Enemies come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, some fly, some are giants, some teleport. There isn't a large variety of them though, at least when compared to other games in this genre, for instance any one Castlevania game will have 70 or so different enemies, this game has about 15. The simple nature of the combat begins to give way to more complicated battles as your character gains new skills. These skills drain a power meter and allow you to do some sort of strong attack like dash punch, ground pound, or rising uppercut. Each of these moves are color coded and enemies begin to come with shields of a certain color meaning that power is required to break the shield. About half way through the game you gain the power to instantly flip to a different dimension which becomes a part of the combat as certain enemies can only be damaged in a certain dimension. So once it all comes together the combat becomes a nice balance of straight up melee and strategy. Boss battles make the most use out of all these combat systems often time requiring the player to shift strategies constantly. Its a shame that there aren't many boss battles and they are spread out across many hours. While the combat is fun I would argue its the worst aspect of the game, where this game shines is the platforming needed to explore the game world. All those power moves I mentioned before also have uses to explore the metroid like world. Nearly every power in Metroid has an equivalent here, but with a different take. The ability to transform into a chicken allows you to enter small crawl spaces. The ground pound allows you to break through green barriers. Uppercut allows you to jump higher than normal and break red barriers. Later you earn a double jump, wall jumping, and a push off a wall torpedo like move which sends you flying in one direction until you hit something (just like a charge jump in Metroid). The way Guacamelee uses these skills is just brilliant. Anytime you jump in the air each skill may only be used once so to stay afloat and reach certain platforms it becomes necessary to chain together these powers. Imagine doing a double jump into the air, then a foward dash, then a rising uppercut to reach a platform. Ok now start to add the dimension switching which creates or removes walls, walls you may need to wall jump off of. Now think of the most insane room with pits, spikes, giant chasms and loads of dimension switching needed on the fly as you chain together every single move in your arsenal just to reach a health upgrade. This is where Guacamelee earns it's greatness. I had the most fun completing all the optional platforming room challenges which hold an upgrade. Yes all the difficult platforming sections are optional, and rightfully so cause some are devious. Expect a good 8-10 hour long adventure if you look to go for 100%. As with any great metroidvania this game has a great balance of combat and exploration. New skills are earned nearly every 45 minutes keeping the gameplay fresh. Guacamelee has a wicked sense of humor with most jokes being about video games. There are so many video game references it is hard to keep track of them all, quite a few gave me a good laugh. This is a very nice game to look at with an interesting art style that embraces it's Mexican theme. I played the game on the Vita and it looked stunning on that OLED screen (and played perfectly). The music is not that memorable, don't expect any tunes that you will remember. Guacamelee is simply one of the best downloadable only titles you can find on the HD systems. I have played a ton of metroid clones, I can't recall one as unique as this nor any that embrace the more skill oriented platforming. Gucamelee is an absolute joy to play and should be a must play for any fan of this genre. |
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Posted by Dvader Thu, 06 Feb 2014 06:10:21
Recently Spotted:
robio (4m)
weird name. system seller?
The only thing Vita is good for is playing PS3 games on the go and the very very few good exclusives it has.