Guacamelee Vita

pro

When you first start out in Guacamelee you might be fooled to think this is your pretty standard platformer but with an emphasis on being funny (which it is). You run left and right, you jump and punch and you interact with people. It's all well and comfortable until the undead really starts messing it all up. As Guacamelee progresses through its engaging and amusing story, you will eventually find yourself in a hardcore platformer that forces you to recognize and learn all the mechanics the game throws at you. Not only to find all the hidden chests and upgrades, but to even progress at all through hard as nails boss battles. The later battles will feel cheap and infuriating if you haven't come to grips with your powers, but the sense of accomplishment is all the more gratifying when you learn how to handle each situation. When you wrap up the game for the first time you get to do it all over again in hard mode. Good luck.

pro

Guacamelee creates what I believe is an authentic but slightly exaggerated Mexican atmosphere. The music is fantastic and characters you meet have names that originate from a combination of Mexican myths, puns and proper names. It's filled to the brim with references including pretty much every meme on the internet and most of the games you grew up playing.

pro

The powers and mechanics in the game are all solid and fun to use. In typical metroidvania fashion you will stumble upon paths that you cannot access until you've learned new abilities and the game will progressively throw challenges at you that makes you utilize your newly learned powers both alone and in combinations with others. Your powers can be used as means to progress through a level but also in combat where you can create some pretty creative combos. This makes the combat a lot deeper and more fun than your traditional jump and punch combination.

pro

It features cross play which not only mean you buy it on one platform and get in on both, but your progress is saved between them so you can continue on either. While this is the least we expect from cross play titles these days, Guacamelee also supports remote control through the Vita that turns your handheld into both a controller and a map of the game.

con

By not having voice overs Guacamelee is missing a huge opportunity. It felt devastating seeing all the fun characters and the great dialogue and not actually hearing it. They have added the occasional voiced laughter but it doesn't help much.

con

I would have loved to see the game a little more fleshed out in terms of size and side quests. The game you get is pretty cool but also a bit on the short side. A town or two more with some additional side quests would have helped a lot as this is a world I really didn't want to leave when I was done doing everything in the game.