These days see a huge shortage of such action platformers, where even the Metroid and Castlevania franchises themselves are becoming sparse. Enter Guacamelee, a modern action platformer that dropped one day to a lot of critical praise. The player takes control of Juan, a humble yet large farmer who barely ever talks to many people. One day, during a major festival that celebrates and honours the town’s luchadors, a demonic skeleton by the name of Carlos Calaca storms the town. In the process, he kidnaps El Presidente’s daughter, one of the few people Juan was close to, and kills him in the process.
The game really begins when Juan, while in his deceased spirit form, comes across the mask of a legendary luchador. When he dons it, he becomes the figure made flesh and resurrects back to the real world. Now, with the help of a mysterious female luchador, Juan must travel the lands to save his loved one and defeat Calaca once and for all. The most apparent thing in the game is the obvious Spanish themes, especially their cultures wrestling and the dead. The music also lends itself heavily to the game as mostly mariachi backgrounds. Action is mostly through the use of melee combos to punch and throw enemies, but along the way Juan gains new powers to help him progress through many areas. In fact, the process of gaining a new power in the game is a direct homage to how it was done back in the Metroid games. The characters and dialogue are absolutely hilarious; helping the game set itself apart from most other titles in the genre that seem to focus on being serious.
Guacamelee is a game that wears its inspirations on its sleeves, and quite proudly too. Many might not even find it appealing because of that, or even because of the strictly Spanish themes of the game. Nevertheless, it’s a game that breathes fresh life into an old genre and does what it aims to do rather nicely.