It was on Game Pass, and I really wanted more of the villains from the first game after playing Guacamelee 2, so I decided to play through this today. It is very much more Guacamelee, as is probably easy to guess. More brawling + Metroidvania gameplay, just as the second one continues, but it's surprisingly different from the second one in ways I didn't quite remember. It took me about 6.5 hours to 100% the game on normal mode.

It's Guacamelee like it's always been. Beat 'em up arenas intermixed with platforming corridors that use your brawling special moves to help navigate them, both done very well. The brawling is fun, and the platforming is tricky without being super frustrating. The only really tricky times I had with it where when I'd just forget which buttons did what XP. Especially in the more difficult platforming sections you need to do to get the best ending, hitting the bumper that turns you into a chicken instead of the one that toggles between the living and dead worlds is a mistake I made more often than I'd like to admit XP. The brawling isn't super hard unless you're going for the best ending, and especially if you're going for 100% area completion like I did. There are some really killer arenas in some optional sections.

I definitely prefer the writing in this game over the second game's. The first Guacamelee is often irreverent and silly, but not in a way that was really breaking my suspension of disbelief. There are pop culture references here and there (especially in the luchador wrestling promotional posters in the background), but for the most part, the dialogue is funny/silly by virtue of the characters themselves having good personality injected into them. SO much of the second game's humor is reveling in how DGAF it is about referencing pop culture and memes that it makes the humor feel far more one-note and less memorable. Guacamelee 1's villains have so much more personality to them than the 2nd game's and the main story has some genuinely sweet moments (though they're easy to miss) to the point where I'd easily put the first game's writing above the second's. Guacamelee 2 makes jokes at itself in the form of Youtube comments calling filling your game with tons of memes "lazy writing and not very funny", and while it's nice that the game itself acknowledges that kind of complaint, it doesn't make it feel any less true when you compare it to how well the first game handled its humor.

As far as differences mechanically from the 2nd game, there is a little more than I remembered there being. I knew that the chicken form being able to fight was something introduced in the second game. What I had forgotten was what the second game outright removed. First, the costumes Juan and his co-op partner Tostada can wear aren't just cosmetic in this game, they grant passive buffs and debuffs to reward certain playstyles (like halving your health in exchange for more stamina and life-draining melee attacks, or giving you infinite stamina but no way to heal). They're a neat way to spice up how you play that I missed in the second game. The other feature completely removed from the sequel is the Intenso meter, which lets you transform into Intenso Mode and get far stronger attacks for as long as you can keep your combo meter up. That's a nice panic button for when things get hard, but Guacamelee 2 is so much easier than this game that while it's unfortunate that the sequel canned that feature, it's not as significant a loss as the costume abilities (and this game overall just has way more costumes than the 2nd despite the 2nd game recycling some costumes from this one). Aside from that, the two games' combat is nigh identical, with even enemy types being almost entirely the same between games.

The presentation graphically and musically is just fine. I think this game's music might be a little bit better on the whole, but that may just be me imagining things. Both games have pretty similar-sounding music, but the graphical quality is a much larger difference. It's a very similar stylization, but the first game is from last gen and it shows. It's not an ugly game, but it doesn't look quite as good as the 2nd game.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. This is closer to the lower end of my highly recommended games, but it's still up there. Guacamelee is a game I love a lot more than I thought I did until this playthrough, and it's really surprising just how much better than the sequel it is. The sequel is a bit longer, perhaps, but with how little it changes compared to how much it outright removes or makes less good, I can easily recommend the first game over the 2nd. If you want a not-too-long Metroidvania with a brawler-twist, Guacamelee 1 is definitely the place to get it UwU

Definitivamente se merece un puesto en los mejores indies Metroidvanias:
Su jugabilidad Beat 'em up con scroll lateral le da una personalidad muy reconocible y muy bien lograda, donde los combos no se sienten azarosos, generando una sensación de satisfacción continua en el jugador.

Los power ups son muy clásicos, como hacerse más pequeño para poder abarcar otros lugares, romper ciertos bloques para llegar a nuevas áreas, escalar, pegarse a paredes, doble saltos, etc. Lo interesante de la mecánica de los power ups es que, a diferencia de otros videojuegos del género, absolutamente todos sirven para el combate, incluso el de cambiar del mundo de vivos a muertos, al punto de ser trascendentales para crear combos e incluso usarlos de forma obligatoria para romper escudos de ciertos enemigos, o alcanzar a los que están en el plano de los muertos.

El argumento principal, sin ser muy complejo, nos adentra en el típico "viaje del héroe" con una clara identidad de la celebración del Día de los muertos, específicamente celebrada en México, con nombres clásicos de la cultura, como Juan y Carlos, protagonista y antagonista respectivamente.
El apartado gráfico complementa la experiencia magníficamente, repleta de personalidad, con un diseño simple y caricaturesco que da colores vivos (y apagados), apuntando directamente a la celebración misma. El OST dentro de este aspecto ambienta muy bien la experiencia, haciendo uso de instrumentos referentes del género como trompetas, acordeones, guitarras rasgueadas, maracas, entre otros.

El mapeado, por su parte, diría que es el aspecto mejor trabajado; la conexión entre sectores está bien lograda, el plataformeo es desafiante y puzzlero, los secretos no están ridículamente escondidos, pues siempre hay pistas para alcanzarlos. Lo que trasciende en este apartado es el desafío y el ingenio con que cada jugador puede explorar el mapa, a través de los diversos power ups que se van consiguiendo, que, como en todo metroidvania, abren camino para nuevos secretos, nuevas zonas, y nuevos desafíos.

No menos importante son las referencias, cameos e influencias de Guacamelee. Desde referencias mecánicas como romper un puente con un hacha para eliminar a un boss, hasta la presencia de los power ups en estatuas con un huevo en la mano, contemplan un par de referencias visuales a clásicos de los videojuegos como Mario y Metroid, así también como a muchos otros (y más actuales) que simplemente parecen ser un capricho del creador para decir "oye, me gustan estos juegos", que, si se entienden, nunca están de más, y sacan una grata sonrisa.

Recomiendo altamente Guacamelee por ser un juego muy divertido, a pesar de no ser extremadamente difícil y tener un tiempo de juego bien reducido. No faltarán las risas, la entretención, la exploración, los pollos, los luchadores, los frijoles y los chiles picantes en este hermoso e ingenioso título.

The luchador theme and setting are really charming and unusual for a video game, which really draws me in, but the game design feels only so-so. It's not bad for an indie game when the wave of indies was just starting out, but comparing it to other metroidvania/search action games doesn't do it any favours. Your powerups are bland and most of the optional exploration just nets you money which isn't terribly useful. I like the idea of the beat 'em up style combat juggling combos and chaining together moves, but spend a great deal of time frustrated because when the camera is zoomed out to the moon I can't see which direction I'm grabbing in.

Never played it Co-Op, and I do wonder if that enlivens the experience.

Now this is one heck of a fun game. This is a side-scrolling, metrovainia, beat-em-up where you become a legendary luchador and charge into the death land to destroy all the skeletons and defeat the leader who claims your love interest. The game is a lot of fun with a lot of humour, hidden and obvious.

A controller is recommended for this and the Mexican style of the game makes it very colourful and fun to watch as well as play and many different secrets hidden through out the different levels to try and discover and many hidden in incredibly more difficult places to search. I highly recommend this game as I had a hell of a lot of fun with this.