Guacamelee Review

Professional wrestling and myself go way back. I still have fond memories of watching big, hairy, sweaty, muscular men jumping on each other and trying their best to show who was the bottom bitch. 

Sure is getting hot in here...

However, I was more partial towards Mexican wrestling, not only due to the lack of overblown dramatics, but also due to the emphasis of the wrestlers themselves being treated as larger than life legends. Queue Guacamelee, a game developed by Drinkbox Studios for the Playstation 3. I'd be lying if I said that the premise alone, that of an everyman becoming a masked luchador to save his kidnapped girlfriend from an evil hellbent on world domination, made me cream my pants if only because the words “masked luchador” were in that sentence. So naturally it must suck, right? Well, if you went into this expecting a deep and complex epic of a tale then of course. But then again, we don't play Mario for the story.

A Shakespearean masterpiece!!

In all seriousness, Guacamelee serves as a fun little mix of old-school arcade brawling mixed together with Metroidvania-style exploration. And you know what, it works suprisingly-well. When it comes to using your moves to explore new areas while simultaneously laying the smackdown on any skeletons, chupacabras or demonic cacti that come your way.

Kinda like this

Honestly, the gameplay works just fine. It never gets frustrating enough to the point were I wanted to ragequit and the areas and environmental puzzles were all designed in such a way that made me want to keep playing to just to see the new environments. Furthermore, the environments were all incredibly well-designed with references to Mexican culture and the use of switching between the land of the living and the land of the dead works excellently to further showcase the variety and creativity of the puzzles.

All that being said, the game has one major flaw that I feel goes unaddressed by just about anyone who's played it, and that would be this game's goddamn obsession with internet memes. Mentlegen, o rly, and grumpy cat are all given mention whether they're given context or not. It's all rather jarring and screams of a lack of any good jokes, whether this was intentional or not. References to Cantinflas would have made more damn sense.

Seriously, you had access to THIS and memes were the best you could come up with?

I'm really just nitpicking at this point. In an age where brown and grey have become the industry standard and linearity has become an industry standard, I'm not ashamed to say that I had a lot of fun with Guacamelee. The game works and with a vibrant atmosphere and memorable soundtrack it makes for a fun and cheap experience. Seriously, why the fuck are you reading this. Go out and buy this now.

Just give us less references to THIS!